It was a big weekend at Colegio San Viator in Tunja, Colombia, as 22 students in the upper grades were confirmed by Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro of Tunja. The next morning 27 students received their first communion.
The timing was deliberately planned by Viatorians at the school to coincide with the celebration of St. Viator Day, observed every year on Oct. 21.
“As Viatorians, we are committed to the formation of students in our community, both in the spiritual and academic aspects,” says Fr. Pedro Herrera, CSV, principal.
Viatorians are in their third year of running Colegio San Viator. Its faculty includes four Viatorians: Fr. Pedro Herrera (principal), Fr. Fredy Contreras (vice principal), Br. Juan Carlos Ubaque (dean of students) and Br. Juan David Ramírez (in his first year of temporary vows and teacher of mathematics).
Another pre-novice now in his second year of formation, Luis Pedroza, lives with the local community while he studies physical education at Universidad Santo Tomás en Tunja.
Fr. Pedro Herrera presided over the first communion Mass for 27 students.
Colegio San Viator, which includes a nursery school, preschool, elementary and secondary education, has grown to 650 students, ages 2 to 17. Besides its full-time religious, the staff includes 88 lay people working in academics, administrative and service areas.
The school is modeled after the first Viatorian school in Colombia, Colegio San Viator in Bogotá. The school features all the qualities of a Viatorian education, namely one that is faith-based, co-educational, bilingual and pastoral.