Beaumont School concludes 175th anniversary celebration with bishop’s visit

Bishop Edward Malesic reflected on the accomplishments of the Ursuline Sisters during a Mass he celebrated at Beaumont School, the first ministry established by the sisters after arriving in the Diocese of Cleveland in 1851.

“This gym has been transformed into a chapel today and what we receive here can’t be contained. It must be shared outside these walls,” he said.

The Ursuline Sisters, who have served the diocese for 175 years, arrived here from France at the invitation of Bishop Amadeus Rappe, himself a native of France, and Cleveland’s first bishop.

“The sisters felt that young women and girls deserved a chance to educate their minds and within three weeks of their arrival, they had opened a school for 300 girls,” the bishop said. That school – Ursuline Academy – was the predecessor of what is now Beaumont School in Cleveland Heights.

Over the years, Bishop Malesic said the school has continued their mission to educate generations of young women, modeling what Jesus taught.

The bishop explained that when the sisters arrived in Cleveland, Catholics were immigrants who were pushed back, who mostly were impoverished and struggling. He compared their plight and the sisters’ work with that of St. Peter Claver, whose feast was celebrated on Sept. 9, the day of the Beaumont liturgy.

“St. Peter Claver called himself the ‘slave of the slaves.’ He ministered to them, offering comfort, bringing food, water and clothing to the enslaved arriving by ship from Africa. He did what needed to be done,” the bishop said, much like the sisters did.

“Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me,” he said. “If you don’t see Jesus in the poor, you won’t see him anywhere.”

Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, one of four churchwomen murdered during the civil war in El Salvador on Dec. 2, 1980, taught at Beaumont before answering the call to serve at the diocesan mission. “She couldn’t abandon the people whose faces reflected Christ,” the bishop said. “She is one of the communion of saints and still walks these halls … You teach more by what you do than by what you say … Words matter, but it’s important to put those words into action,” he said, noting that is what Sister Kazel and so many others have done in the past 175 years.

“You’re not here by accident,” he reminded the students. “God has a plan for you .., Do what Jesus asks of you.”

During the Mass, he commissioned three new Eucharistic ministers.

After the liturgy, students and school officials guided the bishop on a tour of the campus before enjoying lunch and conversation.

Learn more about Beaumont School here. Click here for more information on the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland.