Franciscan Mission Life in Jamaica

When Conventual Franciscan Friar Rick Riccioli and Candidate to the Order Jonathan Nix visited their brothers' mission in Jamaica (St. Mary's, Above Rocks, and Missions), they really got a chance to see the great work that the friars and Franciscan sisters are doing in that country. The photos on this page give witness to this work.

Education

For a nation to be empowered, its children need to be educated. The friars and sisters have established or improved several schools for local children where in a safe and structured setting pupils learn basic and intermediate skills that they will later on be able to use in their professional life or in the pursuit of post secondary education.

Katyin (a St. Mary's Above Rocks teacher on the left) helps her pupils

complete a mathematics-based game

The School at Cassava River shown here is also part of the St. Mary's Above Rocks compound

Older students visit the Franciscan mission to attend classed at St. Mary's College

Being Part of the Community

The Franciscans at St. Mary's, Above Rocks, and Missions serve the people of Jamaica but also live and work with them. During their visit, Friar Rick and Jonathan noticed how integrated the Franciscans were with the local people. There was no "us" and "them"; instead friars, sisters and lay people functioned as a community, demonstrating their interdependence.

Some parishioners from St. Mary's Above Rocks are homebound;

friar-priests visit them frequently to provide pastoral care

School children, friars, and their teacher Katyin on a trip

Jonathan Nix quickly picked up on the community vibe at St. Mary's Above Rocks

Natural Splendor

The green in the flag of Jamaica represents the island's vegetation. The following pictures from Friar Rick and Jonathan's trip to the country do indeed show a nation blessed with incredible flora and fauna. St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that as God's children we have been appointed caretakers of all this splendor.

(Source of all related photos on webpage and homepage: Jonathan Nix and the Franciscan Mission in Above Rocks, Jamaica.)