Mount Saint Mary Celebrates Dominican Heritage

NEWBURGH – Mount Saint Mary College celebrated the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman and the college’s founding Dominican Sisters with Founders Week from Sunday, October 1 to Friday, October 6.

The college’s annual Founders Week honors the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman and the Dominican Sisters whose vision guided the creation of the college, with this year’s celebration marking the 140th anniversary of the sisters arriving in Newburgh. The college’s Catholic and Dominican Institute (CDI) has sponsored the Founders Week celebration at the college every year for more than a decade.

To highlight the impact and significance of the college’s Dominican heritage, Charles Zola, CDI director, assistant to the President for Mission Integration, and associate professor of Philosophy, put together an array of presentations, activities, and events for the college community to enjoy.

This included a trio of talks by Anthony Russell Farina, a novelist and associate professor of Humanities at Siena Heights University.

Farina’s first talk, “Dominican and Buddhist Contemplative Practices: Writing in Action,” focused on his own experiences with Dominican and Buddhist contemplative practices and how he uses active contemplation to create thoughtful and purposeful writing.

“Contemplation is practice,” he said. “You have to make the time. Everything is always better when we take more time.”

Later that week, Farina also gave a luncheon talk for Mount faculty and staff called “What’s the Story?” Then he wrapped up Founders Week with “The Storytelling Journey,” which discussed his novel Welcome to Mansfield, the first book in his series The Austen Chronicles. These books are a modern-day retelling of Jane Austen’s novels told though the perspective of young adults on a college campus.

Other Founders Week events included a dinner for the Dominican Sisters in the James Finn Cotter Villa Library, a campus dessert reception, and the popular Dominican Heritage Tour around the campus, once again hosted by Sr. Margaret “Peggy” Murphy, OP, a Dominican Sister, retired Mount Religious Studies professor, and current adjunct at the college.