Founded on the Feast of the Assumption
Why August 15 reveals the full hope Venerable Father Aloysius Schwartz held for every child
On August 15, 1964, Venerable Father Aloysius Schwartz founded the Sisters of Mary in South Korea. The date was the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when the Church celebrates Mary being taken body and soul into heavenly glory.
Father Al saw every hungry child as a person beloved by God, redeemed by Christ, and called to eternal life. He cared deeply about hunger, safety, education, health, and work because he cared about the whole child. The Assumption shows that body and soul are united, important, and redeemable.
The Whole Child Is Destined for Glory
The Assumption directs our eyes toward heaven, yet it never permits us to disregard suffering on earth. Mary was assumed body and soul. Her Assumption proclaims the eternal value of the whole human person.
Jesus desires the redemption of the whole person. The bodies and souls of children living in poverty are an integrated whole in need of food, shelter, education, love, and hope.
This conviction shaped Father Al’s work. He built schools, hospitals, shelters, workshops, Boystowns, and Girlstowns. He also built chapels and centered each community upon the Eucharist. He wanted children to gain the skills required for a dignified life and the faith needed for eternal life.
His concern for heaven made him more attentive to earthly suffering. It gave his service urgency.
Father Al once explained:
“Many people misunderstand my work. They think I am an administrator, a director, a builder. Fact is, I spend most of my time on spiritual formation.”
He also told the Sisters:
“I feel a sense of urgency. We are fighting for immortal souls.”
Food, shelter, education, and spiritual formation were never competing priorities for Father Al. They served one purpose: helping each child live in the dignity God intended and reach the eternal life for which God created him or her.
God Lifts Up the Lowly
The Gospel proclaimed on the Assumption contains Mary’s Magnificat:
“He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things.”
Luke 1:52–53, RSV-CE
Mary does not exalt herself. God raises his lowly handmaid.
This distinction belongs at the heart of the Sisters of Mary. Christ ascended into heaven by his own divine authority. Mary was assumed. She received heavenly glory as God’s gift and as the full effect of her Son’s victory over sin and death.
Mary’s Assumption reveals grace received with humility and responded to with faith, obedience, and love.
This truth reflects the life Father Al desired for the Sisters. Their vocation was to serve quietly and with simplicity and seeking the will of God as Mary did. They would pray, sacrifice, teach, clean, nurse, guide, correct, and love. Much of their work would remain unseen by the world.
God sees it.
He also sees every child whom poverty has pushed aside, and whom society has undervalued. She already possesses God-given dignity. She bears his image. She holds an eternal destiny.
The Sisters help each child recognize and live according to this truth.
A Mission Directed Toward Heaven
The Second Vatican Council calls Mary assumed into heaven “a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth.” She shows the Church what God intends to complete in all who belong to Christ.
St. John Paul II said:
“In her, assumed into heaven, we are shown the eternal destiny which awaits us beyond the mystery of death.”
This eternal destination gives meaning to the Sisters’ daily work.
When a Sister serves a meal, she honors a body created for resurrection. When she guides students in mathematics or a vocational skill, she helps them exercise God-given intelligence and freedom. When she protects a child from violence, she defends a life of permanent value. When she teaches a child to pray, she helps the child know the One for whom every human heart was created.
The mission responds to immediate need while keeping eternity in view.
Father Al refused to reduce poor children to their circumstances. Each child was made for truth, goodness, holiness, and communion with God.
The Assumption confirms this Christian hope. Thinking of heaven and the Assumption does not mean Father Al had his mind in the clouds, disconnected from human life. His feet remained firmly planted, responsive to the needs of God’s chosen ones, the abandoned, the sick, the poor, especially the youth.
A Day of Liberation
August 15 holds another meaning in the country where Father Al founded the Sisters. It is also Gwangbokjeol, Korea’s National Liberation Day. The day commemorates Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
The convergence is powerful. The Sisters of Mary began on a day associated with liberation in Korea, as well as a day demonstrating the full effect of His victory over sin and death in the Church – the redemption of body and soul.
The Sisters continue this work of liberation today. They help free children from hunger, exploitation, illiteracy, fear, and the limits imposed by severe poverty. They prepare young people to support themselves, serve their families, contribute to their communities, and live as faithful children of God.
Christian liberation reaches its fullness in Christ. He frees the human person for truth, love, holiness, and eternal life.
Every Child Is Worth Celebrating
August 15 has also become the shared birthday of every child in the care of the Sisters of Mary.
Father Al and the Sisters began this tradition in the 1980s because many children arriving from severe poverty did not know their exact birthdates. Some did not know their ages. Others had never received a birthday gift, tasted birthday cake, or experienced a day devoted to celebrating their lives.
Father Al responded by making August 15 a “universal birthday” for all the children.
Today, children across the Sisters of Mary schools celebrate together. They enjoy a day without lessons, filled with games, sports, competitions, cake, and individual gifts. The gifts are simple and useful, often clothing, shoes, school supplies, or items for play. Yet the deepest gift is the message each child receives: Your life matters. You are seen and known. You are loved. We are grateful you were born.
Father Al said the celebration gives each child “a glowing feeling of personal worth” and helps each one know he or she is truly lovable.
The connection to the Assumption is profound. August 15 celebrates Mary’s entrance, body and soul, into eternal glory. It also celebrates the earthly birth of every child entrusted to the Sisters. One celebration points toward the other. Each child’s life began through God’s gift, and each child is invited to eternal life with him.
For children who have experienced neglect, abandonment, or abuse, a birthday celebration restores something poverty often takes away: the knowledge of being personally cherished. The Sisters do not celebrate an anonymous group. They give every child a gift. They place cake before every child. They create a day when no one is forgotten.
On the feast when God lifts up his lowly handmaid, the Sisters lift up every child in their care and honor the dignity God placed within them.
No Child Was Created Merely to Survive
The founding date gives the Sisters of Mary a permanent direction. Their schools and homes address urgent needs, yet their mission never ends with material success. Each belongs within a greater vocation to become holy and live forever with God.
This is why August 15 expresses Father Al’s hope so well.
No child was created merely to survive another day of poverty. No child was created merely to become employable or self-sufficient. Each child was created to know God, to receive his love, to serve others, and to share in Christ’s victory.
Mary assumed into heaven shows the destination. The Sisters of Mary help children begin the journey.
