Rio Ito, a recent graduate of the Sacred Heart School in Sapporo, Japan, which closed in February 2025, writes about her gratitude to Madeleine Sophie and the values she has learned.
The cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, which was destroyed by fire in 2019, was rebuilt with a new altar dedicated to five saints associated with Paris. Included in those five saints was St. Madeleine Sophie, and some of her relics were placed in the new altar.
We were overjoyed to hear this and thought of our cherished doll of St. Madeleine Sophie as a young girl. It was made by an alumna, Mikako Kosaka, who studied the drawings of St. Madeleine Sophie as a young girl, studying and praying in her room.
Every year on the feast of St. Madeleine Sophie, the doll was placed at the entrance of our school, to remind our students that Madeleine Sophie herself was once a young girl, aspiring to study with a prayerful heart and united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In her youth, St. Madeleine Sophie decided to use the valuable abilities she had acquired through rigorous study with her brother for the benefit of others. This choice was the result of years of hard work and faith. Later in life she had a vision: “I saw hundreds, thousands of adorers before a perfect, universal monstrance, raised above the Church.”
From her life we can see the importance of choosing how we use our abilities. She decided to use her gifts to help humanity, and committed her life to that cause. We are grateful that even today, more than 200 years after its founding, we can benefit from the education of the Sacred Heart. Additionally, we hope to find our own mission and carry her spirit into the present day. From her teachings, we can become like her and dedicate our abilities to helping others.
The Sapporo Sacred Heart School opened in 1963, two years after Mother Sabine de Valon, then Superior General, visited the Miyanomori Hill (the site of the school) and said, “This will be an open window to the world.” In this way, St. Magdalene Sophie’s vision of true adorers around the world was realized.
We have all taken this to heart as something very important and have been working on the SDGs with a global perspective. We have also thought many times about what we can do now for our brothers and sisters in crisis on the same planet, and we have put these ideas into action. We will continue to cherish the lessons we have learnt at the Sacred Heart School, feel responsible for the future of our planet and continue to take action to achieve a sustainable society.
After our school closes, this doll of young Sophie will be sent to the Archives in Rome, communicating our gratitude that we were able to be members of the global Sacred Heart family, which was a fulfillment of young Sophie’s dream.
Thank you, dear Sister Schools and RSCJ communities in Korea and Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, France, Austria, Mexico, the Philippines, and Uganda, for welcoming our students and sending your students to us!
Rio Ito (Class of 2025)
Sapporo Sacred Heart School
Section |International News
Province |Japan
