Our Mission and Four Pillars
Our Mission
The Basilica School of St. Paul, in Daytona Beach, Florida, exists to assist parents in fulfilling their obligation to educate the children that God has entrusted to them. Parents are the primary source from which children derive their values; parents entrust their children to us to continue and complement the education that began at home. We encourage each child to achieve his/her potential –spiritually, intellectually, personally, socially, and physically. We believe that Basilica School of St. Paul is an integral part of the parish. It is therefore the mission of the Basilica School of St. Paul in conjunction with the parents and guardians of our children to “Inspired by Saint Paul and rooted in our Catholic Faith, we seek to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ through academic excellence and our persistence in serving His people.”
Our School Charism
The Basilica School of St. Paul was founded in 1925 by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, New York. While later it became a Diocesan School, we still hold true to our Dominican roots and are influenced by them. Our school charism and values are inspired by those of the saintly Religious Sisters who founded our school almost a hundred years ago.
Based on the Dominican Tradition, whose charism is "to contemplate and to give to others the fruits of our contemplation," the thing we most wish to see in our students and in everyone that forms part of our school community is our charism: "Shining and Sharing the Light of Truth." Each one of our members is called to be a conduit by which the Light of Truth shines forth. We are also called to share it with all we meet.
In our Catholic Tradition, the Truth is not some concept or piece of knowledge, but a real Person: Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life..." (John 14:6). Our goal as a Catholic school is to enlighten our students with the Light of Christ, so that when the time comes to send them out into the world, we can say, in the words of St. Paul, our patron, "You certainly heard about Him, and as His followers you were taught the truth that is in Jesus." (Ephesians 4:21).
We strive to find the Truth in all we do and to serve Him who is the Truth through our four pillars:
This is what sets us apart as a Catholic School, that we seek not just to teach our students, but to form intentional disciples of Jesus Christ, who use their intellectual and spiritual faculties to serve the Truth. It is through this means that we hope they will begin to engage with and to transform the world around them for the common good.“For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of [Jesus] Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Symbol of Excellence
The symbol par excellence of our lived charism is the Basilica Torch representing the Light of Christ, received at Baptism and rekindled at Confirmation - a light that enlightens the hearts of the human race with very life of God, which “shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot not overcome it" (John 1: 5). It also symbolizes the Light of Truth which has the power to set all people free (John 8:32). It is rooted in our Dominican roots and in the spirit of St. Paul the Apostle that we strive to live our charism, letting the Light of Truth shine in our hearts and becoming a beacon which leads all to the One who said,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).