The goal of Catholic schools to prepare students for service and success in the world, and ultimately to get to heaven, was on full display this past fall as fourth graders from St. Martin of Tours School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, dressed as saints in colorful costumes for a Mass at the parish church honoring their patron saint on his feast day.
Some of the boys at the Nov. 11 Mass portrayed bishops and a pope and wore homemade vestments and miters and clutched crosiers, and some of the girls wore makeshift veils and habits of sainted women religious from different historical eras.
Before the liturgy began, students portraying St. Maria Goretti, St. Helena, St. Rose of Lima and St. Vincent de Paul handed out Mass programs. Students in saintly regalia also served as ushers, before all 20 fourth graders marched to the front pews in a procession of saints as the Mass began.
The offertory procession included students dressed as the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Fabian, St. Teresa of Calcutta and St. Clare of Assisi, with the first two students placing items that students had collected for foster children in Montgomery County before a statue of St. Martin of Tours.
A boy dressed as St. Patrick read the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, which included the phrase, “The souls of the just are in the hands of God.” The students also read prayer petitions at the Mass, including a boy dressed as St. Juan Diego wearing a tilma with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it.
In an interview beforehand, their fourth grade teacher Kendall Reed noted her students had researched and prepared reports on the saints they were depicting.
“I hope they learn how to be saints, to take the values of saints they’re learning about and implement them in their lives,” she said.
During this 2025-2026 school year, St. Martin of Tours School is celebrating a special milestone, the 100th anniversary of its founding. St. Martin’s is the oldest Catholic school in Montgomery County. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur welcomed the first students there in 1925 and staffed the school until 1970. In 1988, a new school building was dedicated.
Reed, in her second year of teaching there, said “the values-driven education is so special” at that Catholic school, and she appreciates the opportunity to instill a love of learning in her students and help them build character and self-discipline. She added that the school community “really comes together and supports each other in good and bad times.”
In his homily at the Mass, Father James Fangmeyer – a parochial vicar at St. Martin of Tours Parish – encouraged the school’s students to emulate their patron saint. According to legend, St. Martin of Tours was a soldier in the Roman army in the fourth century, who after encountering a beggar on the side of the road, cut his cloak in half to clothe the man, who later in a vision was revealed to have been Jesus.
Father Fangmeyer, the main celebrant of the school Mass, encouraged the students to follow the example of the saints like St. Martin, and use their hands and talents to serve God and others.
In an interview after the Mass, Stephen Lamont – who has served as the principal of St. Martin of Tours School since 2018 – praised the school community, noting how generations of families have sent their children there. About 85 percent of St. Martin’s 200 students in prekindergarten through the eighth grade are Catholic. He pointed out how parents volunteer to help at arrival time there, at recess and at bingos on Friday nights that raise a significant amount of tuition assistance for students.
“They (our students) are amazing,” he said, noting how older children volunteer to help stock food at the St. Martin’s Food Pantry, and the approximately 200 students in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade there participate in school-wide food drives for the pantry.
The families represent the diverse Gaithersburg area, with about 50 percent of students having roots in Central and South America, and other students’ families having roots in Africa, Asia and Europe. He noted how parents work for the government, serve in the military and are employed in the community.
Lamont said the students graduating from St. Martin of Tours School are prepared to continue their education at any high school in the area. “They are confident in who they are, (in) their faith and their ability to be successful academically,” he said.
And he added that St. Martin’s students are taught to “understand they are a child of God and have been blessed with the opportunity to have a great education, and to witness what service to others is, (and) how to share Christ’s love with other people.”
That point was echoed by Father David Wells, St. Martin’s pastor. He said students learn to emulate their patron saint’s example of “the service of God and the service of (our) neighbor,” and that “to serve God is the ultimate vocation of our life.”
Father Wells, who has led the parish for the past seven years, also noted the diversity of St. Martin of Tours School and Parish and the families there. St. Martin’s families value Catholic education and make a sacrifice to send their children there, to make sure their “kids are educated and evangelized” in the faith, he said.
“The community has changed over the past 100 years,” Father Wells said, noting the growth of the area and its changing demographics. “It’s still a family-centered parish, and always has been.”
The priest, who smiled and chatted with the fourth graders before the Mass, asking them about the saints they were dressed up as, said, “The kids bring a spark of joy to our parish life and our priesthood.”
St. Martin’s students in interviews spoke about their patron saint, and what makes their school special.
Eighth grader Kyle Bejo, noting how St. Martin’s students volunteer at the pantry and participate in the food drives, said, “He (St. Martin) showed service and love for others, and that’s exactly what we do in our school, too.”
St. Martin’s fifth grader Everett Melia said, “I love how we go to church every week, and I get to altar serve... I like to be able to serve God.”
Camilla Montalvo, also a St. Martin’s eighth grader, said students there are taught “to think outside the box” and “think a lot deeper about our connection with God.” She noted how students celebrate their families’ native countries during the year, sharing traditional food with their fellow students who learn about the history and culture of those lands. “We gain knowledge (and) have fun with each other,” she said.
Kyle Bejo, who began attending St. Martin of Tours School in prekindergarten, said, “I love the community that we have, the friends that I’ve made all the way from pre-K and up. Some were in pre-K, and some are new. They’re classmates and friends, all part of my St. Martin’s School family.”
The website of St. Martin of Tours School highlights its 100th anniversary and notes, “The legacy of St. Martin’s lives on in every student, every classroom, and every act of love and learning.”
