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For Mother Teresa, Campus Lights Up, Names Nursing Center
Week of events Aug. 25-Sept. 5 Celebrates 100th Birth Anniversary

 
 
ATCHISON, KAN. (July 8, 2010) - Benedictine College, here, plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta in a big way. Not only will the Midwest Catholic college name a building in her honor, it will also illuminate several buildings on its 120-acre campus with blue lighting. The featured events are:
 
  • Aug. 26 at 12:15 p.m.: The grand opening of the Mother Teresa Center for Nursing and Health Education; unveiling of the words “Mother Teresa Nursing Center” on the building.
  • Aug. 25-Sept. 5: Campus buildings will be lit in blue for the time between the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth and the anniversary of her death.
  • Sept. 4: Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa at the first home football game
The building naming accents the new nursing program at Benedictine College, which begins its first clinical classes in the fall and will graduate its first nurses in 2012. “We are delighted to welcome 19 students to our new nursing program at Benedictine College,” said Dr. Lynne Connelly, director of nursing. “We anticipate a great deal of growth in this program as Benedictine College helps to address the serious and growing need for nurses in America.”
The approximately 12,000 square-foot Mother Teresa Nursing Center will include two large classrooms, a clinical skills lab, a high-fidelity simulation room, seven faculty offices, additional administrative offices, an area for practicing clinical assessment skills, and several computer labs and study areas for students.
 
The Mother Teresa Center for Nursing and Health Education will be the new name for the Atchison Hospital’s Ramsay Medical Building, which has been donated to the college. Missionaries of Charity Superior General Sister M. Prema, MC, wrote a letter to Benedictine College granting permission for the naming of the building on behalf of the order of sisters that Mother Teresa founded.
 
“Mother Teresa loved Benedictine spirituality and Benedictine College loves her back,” said Stephen D. Minnis, president of Benedictine College. “This year, as we welcome our first nursing students, we are blessed to have a donated building from Atchison Hospital to give them the best education possible. We are naming the building after Mother Teresa because of her care for the sick, fidelity to the Church, and message of love for the poor.”
 
Mother Teresa visited the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Atchison on June 9 and 10, 1981, when Benedictine College operated a South Campus at the Mount. Eyewitnesses also recall her visit to St. Benedict’s Abbey which is at the current campus of Benedictine College.   While visiting the Benedictine communities of Atchison, she said, “I beg you to give Jesus to the young people in your care.”
 
After the Empire State Building refused a request by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Liberties to light the New York landmark in honor of Mother Teresa, Benedictine College officials decided to light the campus. Buildings to be lit in blue will include St. Benedict’s Abbey Church tower, visible from the approach to Atchison from Missouri, and St. Scholastica Hall tower, among others.
 
Also, President Minnis launched a Memorare Army prayer campaign last year. The campaign was inspired by Mother Teresa’s original “Memorare Army” and is considered responsible for the successful funding of the construction of Mary’s Grotto on the campus.
 
In addition to the naming of the Mother Teresa Nursing Center and the building lightings, the campus will honor Mother Teresa with a week of events including:
 
  • “Do Something Beautiful for God” College Ministry program.
  • A block party for students in honor of Mother Teresa’s birthday.
  • Installing an original oil painting of the future saint in the Mother Teresa Center.
  • Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa at the first home football game on 9/4.
Mother Teresa told her biographers: “Everyday on awaking, my desire and my enthusiasm is this: today I must do something beautiful for God.”
 
“Our hope and plan for Benedictine College students is that by focusing on Mother Teresa they will learn to do something beautiful for God in our own day,” said Father Brendan Rolling, OSB, College Ministry head.
 
Founded in 1858, Benedictine College is a Catholic, Benedictine, residential, liberal arts college located on the bluffs above the Missouri River in Atchison, Kansas. The school is proud to have been named one of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report for the past three years as well as one of the top Catholic colleges in the nation. It prides itself on outstanding academics, extraordinary faith life, strong athletic programs, and an exceptional sense of community and belonging. It has a mission to educate men and women within a community of faith and scholarship.

 

 

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