Sts. Peter & Paul Parish & School  ·  Founded 1944

About Our School

A Classical Catholic Education in the Norbertine Tradition

Our Identity

Rooted in Faith, Ordered to God

The education we provide at Saints Peter and Paul School is rooted in the liturgical life of the Church and the traditional teaching of the theological, cardinal, and intellectual virtues. It is from this rich soil of spiritual and moral formation that the intellectual life grows and blossoms.

We are a school formed in the nine-hundred-year Premonstratensian tradition of prayer and scholarship — a tradition that has always held together the contemplative and the apostolic, the altar and the classroom, the love of God and the love of learning. Every student who passes through our doors is invited into that same integration: to know God, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

Our Motto

Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux

Our school motto — May the Holy Cross Be My Light — reminds us that we are seeking to fashion our lives after the pattern set for us by Jesus Christ, who is like the Father in all things. Imitation is at the heart of education: it is by imitating sounds that we learn language, and it is by imitating deeds that we learn goodness.

At Saints Peter and Paul School we seek to imitate Christ above all else. It is by the light of His holy Cross that we learn to imitate Him and thereby attain true happiness.

Our Curriculum

The Classical Liberal Arts

We embrace the classical liberal arts as the Church’s time-tested path to the formation of the whole person. Classical Catholic education orders all learning toward its highest end: the pursuit of wisdom, the cultivation of virtue, and the knowledge of God. We understand theology not as one subject among many, but as the integrating principle of all learning — illuminating every discipline -math, natural science, history, geography, literature, grammar, composition, logic, music, art, Latin, theology, philosophy - in the light of faith.

Through these disciplines our students learn to think clearly, read carefully, speak eloquently, and wonder deeply at the order and beauty of God’s creation.

Our Formation

Growing in Virtue

By cultivating the theological, cardinal, and intellectual virtues, we form young men and women who are not merely knowledgeable but wise — not merely skilled but good — and ordered to God in all things.

Our Prayer Life

Opus Dei: The Work of God

The school day at Sts. Peter and Paul is structured around the Eucharist, the liturgy, and devotional prayer — and everything else finds its place within that sacred order.

When students gather for Mass each morning, they receive the grace that animates the entire day. The Liturgy of the Hours, the Angelus, the Rosary, and Eucharistic Adoration are not additions to the curriculum. They are the sanctification of time itself — each hour offered back to God, each transition marked by prayer.

Sacred music holds a particular place in this formation. In Gregorian chant and the great tradition of sacred polyphony, beauty of sound, the order of creation, and the glory of the Word who made the cosmos are held together in a single act of praise. Music at Saints Peter and Paul is the student’s voice joining the voice of the Church — learning to sing what the heart is slowly coming to believe.

Rector’s Message

Dear Friends in Christ,

Bendito y alabado sea el Dulcísimo Corazón de Jesús!

Welcome to Saints Peter and Paul School’s website. My name is Father Lazarus McDonald and, as the Rector here, it is my privilege to work diligently with our Principal, faculty and staff to make sure that our students are offered a Catholic education in a safe and structured environment. All of us Norbertine priests and sisters who serve here at Saints Peter and Paul understand our mission to ensure that this environment be a strong community of learning founded on the Love of God and love of neighbor. Every student learns how to live centered on Jesus Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament and attentive to their brothers and sisters in the Faith.

Here, we all understand that forming leaders is an integral aspect to offering an excellent education. We challenge our students to set high academic, professional, personal and moral goals. We want to make sure that our students will have every tool necessary for lives full of continual growth and success. Our goal is to shape the children who attend into faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and instruments of his transforming power in the lives of their families, friends and neighbors.

Thanks to God’s ever-present help and the support of many friends and benefactors, especially our teachers, our school has contributed much to the Wilmington community for over 75 years. We look forward to even greater blessings today and in the future. If you need to contact me, please call the school office at 310-834-5574 or email me at frlazarus@sppschool.org.

May the Heart of Jesus be loved!

Rev. Lazarus McDonald,  O.Praem.

Rector