Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary School, Morristown, NJ
The Vincentian Award Recipient

In 1847 Rev. Bernard J. McQuaid, the founding pastor, erected a small, simple church for the approximately 120 Catholics who lived in Morristown. The parish was given the title of Our Lady of the Assumption, and the first Mass was celebrated on Christmas Day 1848. Father McQuaid opened the School of Our Lady of the Assumption in the church basement in 1850. In 1875 two Sisters of Charity came to the school, replacing a single lay teacher. In 1881 Sister Gaudentia Iago was appointed the first principal of the school and she was aided in the classrooms by Sister Luisita, Sister Eugenia, and Sister Cecilia Rose. At first the Sisters of Charity commuted daily from their motherhouse in Madison, but in 1882 the Sisters were given living quarters in a house at the corner of Maple Avenue and Perry Street.

During his pastorate (1881-1910) Monsignor Joseph Flynn renamed the parochial school the "Bayley School" in honor of Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, the step-nephew of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton and the first bishop of the Diocese of Newark. In 1957 a new grammar school had been constructed, and its dedication on the fourth of February echoed its original name, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary School.

With the administrative ministry of Sister Merris Larkin today, the Sisters of Charity have educated the youngsters of the parish for more than 150 years.