Shrine Mass to wrap up Edmundite 175th

Edmundites at last year’s Shrine Mass on Aug. 15, 2017 that launched a year of 175th Anniversary celebrations. At far left is the new Superior General Very Rev. David Cray, S.S.E. (photo credit: Mark Tarnacki)

The members of the Society of Saint Edmund, founding religious order of Saint Michael’s College, will conclude their 175th Anniversary year of celebration with a Mass at Saint Anne’s Shrine, Isle La Motte, Vermont, on August 15, 2018, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at 11 a.m.

Edmundite Superior General Father David G. Cray, S.S.E., will be the principal celebrant and homilist.  The particular date is not of historical significance, but Mary has been a principal patron of the Society since its foundation in 1843 at the abandoned Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption at Pontigny, Yonne, Burgundy, France. A reception in the Shrine’s All-Purpose Building will follow the 11 a.m. Mass. Saint Anne’s Shrine has been a significant ministry of the Society since 1904, and it was there that the Anniversary year was inaugurated on August 15, 2017.

Other special occasions during the 175^th anniversary year have included the ordination of a new Edmundite, Fr. Michael Carter, S.S.E. on September 16; celebration of St. Edmund’s Day on Nov. 16 with a special Saint Michael’s campus lecture and Mass in the college chapel; an Edmundite Heritage Trip to France in May led by Fr. Marcel Rainville, S.S.E.; the primary anniversary celebration on July 3 — Mass and picnic at Holy Family Church in Essex Junction (with the new Saint Michael’s President Lorraine Sterritt in attendance), marking the Edmundite founders Frs. Muard and Bravard moving into the Cistercian Abbey in Pontigny in France in 1843; and the quadrennial general chapter of the Society last month, which was an opportunity for Edmundites to acknowledge important events and developments in Society of St. Edmund history and plan for the future. They also elected Fr. Cray to succeed Fr. Stephen Hornat, S.S.E. as superior general for a four-year term.