Sion School, Worthing, celebrates its Founder's Day and Sion's feast
Pupils and staff at Our Lady of Sion School, celebrated their Founders’ Day on 20th January, by holding a church service in St Mary of the Angels Church, adjoining the school. The service was attended by Junior and Senior school pupils, and several of the Sisters of Sion who still live in Worthing, some of whom had taught at the school, in the days when it was a girl’s convent school.
The community of the Sisters of Sion was founded by Theodore and Alphonse Ratisbonne, two Jewish brothers, who had converted to Christianity. Theodore, the elder brother had converted some years before his
younger brother, Alphonse. Alphonse had been very against his brother’s conversion, and the two brothers had not spoken for nearly 20 years, until Alphonse, during a visit to Rome, had a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary, in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. He immediately converted too, and the two brothers worked together from then onwards, building schools and communities around the world, and helping to foster tolerance and understanding between peoples of different faiths. This acceptance and understanding between peoples of all races and religions is still an important principle within the school, and is embodied in the school’s motto of ‘Consideration Always’.
Our Lady of Sion School in Worthing is proud to be one of 18 Sion schools around the world, and
close links have been forged with some of these other schools. Exchange Language visits with Notre Dame de Sion in St Omer take place regularly.