St. Francis International School in Silver Spring, Maryland, celebrated May as the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary by holding a May 12 procession and crowning of the school’s new statue of Our Lady of Grace.
“This is a beautiful example of what it means to be Church,” said Tobias (Toby) Harkleroad, the founding principal and chief administrator of the school. “All of our students in kindergarten through the fourth grade participated … (they) were joined by all our pre-k students and some of our middle school students. The entire school was represented.”
In the photos above and below, during the May procession and crowning on May 12, students from St. Francis International School line up to place flowers in a vase set up before a new statue of Our Lady of Grace near the school. (CS photos/Andrew Biraj)
The new statue was dedicated over Mother’s Day weekend, several days before the crowning. It replaces the old Our Lady of Grace statue that was restored and was moved to St. Camillus Church, on whose grounds the school is located. This was the first May procession and crowning held at the school since 2019.
“At that last May crowning in 2019, we crowned the original statue of Our Lady of Grace that St. Camillus Parish erected in front of St. Camillus School when it opened in 1954. This year we were blessed to gather outside on a beautiful day in front of the new statue in the renovated garden,” Harkleroad said.
The new statue and garden were completed “with the help of donors and volunteers, and three years of hard work by many members of the St. Camillus Parish community,” Harkleroad said, adding that it “is a place for the people of St. Camillus and the people of St. Francis International School and the people of this neighborhood to come and to recognize Mary as our mother and our queen.”
Harkleroad said the May 12 celebration “was a very powerful moment for us” because since the last crowning two people important to the school have died – Franciscan Father Chris Posch, St. Camillus’s former pastor who led the last crowning and procession, and Dr. Kirk Gaddy, a longtime middle school leader and religion teacher at the school. Both died last summer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This year we were blessed to gather outside on a beautiful day in front of the new statue in the renovated garden. That garden represents renewal – in fact, one of Brother Chris’s initiatives during the 2018-2019 school year was the theme ‘Remember, Renew, Rebuild’,” Harkleroad said. He added that the theme was chosen to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the former St. Camillus School and “was meant to move us to this year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the parish.”
Harkleroad said he hoped “the new statue of Our Lady of Grace will greet families everyday as they arrive at our school for generations to come.”
“If we recognize her (Mary) as our mother and our queen, then we need to do as Jesus did at his first miracle at the wedding of Cana – listen to her,” Harkleroad said. “Mary tells us to be our best, to be good people, to follow Jesus and His Gospel.”
The crowning at St. Francis International School was the second such celebration held within the past week at a Montgomery County Catholic school.
On Friday, May 8, students in the second and the eighth grades at Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Kensington, Maryland, attended Mass and then began a May procession and crowning at their school. Second graders are preparing for their First Holy Communion, and eighth graders are preparing for Confirmation.
“This year, more than ever, the Holy Redeemer School community sought to honor Mary in a meaningful and memorable way: outdoors, socially-distanced, in classroom groups — and together,” school librarian Ann Enkiri wrote in an essay submitted to the Catholic Standard.
Father Ebuka Mbanude, parochial vicar at Holy Redeemer Parish, led the procession carrying the Blessed Sacrament. School students served as canopy bearers, altar servers, candle bearers and incense carrier.
Students processed around the school building and ended at the school’s Marian shrine, which was decorated by student-created infiorata. Infiorata, a traditional Italian devotion, is the art of creating intricate designs and patterns in front of a church or a shrine using flower petals. The students at Holy Redeemer School created their infiorata with chalk. Many students also brought flowers to place before the statue of Our Lady.
Enkiri wrote that “the highlight for so many of the children was the crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.”
Prior to the end of the celebration, Father Mbanude offered Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the students knelt to pray the Litany of Loreto.
“How beautiful to say Mary’s many beautiful names aloud and together, in prayer,” Enkiri wrote.
