Catholic Schools Week Supplement

A trip to remember: Students join teacher on cyber-pilgrimage to Italy

St. Anthony of Padua School first-grade teacher Jacquelyn Singleton looks at photos of Italy on her computer with students. Singleton and her husband, Tony, toured Italy from Nov. 26 to Dec. 6. (Photo by Patricia Happel Cornwell)

By Patricia Happel Cornwell (Special to The Criterion)

CLARKSVILLE—When first-grade teacher Jacquelyn Singleton and her husband, Tony, recently went on an 11-day pilgrimage to Italy, she didn’t leave her students at St. Anthony of Padua School behind. Singleton wrote a daily Web log that her substitute teacher shared with the children.

The Nov. 26-Dec. 6 pilgrimage was led by Father Paul Beach, pastor of two Kentucky parishes. The group toured numerous Italian cities, and Mass was celebrated daily in Latin. Singleton’s favorite stops were Assisi and San Giovanni Rotondo.

“Everything I expected Italy to be I found in Assisi, not Rome,” she says. “Everything we do in St. Anthony [of Padua] Parish is Franciscan, so Assisi was important to me.”

During World War II, Singleton’s grandfather was stationed in Italy and attended Masses said by St. Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo.

“He took Jeep-loads of soldiers to see Padre Pio,” she says. “He even got to touch the wounds on Padre Pio’s hands.”

Before she left on the pilgrimage, Singleton showed her students maps and talked about time changes, languages and the saints whose cities she would visit. Her laptop only worked in Assisi, but all of her hotels had Internet connections so she was able to send photos and comments every day. Singleton hopes to incorporate material from the pilgrimage into her religion curriculum.

“I took pictures of everything,” Singleton says, “because the kids were fascinated. Their favorite thing was Siena. They loved the picture of St. Catherine’s head.”

In her Web log, she wrote to the children, “When St. Catherine died, she was buried in Rome. The people of Siena wanted her back in their city so they went and took her head for their church. Today, we saw her head—we’ll see her body when we get to Rome.”

Concerning her teacher’s adventure, student Cameron Tyler, 7, said, “The neatest thing was that she got to see a saint’s head at a tomb. I can’t remember who, but she was a good saint.”

Cameron said you can be a saint “if you follow what Jesus tells you.”

Classmate Alex Cox, 6, said, “What was really neat were the things they ate. We hadn’t heard of them.”

Singleton ate veal for the first time, and her husband tried wild boar.

“In my spare time, which is non-existent,” Singleton says, “I would love to write a book about saints. Kids love to hear their stories because they’re real people, and they’re living testaments to our faith.”

Singleton attended St. Anthony of Padua School and Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School, both in Clarksville. She received her bachelor of science and master of science degrees in elementary education from Indiana University Southeast and is pursuing a doctorate in curriculum at the University of Louisville. She has taught at St. Anthony of Padua School for six years.

Singleton and her husband, Tony, an insurance agent and volunteer fireman, have two sons, Andrew, 4, and Aidan, 3.

The pilgrims arrived home at night, and Singleton was back in the classroom the next morning.

She says her first-graders were “fascinated by the six-hour time difference. The children kept asking me, ‘What time do you feel like it is now?’ ”

Jet lag set in that night.

“I had never been out of the country before,” says Singleton. “Italy and Rome have always been my first choices for travel just because I’m Catholic.”†