Scouts grades 1-12 have the opportunity to earn a new patch that celebrates an unseen but heroic group of Catholics from the Civil War era: religious sisters who tended to the wounded and improved health care through nursing.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services’ Catholic Committee on Scouting announced the new patch on Feb. 5, just ahead of “Scout Sunday,” observed Feb. 8, according to an emailed AMS press release.
The patch, which is designed in a stained-glass style, depicts the AMS coat of arms and a religious sister bandaging a wounded person’s head. The patch’s image of the religious sister and patient is a replica of the image featured in a stained-glass window at the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland. According to the AMS Scouting webpage, the patch recognizes the Catholic sisters’ “courageous healing ministry as they served both Union and Confederate armies, and anyone else who was injured.”
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of AMS, who approved the implementation of the patch, praised how the new patch reflects the Christian call to treat every person with charity.
“I can only rejoice at this additional patch that will contribute to a wider understanding of the contributions of religious women to the military efforts, especially as ministers of healing to the wounded on both sides,” he said in the release. “Christian charity does not look to the tribe, ethnic grouping, or party affiliation. It responds to the Face of Christ of a person in need. Young people also need the guidance of happy, healthy, and holy adult role models willing to share their faith in both word and action.”
To earn the patch, scouts in grades 1-5 must research questions such as why there was a wide need for Catholic sisters’ hospital ministry during the Civil War and how the religious women improved the practice of health care during this time, according to the release. Older scouts are required to research a religious order that ministers to the sick and injured in current times, speak with a Catholic military veteran who served overseas to learn about his or her encounters with military nurses, and learn about the story of a person who embraced a religious vocation.
More information about the new patch is available here.