The boys of St. Anselm’s Abbey School in Washington, D.C., filed into the school’s theater to attend Mass. The students were a spectrum of colors as they donned blazers in blue, burgundy, and brown, with oxfords in varied colors and patterns, as well as assorted ties and bow ties. Cardinal Wilton Gregory celebrated the Mass for the Feast of Saint Benedict on March 22 along with Father Anthony Giampietro, a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil who serves as the school’s president; Abbot James Wiseman of St. Anselm’s Abbey, Benedictine Father Samuel Springuel, and Msgr. James Watkins, the pastor of St. Ann’s Parish in Washington and a 1979 graduate of St. Anselm’s Abbey School. Benedictine Deacon Ignacio Gonzalez assisted at the Mass.

St. Anselm’s Abbey School was founded in 1942 by the Benedictine monks of St. Anselm's Abbey. The all-boys school teaches grades six to 12, with an enrollment of 234 students.

Cardinal Gregory in his homily noted that the Mass was commemorating the date of the saint’s passing, March 21, when the Benedictines traditionally celebrate the feast day for the order’s founder and patron saint..

“We use that phrase to describe someone who has died, we say he or she passed yesterday, so we’re celebrating a day late, that Benedict passed over from this life to eternal life,” Cardinal Gregory said. 

The cardinal went on to say how his first interaction with Benedictine monks was in his high school seminary in Chicago.

“The motto of the seminary was ora et labora – (Latin for) work and pray,” Cardinal Gregory said. “I’ve been trying to do that for the last 60-some-odd years. Working and praying. Why would one just do those two things? Well, that motto invites us into God’s life as his sons and daughters.”

Now, the cardinal said he has a different Benedictine motto over his desk that reads “prefer nothing to Christ.”

“Christ is the most important value, person, goal that any of us can achieve,” Cardinal Gregory said. 

He went on to tell the students that while they are gaining knowledge at school, wisdom goes beyond being smart. 

“Wisdom is also something we all strive to achieve…wisdom allows us to penetrate what’s really important in life,” the cardinal said.

St. Benedict, he said, encouraged his monks not only to follow Christ, but to be wise.

“Wisdom allows you to penetrate the values in life in such a way that you’re always in tune with what’s important. As Benedict would have his monks and certainly the students of his monks pursue, the wisest thing you can learn is to prefer Christ over everything,” Cardinal Gregory said.

Following Mass, the Catholic Standard had the opportunity to speak with teachers and students of St. Anselm’s about what the school means to them.

Michelle Falcinelli teaches pre-algebra and geometry and has been teaching at St. Anselm’s for two years. Previously, she taught internationally in Rome.

 “It’s awesome, this is my eighth school, because I’ve been teaching for 25 years, and it’s the best one yet. I used to say, as soon as I had the opportunity to go back to Italy, I’d be on the next plane to go back. I like this school enough that I’m going to stick around for awhile. I’m putting Italy off until retirement to stay here,” Falcinelli said. 

As a cradle Catholic, Falcinelli enjoys working in a Catholic atmosphere.

“For me to be in a school that is a Catholic school, that's part of the identity, the aura, the atmosphere, it's just really important for me as an individual. And also I feel it's important for the young people for the future. It's important for them to have Catholic role models for the faith to carry on,” Falcinelli said. 

She said the focus of the cardinal’s homily on Christ and wisdom was appropriate for the students at St. Anselm’s.

“[The homily] was beautiful.. I really loved how he just kept focusing on wisdom, because this is a school for really smart boys. The boys are very, very bright here, very smart. They have a lot of knowledge. But I think the focus on wisdom, but also the focus on Christ (was fitting), because ultimately that's what we're all here for, right? To figure out what God's will is for us and to follow that to the best of our abilities,” Falcinelli said.

Joseph Watkins, a 10th grader at St. Anselm’s, has been a Panther since sixth grade and cherishes his school, teachers and friends. 

“I love it. I love the vibe that this school has about academics. You're really pushed by your peers to help you excel, and I love that feeling. It just helps you succeed. Really it's the academics, but also that contributes to athletics too, that same idea of just helping each other out. There's a real brotherhood and connection between everyone in the school,” Watkins said.  

Watkins is heavily involved in sports. Over the years there, he has competed on the school’s soccer, basketball, golf, and tennis teams. 

Senior Bruno Karpinski is wrapping up his time at St. Anselm’s and will be a student at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York this fall. He plans to study mechanical engineering. Although he hopes to pursue studying left-brained topics, some of Karpinski’s favorite classes at St. Anselm’s include ethics and philosophy, and he is very interested in art and enjoys drawing.

“The monks have these hallmarks, right? One of them is called conversatio morum. We like to joke that it can’t be translated, but I think it’s roughly something like, ‘the way of transformation.'  I really do think that's true, because I feel like my time here has changed me into a different and yes, more well-rounded person,” Karpinski said. 

According to Karpinski, St. Anselm’s has helped nurture his critical thinking abilities. 

“I think that a lot of the time we are presented with views and information in the world. Sometimes, people don’t always take a second to think about, ‘Hey, what’s the underlying line of thought here that’s going on?’ I think that this school has helped me to, when I’m presented with something, pick it apart and see how it works before I really adopt it.”

Theology teacher Michael Staron hopes his students leave his classes with a deeper understanding of the faith. 

Staron later said that he hopes the students “come to understand how one can view and understand the world through the lens of faith. I love when our students are able to engage, critically and intellectually, the Catholic faith and the theology and philosophy we teach here.”

Now in his seventh year at St. Anselm’s, he was originally drawn to working at the school because of the students. 

“I mean the boys here are extremely intelligent. They have a lot of questions, and they really take seriously the big questions. It's an amazing opportunity to be able to be in the classroom with them and discuss all the issues involved with all conversations involving faith and philosophy,” Staron said.