Our Sacred Heart Identity
What is the good of teaching various subjects, of wasting time in learning them, if at the same time we cannot teach children the words of life and touch their hearts and their consciences?
- Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat
As member of the Sacred Heart Network, Josephinum Academy is part of an international community of nearly 150 schools that nurture the global perspective of students through the sharing of intellectual and spiritual resources. Josephinum Academy is committed to the mission and values of Sacred Heart education and seeks to educate students to fulfill the five core Sacred Heart goals:
I. A personal and active faith in God;
II. A deep respect for intellectual values;
III. A social awareness that impels to action;
IV. The building of community as a Christian value;
V. Personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom
History
Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in the wake of the French Revolution with the vision that Christian education of women could transform a society caught in chaos, violence and religious persecution. She believed that the development of character and leadership skills, with a commitment to serving others, was essential to each student’s formation.
The philosophy of Saint Madeleine Sophie’s education has endured and developed for over 200 years and presently is operative for students of all faiths in 44 countries across the globe, including non-Christian cultures and countries.
Relationships are essential in living the mission of the Society, as evidenced in the stories of its earliest days. In 1818, St. Madeleine Sophie sent one of her closest friends, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, to build an educational program in territories of the Louisiana Purchase. Philippine arrived in New Orleans and made her way up the Mississippi River to St. Charles where she established the first free school west of the Mississippi and the first Sacred Heart Academies in the United States. The missionary spirit of both Madeleine Sophie and Philippine was carried out on Philippine’s deathbed when she blessed and sent one of her former French pupils, Ana du Rousier, to South America to spread the work of the Society.
At the core of Saint Madeleine Sophie’s spiritual vision is belief in God based on her experience of the love of Jesus Christ. The implementation of her spirituality is carried out with an intellectually rigorous curriculum, the formation of the whole person, and a sincere respect for the workings of God.