Last Friday, on the Festival of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our patron saint, we celebrated our Patronal Festival, marking our 131st year as a school.

Our Patronal Festival is a highly anticipated event and a true reflection of the spirit of St Mary’s School. This year, the service began with the hymn, O God Beyond All Praising as the altar party processed up the Queen’s Path. The Ven Moses Thabethe, Vicar General and the Bishop’s representative on our school Board, preached and celebrated. The Biblical readings for the day included Jeremiah 3:14-18, a sung version of Psalm 91, On Eagles’ Wings by Michael Joncas, and Luke 1:39-49. The service was a wonderful celebration in song and music, led by Dudley Trollope, our Director of Music, and his team. Maxine Pritchett’s solo echoed through The Close and will remain etched in our memories.

Father Moses was relaxed and sincere in his message, and engaged all the girls from Grade 2 to matric. His sermon focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the often-difficult journeys that characterised her life. Mary was a pilgrim and her faith and courage should encourage us to be bold as we seek to live out our purpose at St Mary’s School.

During the course of the service, Father Moses also blessed our new mosaic on the front of The Edge building. The mosaic was designed by Lindsay Gaydon (class of 1985), Mrs Sue Heydenrych (HoD: Art) and some of the St Mary’s art students. The mosaic reflects the ethos of our school, some loved details of the campus, as well as the spirit of our daily routine with regards to music, art, drama, dance, sports and reading in the artwork.

Following the service, we all moved to the multi-purpose field for our traditional picnic and cutting of the birthday cake. The field was a colourful array of picnic blankets and lunch boxes and girls of all ages, with staff and guests being treated to a lunch in the paved area between the fields. The matrics of 2019 gathered in the centre of the field, and led the younger girls gathered in a circle around the field in our school war cry, Oh when the Saints. The spirit of the St Mary’s girls is wonderful to behold, particularly on this special occasion.

Deanne King
Head of school

Rev Claudia Coustas
Chaplin