Over the course of the next few letters, I intend to write about Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat. My desire to do so is rooted in the conviction that we all have something to learn about life, love, God and the education of children from this beloved Mother Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart. She was the focus of my opening address with our employees a few weeks ago and she is the inspiration for this year’s theme:
Saint Madeleine Sophie’s Educational Philosophy:
Forward Thinking Then,
Forward Thinking Now
Using an overview of the story of St. Madeleine Sophie’s life as a foundation, I will be writing about her passion for God, her vision of education, and perhaps most interestingly, how that vision informs our manner of educating today.
Let’s begin with some basic facts about Mother Barat’s accomplishments:
- She founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1800
- She governed the Society for 63 years.
- By the time of her death in 1865 the order she founded numbered nearly 3,400 women with over 100 foundations in Europe, North America, North Africa and South America.
- She was beatified in 1908 and canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1925.
Among the forces that formed her are the tumultuous and violent times in which she lived ( i.e. the French Revolution), the extraordinary education she received from her brother and the religious environment of her Burgundian family. Key to her interior formation was her own experience of prayer. As she grew in her personal knowledge of God’s deep and abiding love, she concurrently grew as a woman of wisdom whose own life and loves were reflective of her Beloved.
How Sophie approached prayer is helpful for us to think about as educators in the Family of God’s Heart. (Note the following excerpts are from a presentation by Kathleen Hughes, rscj.)
- Prayer for Sophie was simple: It was about friendship, longing and love!
- Prayer for Sophie was free: “What difference does it make how you pray, provided that your heart is seeking the one whom you love.” (SMS)
Her union with God and her love for God was the focus of everything for Sophie! This is true even as she was busy managing a multinational corporation, opening scores of foundations, handling enormous finances with facility and skill and negotiating agreements with both church and state.
From this union flowed her vision for her Society whose mission was to reveal the Love of God through coming to know the dispositions of the Heart of Jesus! Her educational institutions were places where that mission could be lived both for the sake of the children and for the sake of the world!
My hope and prayer is that we root everything we do at this school in what we think St. Madeleine Sophie would do if she were here today!
Maureen Glavin, rscj
