Poem for a feast day

Nativity of the Virgin by Giotto di Bondone [Public domain].
Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons Sept. 7, 2018.

THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF CARONDELET, our university's founders, count many poets among their members.  As an archival reflection for the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin (also known as Jesus' mother), September 8, we offer these short lines from Sister St. Catherine Beavers, CSJ. We invite you to consider how she poses the smallness of a human mother and her baby daughter with a hint of the the supernatural — and in so few words.

 Nativity of our Blessed Mother (1931)

A tiny crib – a sacred place
A tiny place where angels trod.
A tiny babe – a child of the earth
A mother of a God.

Sister St. Catherine – aka Mother St. Catherine (d. 1945) – was the Provincial Superior (1917-1923) right ahead of our founding president, Mother Margaret Mary Brady.

When the Mount was founded in 1925, Sister St. Catherine was included as a special “councilor” to the new college, although she was also missioned as the head of Our Lady of Peace. When she stepped down as provincial, the University of Southern California honored her with a master of arts degree pro merito.

We have copies of her volume of poetry published in 1931, A Thought at Christmastide and other Poems, at the CSJ Institute Library on the Doheny Campus and here in Chalon Special Collections.