02/04/2024
Welcome to St. Alcuin Classical Academy!
Saint Alcuin Classical Academy is an apostolate of the parish of St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church. The philosophy of education and spirituality of Saint Alcuin Classical Academy is rooted in the traditions of English-speaking Catholicism—particularly as nurtured in the Patrimony of Anglican Christianity through its liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral traditions, which find new life in the Catholic Church through the formation of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter (POCSP) established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Saint Alcuin’s mission is to foster a community of support for parents to educate their children intellectually, morally, and spiritually in the Catholic Classical tradition.
Our particular approach to education begins by reclaiming the traditional meaning of education. The Latin root words for education are educare and educere, which mean “to shape or mold” and “to lead out.” The Greek word for education is parádosis, which means to “hand on,” and generally refers to a tradition as passed on from one generation to the next. A true Catholic education is not just information transfer from one brain to another; it is a holistic reception in mind, body and soul of a 2000 year-old Tradition, which is lived out through prayer, service, teaching and worship. Today, tradition is often thought of as something extra that is added to one’s life instead of being a life-way with habits and customs that one enters into through initiation. St. Paul exhorts the Church to:
“…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2, RSVCE).
At the center of the Christian Faith is the Incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ: Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis, the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). This is the motto of Saint Alcuin Classical Academy. God not only redeems our minds and souls, but He also redeems our bodies. Through Jesus Christ, God redeems matter. English Christianity was influenced by the Celts and Druids in their reverence for nature. Instead of worshiping nature in a Pagan way, Christianity proclaimed that through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ we can see the goodness of created physical reality and how it can serve as an icon into understanding God. As Saint Pope John Paul II notes in his Theology of the Body, because of the Incarnation the human body is a living icon of the nature of God.
The Incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ and His real presence in the Eucharist is our true study in this life; it is also the core of our Catholic worldview. As Saint Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:5-6: “For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord; and ourselves your servants through Jesus. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus” (Douay-Rheims). As Catholics, we put on the lenses of the Beatitudes and live them out in the world as a member of Christ’s body, the Church. This is what Bishop Steven Lopes calls developing a Sacramental Worldview, and Saint Alcuin Classical Academy aims to help parents instill a sacramental worldview in their children.
Come and join us in the revival of Classsical education and Catholic culture!
