How do you make the life of a saint who lived more than 200 years ago meaningful and relevant to school children aged four to 10 living in today's world?
This was the challenge which the staff at St Joseph Junior School, Sliema, faced in September last year when we realised that this year would be the 150th anniversary of the death of our foundress, St Emilie de Vialar, and the 125th anniversary of the founding of our school: two memorable occasions that deserved to be celebrated in a special way!
The answer was to present to our girls the life, mission, charism and values of St Emilie in a way that is appealing and can be understood and appreciated by young children. The objective was not only to create a well-written piece of drama, with effective props, good choreography and stage manageability.
The main aim was to bring out the message and spirit of St Emilie in a powerful and attractive way that would touch the hearts and live in the minds of our girls now and for years to come.
In fact, the result was a brilliant piece of drama written in a way that vividly brings out the values and virtues of St Emilie in each and every scene, using everyday children's language, modern dance and pop songs.
Its title Emilie: Angel of Gaillac precisely sums up the theme we wanted to convey through this musical: Emilie de Vialar was indeed an angel to the poverty-stricken people of Gaillac, a people struggling to survive in the aftermath of the French Revolution.
In this environment, Emilie established her first congregation, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, out of a small group of friends who embraced her mission and dedicated their lives to its propagation.
In the musical, Emilie's value of truth emerges in the scenes where we see her infinite love for Jesus, her deep acceptance and faithfulness to His calling notwithstanding the fierce opposition of her father who shut her out of his life and affections.
Her altruism is shown clearly in her denial of self to devote her life to the love of the poor, the orphans, the needy and the outcasts. She, who was born to a life of luxury and comfort, gave it all up in the name of charity to embrace a life of hardship and great physical exertions, which led to her own sickness and death in 1856.
Her life as a nun, although hectic and desperately difficult, nevertheless always found its strength and driving force in prayer, a virtue which she always stressed to her beloved Sisters. Emilie's calling led her eventually to leave the world she knew in Gaillac to spread her compassion and generosity to the missions in other countries, such as Algiers and Tunis.
And it was on one of her many travels that she was shipwrecked to Malta, just like St Paul. And during her stay in Malta she set up in Vittoriosa a congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, which flourished throughout the years and up to this very day bear testimony to the virtues of their foundress through the schools they run in Blata-l-Bajda, Sliema and Paola.
The spirit of St Emilie also lives on through the Sisters' work of love at their orphanage in Zabbar, the hostel in Sliema, the Provincial House in Gzira, the House for Elderly Nuns and the Retreat House in Rabat.
Before the musical, our girls knew the facts about the life of Emilie de Vialar, but living out her life on stage certainly helped revive their devotion to this saint. The enthusiasm with which all 350 girls sang the closing hymn We Raise our Eyes to Thee indeed seemed like a promise our girls were outwardly making to our foundress that they would strive to live her values both in the school community and within their families at home.
The encouraging response we received to our invitation to attend left us no other option than to hold four performances at the Salesian Theatre in Sliema from May 9 to 12 instead of the original two!
And, judging from the positive feedback from our guests after each and every performance, no one seems to have been disappointed. But for us at St Joseph, the greatest success would be if the spirit of St Emilie lives on in the hearts and manifests itself in the words, deeds and thoughts of all those who attended and enjoyed our performance.
Writing, directing and producing the musical involving all 350 girls in school was no mean feat, especially since the production team was made up exclusively of primary class teachers who also had to respect the demands of the curriculum.
However, in our moments of despair and difficulty, when we met obstacles that at times seemed insurmountable, we would focus on the spiritual benefits our girls were gaining, the unique opportunity they were having to express their innate creativity and to discover many hidden talents, the enjoyment shining in their eyes, and we would remember the words of St Emilie that never failed to drive us on: "Go and with what you have and will receive do all the good you can!"