Father Peter Stamm raises the monstrance on the steps of the new campus of St. Benedict Classical Academy in Natick during adoration as part of the campus's dedication ceremony. Pilot photo/Wes Cipolla
NATICK -- Jay Boren, headmaster of St. Benedict Classical Academy in Natick, believes that architecture is a child's first teacher.
When the school's campus on Pleasant Street became too small for a swelling student population, its staff had a clear vision of what an alternative would look like.
"We wanted a building that would be teaching the children before they even stepped foot in a classroom, and that would lift their hearts and minds to God," Boren told The Pilot.
In 2018, the school purchased a 12.9-acre horse farm on Union Street, one mile from the original campus. The pandemic slowed construction efforts, but in 2023 ground was broken on a stately 28,000-square-foot Federal-style building with 16 classrooms, a great hall where the entire student body could gather, and a playground. A room in the building intended to be a library will be used as a temporary chapel until a full chapel can be built on the property.
Boren wanted a building that would resemble a European Benedictine monastery but fit in with a New England landscape. Such a building would give students much-needed space and the opportunity to spend time outdoors. It would also reflect the "classical mission" of the school, which teaches Latin starting in third grade and seldom uses technology in classrooms.
"It is a beautiful, classically-designed building," Boren said. "It is beautiful in every way."
Now, construction is almost complete, and the new campus will be open to St. Benedict's 322 kindergarten to grade eight students in November.
"It's been a really long process, but one that was well worth it," Boren said.
To celebrate, hundreds of St. Benedict students and families embarked on a one-mile eucharistic procession from the Pleasant Street campus to the new Union Street one on Oct. 19. The new building still smelled of fresh wood and paint, and the whirring of drills could be heard as construction workers delivered the finishing touches. A group of girls sprinkled flower petals on the doorstep. The procession was followed by adoration and a Mass celebrated by the school's chaplain, Father Peter Stamm.
"Here we are before this magnificent building," Father Stamm said in his homily, "a building constructed by faith and constructed by many sacrifices and great generosity."
The project cost $26 million, which came entirely from private benefactors, including some students' families. Many of those same families brought their babies and toddlers on the procession, carrying them in strollers. Father Stamm praised the families for "embracing the culture of life by having many children, welcoming them."
"You could have gone along with the culture and had smaller families and bigger houses filled with empty rooms," he said in his homily. "Instead, perhaps you have a smaller home, but filled with life, filled with joy."
Oct. 19 was also the feast of the North American Martyrs. In his homily, Father Stamm said that, like those martyrs who traveled to faraway lands to preach the Gospel to an unfamiliar culture, the students and families of St. Benedict's should consider themselves missionaries.
"God builds great things," he said. "The impact of our own little acts of faithfulness can reverberate well beyond our own little lives, even going down centuries. The North American martyrs planted the faith amidst the very lands we stand on today."