Each fall, the Saint Mary’s College campus community comes together to celebrate Opening Mass. While the tradition most recently has been to celebrate the Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Loretto over the first weekend of students’ arrival back to campus, this year will be a special celebration.

Faith/Spirituality is the College's core value focus for 2010-11
Faith/Spirituality is the College's core value
focus for 2010-11As the College focuses this year on its core value of faith/spirituality, the Opening Mass was held on Wednesday, August 25 in the larger venue of O’Laughlin Auditorium. Classes from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. were cancelled on Wednesday to allow all students, faculty, and staff of the Saint Mary’s community to attend the spiritual beginning to the school year.

The capstone to the celebration was the presentation of a rare Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible, which comes to the College as a gift from Saint Mary’s alumna and friend of the College, Judy Rauenhorst Mahoney ’74.  The Heritage Edition is a full-size, fine art reproduction of The Saint John’s Bible.

“It is an honor to receive the Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible,” said President Carol Ann Mooney of the seven-volume manuscript. “Saint Mary’s is proud to be among the few educational, religious, art and cultural centers around the world, including the Vatican, to be presented one of just 299 copies of this fine work.”

The Ten Commandments
The Ten CommandmentsThe Saint John’s Bible is a hand-calligraphied, hand-illuminated Bible that has taken a team of scribes and artists more than a decade to complete. Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota commissioned the work. It is the first handcrafted Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in 500 years. No project of this kind has been undertaken since the advent of the printing press in the 15th century.

The celebrant of this year’s Opening Mass was the Rev. Kenneth M. Molinaro, CSC, assistant provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Indiana Province, and a member of the Saint Mary's College Board of Trustees. Abbot John Klassen, OSB, and the Rev. Eric Hollas, OSB, of Saint John’s Abbey and the Rev. John Pearson, CSC, were con-celebrants with Rev. Molinaro, while Mahoney served as a lector.

Read more about the beautiful work of art and faith that is The Saint John’s Bible on our website or visit The Saint John’s Bible website.