Renewing the Promise

We thought Catholic Education Week was the perfect opportunity to share with you one of our favourite photos from our collection, which shows a group of very serious school children.


Group photograph of girls from St. Paul's School seated at their desks, c. 1905

Buckley Collection, PH 93S/76P

The theme for this year's Catholic Education Week, Renewing the Promise, reminds us of our call to service and positions this in the framework of Catholic Education. It seemed appropriate to share a photograph of a confirmation ceremony at St. Paul's School, where ties and promises to Christ are strengthened.



Group photograph of a girls' Confirmation class of St. Paul's School with Reverend John L. Hand, Pastor of St. Paul's Parish, in the middle. 1906
 Buckley Collection, PH 93S/80P

Record of the Week: St. Paul's Girls' School

St. Paul's Girls' School Grade 8 (Entrance) Class, 1910
Buckley Collection, PH 29S/32PC

To mark the first day of school, we thought we'd share this postcard of an enthusiastic grade eight class from St. Paul's Girls' School in Toronto. Standing in the back row is Rev. Msgr. John Laurence Hand, pastor of Toronto's oldest Catholic parish from 1892 to 1936.  The girls' teacher, Sister Arsenia, is not photographed; one of the students sent her this souvenir postcard in the summer of 1910. This item was donated by Sr. Mary Buckley, CSJ, whose ancestor Margaret Buckley is identified as the girl in the second row from the back, third from the left.

On this day of new beginnings, we are thrilled to publish our first blog post!  The staff at ARCAT is hoping to keep our Archivist's Pencil sharpened for weekly features and other updates.