Our Founder

1809–1879

To understand the spirit of the Holy Child Schools, you must first know our founder, Cornelia Connelly—an American-born wife, mother, and convert to Catholicism. In the shadow of a series of personal tragedies, Cornelia had the fortitude to start a new religious congregation of women, the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, in England in 1846. The Society opened its first school that same year, and education quickly became the fledgling congregation’s primary focus.

Through these humble beginnings, this joyful yet tenacious woman quietly started a revolution in education.

Challenging the contemporary wisdom that advocated rote education, Cornelia maintained that children learn best when they’re treated with dignity and actively engaged in their learning. This was radical thinking for the time, and it would be over a century before Cornelia’s wisdom was more widely embraced.

Cornelia devoted her life to educating children in an atmosphere of love and joy, developing an educational system built on trust and reverence for the dignity of every human being. She encouraged Holy Child educators to carry this spirit to students of diverse backgrounds as they sought to respond to “the wants of the age” in which they lived. Cornelia’s holistic approach embraced studies in art, music, drama, and dance—and her creative methods often raised the eyebrows of her critics.

Today, many of Cornelia’s revolutionary educational tenets can be recognized in the best of current educational practice. And they can be seen at work, every day, in the joyful classrooms, welcoming communities, and thriving students of our Holy Child Schools.

For more about Cornelia Connelly’s fascinating life, visionary outlook, and cause for sainthood, see the SHCJ Website, download the Cornelia Connelly E-Book, or visit the Cornelia Connelly Digital Library.