Charles Zola, assistant to the president for Mission Integration, associate professor of Philosophy, and director of the Mount’s Catholic and Dominican Institute (center) with students and Mack the Knight at the recent Founders Day celebration at the college.
Mount Saint Mary College celebrated the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman and the college’s founding Dominican Sisters with the Founders Day Harvest Festival and reception on Monday, October 7.
St. Dominic de Guzman made innumerable contributions to Christianity more than 800 years ago, all while living a simple, joyful life. Following in the footsteps of St. Dominic, who was a great leader and educator, the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh established the Mount as a four-year institution in October of 1959. Now, as the college celebrates six fantastic decades and more than 18,000 graduates, the four pillars of Dominican life – study, spirituality, service, and community – are still woven into the fabric of the Mount experience.
“As a sign of our gratitude for the sacrifices they made, today we remember and celebrate the Dominican Sisters who founded the college, as well as the sisters who are still with us and carry on that incredible legacy of the search for truth,” explained Charles Zola, assistant to the president for Mission Integration, associate professor of Philosophy, and director of the Mount’s Catholic and Dominican Institute (CDI). “Without the Dominican Sisters, there would be no Mount Saint Mary College.”
In addition to the college’s rich history of service and academic excellence, the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman lives on at the Mount in many ways. For example, the college’s Guzman Hall, a first-year student residence, is named after St. Dominic. Before it was sold to the college in the late 1980s, Guzman Hall was a convent for the sisters as they studied before they were sent to various missions to serve the Church.
The Catholic and Dominican Institute has sponsored the Founders Day celebration at the college every year for about a decade.
CDI promotes the Mount’s heritage of St. Dominic, advances the Dominican charism of study and service, provides a forum for discussion of contemporary ethical issues, and enhances Catholic and Jewish dialogue. The Institute welcomes persons of varied faiths and acknowledges different religious traditions as essential to the college’s intellectual and spiritual life.