Sant’Egidio at Boston College

Katie Mahowski Mylroie

Ssant’egidio’s boston community was started by a small group of undergraduates at Boston College in 1999. The group was soon invited to Rome to celebrate Easter with the Community of Sant’Egidio—and the Jesuit Community of Boston College generously donated funds toward the trip. This allowed us to experience firsthand how the community lives out its life of service, friendship, and prayer—and catalyzed the formation of a community that has now continued in Boston for more than 20 years. For much of that time, we held prayer every week in St. Mary’s Chapel as guests of the Jesuit Community. Over the years, BC has hosted many speakers in collaboration with Sant’Egidio—from the president of Sant’Egidio, Marco Impagliazzo, to Archbishop Jaime Gonçalves of Mozambique (a central player in the peace accord Sant’Egidio brokered in Mozambique), to activists against the death penalty. When we began our service to the poor here in Boston, professors at BC helped suggest where to begin— and so we started visiting elderly residents at a subsidized housing complex in Brighton. Friendships grew there over the years, and helped many residents remain in their homes longer than they might have otherwise. When some residents entered nursing homes, we followed them and began a practice of visiting that continues to this day in multiple nursing homes all over the city. Another service that began early in the life of the community in Rome was a School of Peace—an afterschool tutoring and mentoring program that has supported disadvantaged youth and their families. Members of our Sant’Egidio community in Boston have started an English tutoring program for immigrants called “English with Friends.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, our community in Boston has been particularly concerned with the plight of our friends in nursing homes. Building upon our longstanding practice of creating pen pal friendships with inmates on death row, we decided to begin a program called “Notes to Our Elders: Bridging Generations” and ask people all over the country to help break the isolation of those in nursing homes by writing letters.

Over the years, many members of our community have also studied at BC. Some have written dissertations about the peace work of the Community of Sant’Egidio (Laurie Johnston) and the community’s work with the elderly (Sarah Moses). ■

Katie Mahowski Mylroie is a doctoral student of comparative theology at Boston College. She and her family are members of Boston’s Community of Sant’Egidio.

Gathering in February 2022 to celebrate the 54th anniversary of Sant'Egidio‘s founding.