| St. Bede Academy | |
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Ut in omnibus glorificetur
Deus
That in All Things God May Be
Glorified
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| Address | |
|---|---|
| 24 West U.S. Highway 6 Peru, Illinois, (Bureau County), 61354  United
States |
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| Coordinates | 41°19′18″N 89°9′58″W / 41.32167°N 89.16611°WCoordinates: 41°19′18″N 89°9′58″W / 41.32167°N 89.16611°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Private, Coeducational |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic; Benedictine |
| Established | 1890 |
| Superintendent | Ted Struck |
| Principal | Michelle Mershon |
| Asst. Principal | Bernie Moore |
| Chaplain | Fr. Ronald Margherio |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 277 (2008) |
| Campus | Rural |
| Color(s) | Green and White |
| Athletics conference | Tri-County |
| Team name | Bruins |
| Accreditation(s) | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools [1] |
| Average ACT scores | 22.1 [1] |
| Publication | Caedmon (literary magazine) |
| Newspaper | The Bedan Bruin |
| Yearbook | The Bedan Way |
| Tuition | $4,450 |
| Admissions Director | Tom McGunnigal |
| Athletic Director | Bernie Moore |
| Website | www.st-bede.com |
Saint Bede Academy is a private, four-year, Catholic college preparatory high school located in Peru, Illinois. The campus buildings and monastery are situated on 100 acres (0.40 km2) of wooded land. The monastery is home to 32 Benedictine monks who have taken a vow of stability, meaning that they remain at Saint Bede Abbey for their lifetimes. The Benedictine monks, with the help of the lay community, continue to take an active role in the administration, faculty, and staff of the academy.
The school is accredited by the State of Illinois, the North Central Association, and the Office of Catholic Education of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria.
Contents |
The school operates on a fixed daily schedule of eight periods of forty-three minutes. Students are required to enroll in seven courses per semester. Two semesters of 18 weeks each comprise the school year
St. Bede Abbey and Academy were founded in 1890 by a group of six monks whose task it was to establish a Benedictine teaching institution where young men could receive a Catholic education. The school, which opened in 1891, was an all-boys school until 1973, and a boarding school until 1981. The school became a boarding school once again in 2006. Prior to the 1970s, it was not uncommon for parents to send their boys hundreds of miles to attend and live at St. Bede.
After the boarding school closed, the Academy was still able to draw a consistent number of students from the local area, though never enough to challenge the local public schools. The original building is still in use, and it plainly shows its age on the inside. It has undergone some renovations since it was built over one hundred years ago, but none recently.
The continued existence of the school has always depended heavily on the monetary contributions of alumni and other friends of the Academy. Other fund-raising events such as an annual auction and phone-a-thon help.
The student population is made up of over 300 students. Saint Bede Academy believes students should not be denied a Catholic education because of the lack of funds. Therefore, the Academy provides financial assistance through a work-study grant, loan assistance, scholarships, and family discounts. The school also continues to draw financial support from over 6,000 alumni. The student-faculty ratio is 15-1 with an average class size of 22 students.
99% of graduates attend a post-secondary college or university.
The 100-acre (0.40 km2) St. Bede campus includes the school, its attached monastery, a church, a football field with stands, a baseball field with stands, a basketball stadium/theater, the Saint Bede Abbey Press building, and lots of open space, including an apple orchard.
The school is a five-level brick building with dozens of classrooms and offices. The building can be perceived in halves, with the north half containing most of the classrooms, and the south half containing most of the offices.
The Academy used to be a boarding school, and the south half of the building used to be where senior and junior college boarding students were housed, usually four to a room. The minims(freshman), sophomores and juniors as well as prep seminary students lived in dormitories on the second and third floors in the north half of the building. The freshman dorm sometimes held up up to 100 students in one large room.
The former dorm rooms in the south half of the building being small, were made into offices. The main administrative office is located on the first floor. There are computer labs on the first and second floors. The art department takes up most of the third floor. The two main science labs and classrooms are located on the basement level. Lockers are located on the second and basement levels of the building. There is an underground tunnel that connects the main building with the gym, where pe classes are held. The wrestling room located on the third floor of the complex.
St. Bede Abbey, attached to the school, is the permanent residence of thirty-two monks who live according to the Rule of Saint Benedict. The monks, many of whom actively participate in the everyday workings of the school, follow the gospel of Christ by serving God, the Church, and the community through daily prayer, both communal and private, serious work, quiet reflection, hospitality, and the renunciation of marriage, possessions, and pleasure.
The Abbey was founded in 1890, along with the Academy, by a group of six monks who were sent from the St. Vincent Archabbey in western Pennsylvania to spread the Benedictine tradition. By 1910, the community of monks had grown large enough to become independent from St. Vincent's, and so the monks elected their first abbot. The population of monks peaked sometime during the middle of the twentieth century, and has since declined to its current population of 32. Abbot Claude Peifer, OSB, is the current abbot; he succeeded Abbot Roger Corpus, OSB. Father Dominic Garramone, OSB, a monk and priest of the Abbey and the Academy, is renowned for his breadmaking skills and has a column and show on it.
The Abbey Church is a multi-purpose building containing a general assembly area, students' chapel, theater/lecture hall, lounge, kitchenette, and conference rooms. The students use the Abbey Church for Eucharistic liturgies, prayer services, penance services, classes, plays, and meetings.
The St. Bede Academy library is a multi-level facility consisting of two large reading rooms on two levels joined by four levels of stacks. The theology library consists of the upper reading room and the top level of the stacks. The academy library consists of the lower reading room and three levels of stacks. The academy collection totals 20,000 volumes and the monastery collection contains 19,000 volumes.
The student refectory (dining room), located on the main floor of the school building, provides hot lunch and snack items daily to students. Students remain on campus during lunchtime. The refectory was renovated during the summer of 1997 to restore the original tin ceiling which had been covered over for years. Ceiling fan/light fixtures now hang to provide an atmosphere of former days at the Academy.
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   | Saint Bede Academy - St. Bede Academy |
| | Saint Bede Abbey - Saint Bede Abbey - Home |
| | Peru, Illinois - Welcome to Peru, Illinois |
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