Blessed Elena Guerra, The Foundress

Elena Guerra was born in Lucca, Italy on June 23, 1835 of very pious parents, in an austere environment of rigid discipline and in an era when education of women was limited to household arts, painting and music. Elena did not allow these obstacles to hinder her from obtaining a wide culture which was not common among women of her time. She extended great efforts in acquiring, by herself, knowledge in science and letters and the arts. It can be said that her extraordinary intellectual attitude of spirit not only saved her from pitfalls common to adolescence but also oriented her to correspond generously to God’s call and design of love for her.

The desire to dedicate herself to apostolic activity had already inflamed Elena her youth. Gathering together the young girls of her neighborhood, she organized unions which she called “ Spiritual Friendship”, “The Living Star” and the “The Militia of the Holy Spirit”. These were sparks she ignited that brightened later into fire that was the Congregation she founded to inflame the world with Divine Love.

Elena live her spiritual mission with such intensity as to move with repeated letters the Holy Father Leo XIII to issue the Brief Provida Matris Caritate (May 5, 1895) and the Encyclical Divinum Illud Munus (May 9, 1897) to invite the faithful to pray to the Holy Spirit. A few years before her death on April 11, 1914 the Congregation she founded was recognized by the Church with a Decree of Praise date May 6, 1911.

On April 26, 1959 in Basilica of St. Peter, the Holy Pope John XXIII proclaimed Elena Guerra Blessed distinguishing her as the “Apostle of the Holy Spirit.

The School Seal and Its Symbols

Blessed Elena Academy was founded in 1962 at 146 Villaruel St., Pasay City. The circle symbolizes the integral and harmonious development of all the potentials of the students. The red color signifies the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit, the guiding light of both Educators and students of Blessed Elena Academy.

History of Blessed Elena Academy

Blessed Elena Academy is a Catholic educational institution and bearer of the charism of Blessed Elena Guerra, the Foundress of the congregation of Sisters Oblates of the Holy Spirit. It is situated at 146 Villaruel Street, Pasay City. There is wealth and poverty but more of the poverty in the service area of the school. In the immediate vicinity of the school there are small stores and blocks of crowded houses bounded by narrow streets and alleys. However, not distant from the school are the imposing private and government buildings namely the Mall of Asia and the World Trade Center and the plush of hotels and restaurants along Roxas Boulevard.

Amidst poverty and wealth in the service area  it fosters love of God, neighbor, country and creation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as evident in all the curricular programs and extra curricular activities of the school.

Roots

On December 1872, the ministry of education of the Sisters Oblates of the Holy Spirit was started under the material guidance of Mother Foundress, Blessed Elena Guerra in the small city of Lucca, Italy. The first school was named St. Zita Institute for the education of young girls imbued with Gospel values and helped them become closer to God. Remarkably St. Gemma Galgani was a pupil of Mother Elena’s School until she was sixteen years old. Her prayer  “May the teachers as well as the pupils be saints” became a reality in the person of Gemma Galgani.

The small school in Lucca has spread throughout the four (4) countries namely: Canada, Africa, Italy and the Philippines.

On October 11, 1950, four (4) Italian Sisters arrived  in the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila. Twelve (12) years later, in 1962 they opened a preschool under the name St. Zita Institute at 146 Villaruel Street Pasay City. The different levels of the Elementary Course was introduced gradually in the following years. In 1969, the school started the Secondary Course under a new name Elena Guerra Institute in honor of the Foundress of the Religions Congregation. Later, to keep more vividly the holiness of life and the beatification of the Foundress Mother Elena Guerra by Pope John XXIII in 1959, the name was amended in 1976 to Blessed Elena Academy.