From a log-cabin classroom to a two-room frame school
to a three-classroom brick structure erected in 1893,
the oldest Catholic school site has been developed into
a separate modern school which opened in 1954.
Father Theodore Schneider, a Jesuit missionary traveling
from Old St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia’s
Willing’s Alley, founded the Bally parish in 1741.
Two years later he opened the school in which he personally
taught reading, writing and religion.
The community was then Goshenhoppen - - an Indian name
for “meeting place” - - later to be Churchville,
then Bally, to honor another Jesuit missionary, Father
Augustine Bally, who was pastor from 1837 –1882.
The name of the parish was originally St. Paul’s
but became Most Blessed Sacrament (its name today) in
1827 to honor its believers’ devotion to the Eucharist.
Regarding the school’s inception, records indicate
from the beginning Catholic and non-Catholic children
from the vicinity attended it.
But in 1850, ecumenism really flourished when Father
Bally erected a brick school building and township officials
formally agreed to pay the salary of an “upper
grade” teacher (grades 5-8).
A condition was that Father Bally had to approve the
credentials of the teacher who had to be “acceptable” to
the cleric. In exchange, the pastor was to provide the
building and pay the salary of the “lower grade” teacher.
Professor S. A. Baer, superintendent of the Berks County
schools from 1875-1881, said of the cooperative school
plan,“Both parties acted in good faith and there
never was the least friction, at least as long as Father
Bally lived.”
It was an era of unprecedented brotherhood among men.
There is some likelihood that Catholic schools may
have existed in some form in the dominions or territories
of early Spanish and French settlers in North America.
They settled in lands such as Florida, cultivated by
Spain, and the Louisiana Territory of France, which were
within the present boundaries of the United States. So
the Bally claim is restricted to the early settlement
within the borders of the 13 original colonies.
In the year 1763 the school employed its first lay
teacher.
Names like Fredder, Brietenbach and Gubernator appear
in the early baptismal registers as being teachers in
the school. The schoolmaster was a very important man
and often served in assisting the priest according to
historical reports.
In 1993, the Sister of St. Francis left Most Blessed
Sacrament School after 109 years of service. Deacon Thomas
Murphy was hired as the first lay principal. The school’s
name was then changed to Saint Francis Academy in honor
of the Sisters of St. Francis. The school continues today
under the leadership of Deacon Murphy and a teaching
staff he claims “Is the finest and most dedicated
I have ever worked with.”
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