Our St Matthew’s story is made up of many people, rituals, traditions, and celebrations. As a contemporary Catholic school, we seek to follow the example of Jesus Christ and to create a community of belonging where dialogue about faith is embraced and valued. As we live our Catholic Identity, these people inspire us to be people of “Faith, Knowledge and Love".
Our school’s journey has been particularly influenced by St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and the charism of the Josephite Sisters. As a school established by the Sisters of St Joseph, their mission of “immersing themselves in the midst of life to empower others and bring hope” resonates with what our school community hopes to be today.
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop was a courageous woman of action. Born in Australia 1842, she showed compassion and love for everyone in need regardless of race, colour or faith. Mary believed in the power of education for all and set up schools across Australia and New Zealand to make sure those disadvantaged by poverty and distance received a Catholic education. Mary MacKillop (with Fr Tenison Woods) started the religious order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites) she is the first Australian to be recognized as one of its saints.
© Brisbane Catholic Education, St Matthew's Catholic Primary School (2022).
Our school is named after St Matthew. In the Catholic tradition, St Matthew is known for being one of the twelve apostles of Jesus - a tax collector who changed his ways and followed Jesus.
St Matthew is also known historically as being the author of one of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament of the Bible. The founders of our school wanted this to the vision of St Matthew our school was to connect to – St Matthew the Evangelist, due to the evangelising mission of Catholic schools.
“Catholic schools are both educating and evangelising communities. They are evangelising communities to the extent that they give an authentic voice to the religious dimension of life through the lens of a community of faith.”
As we come to learn more from biblical scholars over time, we now know that the Gospel of Matthew was actually co-created by a community of writers and story tellers, faithful followers of Christ with a desire to share the Good News. How fitting then for us, in the 21st century, that we live this vision of co-creating our community of faith together with a mission to evangelise to all. Together, we write the story of our school here at St Matthew’s and we invite you to join us.
We warmly welcome students from all cultural and faith backgrounds, valuing the learning and perspective we will all gain through dialogue about beliefs and different ways of being community.
All in our school community are invited to actively live our Catholic Identity. Parents and carers lead a “Love in Action’ group and there is a student Catholic Identity Crew and Prayer Team.