Memories of Saint Scholastica’s

Saint Scholastica’s College will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of their first Benedictine Priory in the Philippines on Thursday, September 14, 2006. They will celebrate the founding of the school on Sunday, December 3, 2006, the Feast of Saint Francis Xavier, the Patron of All Missions.

Celine Olaguer Sarte was asked to record her recollections of Saint Scholastica’s College and of the Benedictine nuns. She was qualified to do this, because she was educated by the Benedictines for 16 years, from Kindergarten through Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music.

Here are some excerpts of her Memories:

"Mama brought me, newly born, to Saint Scholastica’s College in Manila, because they had helped her pray for a girl, after three boys in a row. . . . .

"Five years latter, after giving birth to three girls, Mama died. The wake was in the nuns’ choir. Sister Clodesindis told me that it broke their hearts when we tugged at their habits, asking them to lift us to look at Mama in her coffin. . . . .Mama was their favorite student.

"Not long after, Papa enrolled Rosario and me at SSC, four blocks away from our home. . . . .Kindergarten was a child’s haven made bright with dolls and toys. I fell in love with Sister Gratia, who was as warm and gentle as my own Mama. . . . . .

"Sister Willibalda was the Directress from 1908 to 1938. She molded the students with Teutonic discipline on the Benedictine bedrock of prayer and hard work — ora et labora. . . . .

"In Grade One Sister Diethilde was quiet and mild in speech and manner. She spoke English with a faint German lisp, never scolding or raising her voice. . . . . . In all my years with the Benedictine nuns I never heard one shout in class, or at me. One staple of their discipline was not to talk loud. Stern words from a stern face would do. . . . . .

"Grade Two was Sister Placida, who taught us swift and painless addition. In our class picture Corazon Cojuangco was in the front row.

"The standards of SSC were strict and rigorous, but our awards in grade school were stampitas; in high school fancy ribbons; and in college the honors earned were as rare as hen’s teeth. . . . . .

"Grade Three brought us a fresh arrival from Germany, Sister Irmburg, who was young, pretty, and rosy cheeked. . . . .

"I attended the graduation recitals, dreaming of the day when I would be at the grand piano, playing a finale with a symphony orchestra. . . . . .

"In Grade Four Sister Imelda initiated us into her Holy Angels Sodality, where we prayed for sinners, mission priests, and the Poor Souls. She taught us to couple our prayers with acts of self denial. On First Fridays, she brought us to thirty minute adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

"During advent, for every act of self denial we made, we placed a piece of straw in an empty manger. Before Christmas the manger was filled with straw for the new born Babe. . . . . In Lent, for every act of self mortification, we colored a flower on a crown of thorns. When Holy Week came, it was a crown of flowers, instead of thorns. . . . . .

"We had Sister Imelda again in Grade Five. Whatever spirituality I have now goes back to her, in Grades 4 and 5.

"During our Sixth Grade, Japan was in her glory in Asia. We were immersed in Nippongo. The best in our class was Cory Cojuangco. At graduation in 1944 she was the valedictorian. I was in second place. 42 years later I was in Malacañang, working next door to the conference room of President Corazon C. Aquino. It was an honor and a privilege made possible by a friendship formed in Grade School. . . . . . .

"The day after graduation I was on the train with my brothers and sisters to Guinobatan, Albay, where there would be enough food for us. I was enrolled at Saint Agnes Academy, SSC’s first branch school, where Mama studied. The Sisters asked that we bring five gantas of rice each month, for board and lodging. . . . . .

"We went to Saint Agnes Academy in Legaspi, 18 kilometers from Guinobatan, in a carabao cart. Papa was determined that we continue our education under the Benedictine nuns. . . . . .

"We lived by the bell, the buzzer, or the clap of Sister’s hands – even for our scheduled 20 minute baths. . . . . .

"Saint Agnes Academy came to an abrupt close in September of 1944 when American planes came out of the blue to bomb Japanese military installations. The boarders dispersed, but carabao carts were not available, so I stayed on in SAA with my sister Rosario. These were beautiful days, because the nuns continued to teach us – the few boarders who could not get home – until Mother Clodesindis found carabao carts for all of us.

" The war came to a stop in the Summer of 1945. In July we went back to SAA, to find that Mother Clodesindis and ten others had been killed by an incendiary bomb, on Easter Saturday. They were gathered around the statue of the Sacred Heart in the main parlor. Mother died as she had lived, brave and caring, utterly unselfish and unafraid.

"In third year high school Sister Xaveria began preparing me for a Junior Recital the next year.

"The High School nuns said I was pushing myself over the edge. Since I was vying for the top spot in our graduating class, they advised me to scuttle the recital and take it up later at SSC. Sister Xaveria’s alternative was to give up running for honors and concentrate instead on the recital. . . . . . .

" I decided to go for broke. I continued the quest for honors, and I took the recital. Backstage, Sister Xaveria went on her knees throughout the entire performance, praying for my soul and for the success of the recital. Her prayers were answered by a brown-out. Except for the last piece, I played by candle light in the darkness. . . . . . .

"I started college at the University of the Philippines, but before the Freshman Year was over, I began to miss the Sisters. They woke us up in the morning, and put us to bed at night. They watched over us at meals, so that we ate and drank properly. They scheduled our daily baths and our rare trips downtown. They modulated our voices and our laughter. They made us keep things neat and clean. They took us to the doctor and to the dentist, and they nursed us in the infirmary. They stood by us and held our hands when our teeth were pulled, or when we were operated on for tonsillitis or appendicitis. I missed all those nuns. . . . .

"Sister Caridad, Dean of Liberal Arts, welcomed me back to SSC. Sister Cecile accepted me as her piano student. I set out to take two degrees at once – Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music. . . . . I felt completely at home in SSC. . . . . The College required four semesters of social service -teaching catechism in the public schools, visiting the sick in hospitals, assisting at the SSC clinic for the poor. I volunteered for all of them. . . . . . .

"But typhoon Trix hit us one year before my scheduled recital. It devastated the Bicol Region, ruining the crops on which our family depended. It would take at least a year before the rice, abaca and coconut crops could yield enough to pay our tuition. My sister and I would have to stop schooling until the family recovered. . . . . . . .

"But the Sisters said: ‘Don’t worry about the tuition. We will wait until your father can pay.’ When the semester started they gave me four little girls for piano lessons and two high school students for tutoring. I must have been the first working student in SSC history. . . . . . .

"I wanted to go on for degrees both in music and in A.B. But the nuns thought that this was too much. They believed that if you set out to do something, like a piano recital, you had to do it well. They said: ‘Give up your A.B. subjects, and concentrate on your recital. Come back for your A.B. next year.’ I was devastated, but I did it. . . . . . .

"In the graduation recital I played the concerto Mama wanted to play in her recital — which never came off, because of her early marriage and seven children. It was Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. . . . . . .

"When I went on for my M.A. in the Ateneo Graduate School, Father Jim Donelan, S.J., fresh from Oxford, liked my work in Medieval English. He asked the Dean, Father Fred Fox, S.J. about my educational background. I was so proud that Father Fox could answer: ‘Saint Scholastica’s’!