Supporting the School and Community -- Celebrating St. Romero on August 15th
Standing at the entrance to our town of Zaragoza, L-R: A popular image of Our Lady of the Pillar; Parish Pastor, Padre Vladimir Rosales; Archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar Alas; Far right, School Director, Jorge Renderos
Standing in front of our parish altar, L-R: Sister Victoria; Archbishop Escobar; and Sr. Nelida
Our town of Zaragoza was named after the city of Zaragoza in Spain. Zaragoza, Spain is best known for the apparition of Our Lady in the year 40 AD. She appeared on a pillar to console the Apostle James in his work to bring Christianity to Spain. Today there is a large cathedral on the site. It has been a great center of pilgrimage for centuries. In addition, “the nuns” at COAR are properly known as the Congregation of the Misioneras de Nuestra Señora del Pilar. They were founded in Zaragoza in 1936 and named for Our Lady of the Pillar. They came to serve COAR in 2014.
We often call the nuns our “grandmothers in residence” because of their care of the children. However, like nuns everywhere, they are fiercely competent and administer a large scholarship program for our school and, for our graduates, university and vocation training scholarships.
We’ve joined with the nuns to expand our scholarship program – read more in the next story . . .