Our Lady
The Jesuit's founder, St Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises asks the reader to pray to Our Lady, and through Our Lady to offer themselves as poor servants to her Son. Following these guidelines the school has always kept the feast days of Our Lady, and has a number of statues and altars dedicated to her.
The school has the Lady's Statue, which sits at the top of a grand avenue to the school. The long avenue became a useful place for processions, such as the grand Corpus Christi processions, and to add to the religious experience the statue of Our Lady was erected by the school (in 1882) at the top of it. The statue is a replica of one put up in Rome by Pius IX in honour of the Immaculate Conception.
Inside the school, depictions of Our Lady's life are in all areas of the school. Outside the Boys Chapel, there is a statue of Our Lady with the baby Jesus, and in the past during the month of May, May Verses were exhibited here.
Early on in the development of the Society of Jesus, they founded and promoted the Sodality of Our Lady, their primary organisation for their students until the 1960s, which they used to encourage frequent attendance at Mass, reception of communion, daily recitation of the Rosary, and attendance at retreats. The Sodality Chapel of Our Lady at Stonyhurst is situated near the Arundel Library, and recently the Association re-founded the Sodality.
The school's dedication to Our Lady is also very apparent outside the school, as it has attended the Catholic Association Pilgrimage since 1963/4. The connection to Lourdes is extremely important to the school, and in celebration of the 150th anniversary a new Rosary Garden and statue were built in front of the historic building. Also, in the 1960s the college received a piece of rock from the Grotto, as a gift from the Soubirous family (St Bernadette's family), and this is on show near the Angels Chapel.
Read more about this topic: Religious Life At Stonyhurst College
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