Janet Mikol, SSND
Janet Mikol, SSND has ministered in Canada, England and the Isle of Man in a variety of ministries including teaching, formation, catechetics, administration, parish work, and high school chaplaincy. She also served as Provincial Treasurer for the Canadian Province.
Her love for Mary is evident in this paper written when she was studying for her MA in Spirituality at St. Louis University in 1976. She will be remembered for her zest for life, her insight and her love for the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She died suddenly one week after sending in this biography and Marian reflection.
Excerpt from the paper written by Sister Janet Mikol, SSND
October 26, 1976
MARIAN DEVOTION IN THE SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME
One can easily take delight in the flower in bloom, smell its aroma and caress its velvet petals; however, it would be a fuller appreciation if one also considered the whole picture of the flower – the part invisible to the eye as well as the part which is a pleasure to behold. We School Sisters of Notre Dame can happily point out that our “New Rule” of 1970 has six explicit references to Mary and numberless implicit ones. We can also claim that our Marian devotion is in obedience to the Vatican II documents of 1963-65 and in anticipation of Pope Paul’s “Marialis Cultus” of 1974. Nevertheless, to speak thus would be to ignore the roots of that devotion – roots found in the Sacred Scriptures as well as in the history of our congregation.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame were founded in 1833, but our seeds were sown already in 1597 in Lorraine by St. Peter Fourier and by Blessed Alix le Clerc. Peter founded a new congregation of women for the education of girls - an education and a training that was so necessary as the foundation of good Christian families. He well knew who was to be the heavenly patroness of so worth while an endeavor:
The Founder recommended to his daughters the greatest tenderness for the Virgin the woman blessed among women, the one laden with divine grace: “They shall not dare do anything, nor say anything, nor undertake anything, nor write anything that may be of any importance whatsoever without having first told her about it and earnestly recommended it to her....They shall take her for counselor and guide in all their actions, and imagine that if they are in her presence, see her and ask her counsel, direction and assistance.”
The legal title of his congregation was “Daughters of Our Lady”, and Peter made it quite clear that everything was to be done to the honor of the Virgin of virgins and for the glory of her Divine Son. It was not surprising that on his deathbed in 1640 his last words were “We have a good Lord and a good Lady.”2
The young and beautiful woman who was chosen by God to co-found this new congregation with Fourier was Alix le Clerc. She herself tells us that, in her teens, “her soul was very sad in the midst of the vanities” and “she had some devotion to Our Lady” 3
As she sought to know the Lord’s will for her, her love for Mary deepened and she experienced visions and dreams which involved the Mother of Jesus. “One night she dreamed she saw the Blessed Virgin Our Lady standing at the corner of the altar in church. Alix stood far off, afraid to approach the Holy Mother of God, she herself being so unworthy. But Our Lady beckoned her, saying, ‘Come, my daughter, I shall receive you.’”4
Respectfully yours,
Mary Theresa of Jesus
Full version available (PDF)