The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist will join St. Agnes School’s staff in 2018, the St. Paul school announced July 29.
In a statement, Father Mark Moriarty, St. Agnes parish’s pastor and school superintendent called the sisters’ anticipated presence “truly an answer to prayer.”
Kevin Ferdinandt, St. Agnes’ headmaster, said in the statement that he is “eager to welcome a teaching order back to Saint Agnes, especially one of the caliber of the Dominican Sisters of Ann Arbor.”
The sisters plan to establish a “mission convent” on the school’s campus next year. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the community’s primary apostolate is teaching. It has convents in Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, D.C., as well as Rome, Italy.
“Our community receives many invitations to teach in a variety of schools throughout the country,” Mother Assumpta Long, the community’s founder, said the statement. “We pray to and trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance in leading us where he wishes us to expand. Upon visiting St. Anges School, we believed this was the divine prompting to send our sisters into this wonderful parish and school.”
According to the statement, the sisters will “maintain an active presence on campus, engaging with students and families through opportunities for prayer, devotions and eucharistic adoration.” The number of sisters that will establish themselves in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has yet to be determined.
St. Agnes School educates about 750 students in kindergarten to grade 12. When it was founded in 1888, St. Agnes School was under the care of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda said he is “extremely grateful” that the sisters are coming to the archdiocese and St. Agnes, and that he expects the entire archdiocese to benefit from their presence.
“True to their Dominican charism, they are superb educators,” he said. “I am confident that they will lead our young people to a deeper appreciation of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist, while guiding them to recognize opportunities for encountering and serving him in their classmates, in their families and in the broader communities in which they live.”
