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154 The Spirituality of Cornelia Connelly
Thus the St. Leonards’ Training College and her efforts to establish
another in London were important in the institutionalization of her
charism.'** But their importance in this respect went well beyond their
laudable utility in providing for the training of her own sisters. The Train-
ing College was an apostolic means to respond in terms of the magis, of the
always greater glory of God by advancing education in the most fun-
damental way possible—training teachers. Cornelia explained this when,
after five years of success at St. Leonards, she began to envision an
American training college in the great untamed valley of the Mississippi
River she had known in her years of married life.
After speaking of her hopes to make a foundation in Baltimore, she
continued: “and then we should hope to form a training School out in the
West which is a work most dear to us—embracing a much larger good than
an ordinary Boarding School” (emphasis added).'*° And of the Teacher
Training College at St. Leonards as she began it in 1856, she wrote: “We
ought not to be satisfied with success only, but to aim at going a little
beyond what 2s strictly of obligation. This is only in accordance with our
religious life” (emphasis added).!*6
As Principal, Cornelia went beyond what was of obligation, planning
the curriculum and timetables, supervising the lectures, and, above all,
knowing and loving her students. And they responded, as this reminiscence
of one in the last class shows:
It was always a delight to us to see her at any time, but to have her all to
ourselves at recreation was the next best thing to a private conference. She
joined in our games, first with one set of girls, then with another. After a
time we all gathered close round her. We wanted her to talk to us . . . She
spoke most encouragingly and kindly, inquiring as to our intentions on
leaving the College, and she showed a marked interest in each and all.!*7
Cornelia had recognized and rejoiced in the special graces that were
granted to this work for the greater glory of God. She wrote to Bishop
Grant that the students of the Training College “imbibe in a remarkable
degree the Spirit of the Holy Child Jesus, giving us proofs of that special
grace belonging to that sweet life-giving name.”
At the end of the second year of the school, Cornelia had explained
her educational principles to the inspector for the Catholic Poor School
Committee, one of her strong supporters:
In the lectures generally we have worked upon the primary point
rather than in diffuse matter. Method and means to carry out the end to
be attained, cause and effect, the cultivation of the understanding and
the judgment rather than the memory, have been the pivot upon which
the Instructions have turned during the past two years. I do not mean to
say that the memory has not been cultivated but simply that it has held a
subservient position to the understanding and judgment.!*9
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