Past and present students, staff and parents gathered at St Joseph’s Highgate to give thanks on the 140th anniversary of St Aloysius College at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Nicholas Hudson.
The school was founded in 1879 by the Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy on the site in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, where it still stands. Over the years, the school has undergone many transformations, from an independent school to a Voluntary Aided Grammar and then a Voluntary Aided Comprehensive.
Among its alumni are Archbishop of Liverpool Malcolm McMahon, Archbishop of Cardiff George Stack and Emeritus Archbishop of Middlesbrough John Crowley.
Speaking of the school’s patron saint, St Aloysius Gonzaga, as a ‘true hero’, Bishop Nicholas said in his homily: ‘It happens in every generation that there rise up young people who are shining examples of Christianity.’
St Aloysius showed ‘extraordinary courage’, asking to look after victims of the plague, which became the cause of his own death at age 23. Because of his heroic courage, ‘we’re still talking about him five centuries later,’ said Bishop Nicholas.
Like St Aloysius, Bl Piergiorgio Frassati was a young man who ‘lived out radically Jesus’s command, that you must love God and your neighbour; and that you must love your neighbour as yourself. These two young men were shining examples in their time.’
‘The question is,’ asked Bishop Nicholas of the students, ‘who will be the shining examples of the twenty-first century? Could it be someone you know; or could it even be you?’
Mass was followed by a reception in the school main hall.
