Brescia University celebrated Founder’s Day on the feast day of Saint Angela Merici, Jan. 27, 2015. Saint Angela founded the Company of Saint Ursula in Brescia, Italy, in 1535. In turn, the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph founded Brescia College (now University) in Owensboro in 1950. The annual awards ceremony took place in the Taylor Lecture Hall in the Science building. Twenty-four students received awards and Brescia President Father Larry Hostetter gave the State of the College address.
The Spirit of Angela award winners were Marketa Kreuzingerova of the Czech Republic and Peter Olisa of Nigeria.
Ursuline Sister Rose Marita O’Bryan read Marketa’s nomination, which included: “Marketa is very respectful of others and their gifts. During her years at Brescia she has sought consciously to make a difference in the lives of others. She affirms, encourages and empowers others to be more than they could have ever dreamed. Like Saint Angela, she is a woman of integrity with an intellectual and spiritual hunger. As a Moore scholar she has represented to the Owensboro community a passion for leading and learning. She is continuously growing and pushes herself very hard to assure she takes advantage of every learning possibility made available to her here at Brescia University, from academics, to residence life, to international studies and events and to internships. Marketa has a hunger to bring goodness to others … She is very aware of the social injustices in our world. In Marketa there is found an example of humility and servant leadership that is the epitome of the Spirit of Saint Angela.”
Peter’s nomination included: “Peter is a quiet and unassuming man of strength. A man of solid bearing and gentle caring, Peter has a thirst for knowledge that is never greedy to ‘one-up’ another. In fact, if you asked Peter for help and caught him at a time when he was full of gratitude for his own life, his gratitude would likely be contagious enough to fill you with your own thanksgiving – a moment of peace, even though the world around you seemed to be swimming with your own uncertainties. Indeed, Saint Angela knew such difficulties, and like Saint Angela, Peter’s look might say, ‘you are worth helping and you are deep down good.’ But above all, in my encounters with Peter, I have known him to be a man of God, a man who seeks and finds and questions in a way that further stretches his longing for God. ‘God recognizes the fact that we are creatures of mistakes and flaws,’ Peter wrote (in class). ‘He is ready to make us strong in our weaknesses and perfect in our imperfections.’ It is with this kind of humility and conviction that Peter’s ‘God-is-with-us’ may well have been what Saint Angela Merici saw in Christ.”
Here are pictures from the day.
