OUR VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT
Santa Isabel College of Manila is an empowering Christ-centered Vincentian learning institution. We commit to engaging the community of learners into becoming inner-directed, globally competent Vincentian leaders who journey with persons living in poverty situations and care for God's creation.
Our Core Values
The core values of Santa Isabel College of Manila serve as the foundational spirit guiding all actions, decisions, and programs within the institution.
They are deeply rooted in the Vincentian spirit of compassion and service, ensuring a holistic education that shapes individuals of character, competence, and conscience.
RESPECT
Upholding human dignity, providing a safe learning environment through holistic development, and reverence for God's creation towards an integral ecology.
SERVICE
An expression of love, compassion, and solidarity with persons living in poverty situations through shared social responsibility , accountability, and networking.
SIMPLICITY
A lifestyle that witnesses the truth, integrity, honesty, transparency in relationships, and living with real needs.
VINCENTIAN EXCELLENCE
Having analytical, technical and social skills, innovative and creative mind, resiliency , and agility to the emerging realities.
Graduate Attributes (3Cs)
Christ-centered
- Sees Christ in persons and events.
- Makes the EUCHARIST and the WORD of GOD central in their Christian life.
- Participates in the mission of Jesus.
- Shares personal experience of the love of Jesus in one’s life.
- Practices honesty, trust, and reliability in one’s undertakings.
- Makes decisions with prayer and discernment.
Charitable
- Serves selflessly with compassion, cordiality, and gentleness.
- Provides organized service in the spirit of volunteerism, collaboration, and community engagement.
- Shares talent, time, and treasure generously without expecting any return.
- Appreciates and affirms the efforts and works of others.
- Creates harmonious relationships by being tactful, observing proper channels of communications, and responsible use of social media, etc.
- Accepts one’s and other’s giftedness and shortcomings in the spirit of humility.
- Shows mindfulness and empathizes with other’s feelings and situations.
Competent
- Manifest critical and analytical stance in dealing with social issues to uphold truth.
- Demonstrates inventiveness through Research in creating projects and programs to achieve the quality of life and nation-building.
- Accomplishes assigned tasks and responsibilities with proficiency and creativity.
- Exhibits mastery of self and refinement in words and actions with a sense of humor, wit, and joyful attitude.
- Shows decisiveness and firmness in managing conflict situations to strengthen relationships.
- Lives out the spirit of gratitude and stewardship in the management of human, material, and financial resources.
- Integrates mind, heart, hands and habits for efficiency and effectiveness by humanizing technology.
SICM LOGO
The CROSS at the center of Santa Isabel College's seal symbolizes Christ, the Center, whose charity urges the institution in its mission of educating the youth. The even arms of the cross stand for the school's freedom from bias in the choice of her students. In between the arms are inscribed four Latin terms, namely: Caritas-Charity, Humilitas-Humility, Sapientia-Knowledge, and Disiplina-Discipline. The school instills in the young, benevolent love, humility, and self-control in relation to themselves, their peers, and specially to the less-privileged. The students are given equal opportunities to acquire and interpret knowledge of truth about the realities around and most especially, the reality of God's providence to human beings, through the different programs. These four aspects of the seal are integrated in the context of the student's Christian and human development.
The colors in the SEAL are MAROON and GOLD. The cross is colored GOLD, and the letters and lines are MAROON. Gold symbolizes the Church dedicated to the cause of Christian Education. Maroon is the symbol of royalty - Santa Isabel College was founded out of the Spanish Queen's unselfish devotion to the welfare of others. She provided free education to the orphaned daughters of the Spanish soldiers and later to deserving Filipino young girls.
Our History
Santa Isabel College of Manila had its beginning as a charitable brotherhood when on April 06, 1594, “LA HERMANIDAD DE LA SANTA MISERICORDIA”, a beneficent institution dedicated to the care of hospital inmates as well as orphaned girls and destitute, was founded. It was governed by a committee called REAL CASA DE LA SANTA MISERICORDIA.
On September 1594, the committee decided to help Santa Potenciana College, founded in 1590 by Governor D. Gomez Perez Dasmariñas for the support of the orphaned daughters of his Majesty’s soldiers. From 1594 to 1632, more than 7,000 girls were reared and educated by this brotherhood.
Since most of the members of the Brotherhood were soldiers, liable to die at any moment, they planned to establish another College similar to Santa Potenciana in order to ensure the safety and education of their children.
On October 24, 1632 - what was a beautiful dream became a reality, “COLEGIO DE SANTA ISABEL”, an undying monument of Christian Charity and Spanish altruism was born. Its first President was Don Juan Fernandez de Leon.
24 OCTOBER 1632
The bith of Santa Isabel College in Intramuros, Manila. it was named in honor of Queen Isabel of Bourbon, first wife of King Philip IV. The primary purpose of the was to educate Spanish orphans but later accepter Filipino girls (1728).
25 MAY 1639
Rules and regulations governing the Colegio were drafted in a special meeting presided over by Admiral Francisco Esguerra, together with military officers, deans and other members of the eclesiatical order.
25 MARCH 1733
In a Royal Decree by King Philip V, Colegio de Santa Isabel was ordered to be called "REAL COLEGIO DE SANTA ISABEL" and received benevolent support not only form Queen Isabel I but from succeeding sovereigns as well.
22 JULY 1862
This marked the arrival of the fiften Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul to the Philippines. This was after Queen Isabel II gave a Royal Decree ordering the Daughters of Charity to be sent from Spain to the Philippines.
18 SEPTEMBER 1864
The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul sisters then took over the administration of the Real Colegio de Santa Isabel. Under their administration, the sisters ushered the fusion of Colegio de Santa Potenciana with Real Colegio de
Our Patrons
STO. CRISTO DEL TESORO
Feast Day: September 14
How it came to its present shrine involves a loving story beginning as far back as 1631. This year marked the arrival of the image in the Philippines from Acapulco for the Real Casa de La Misericordia. It was a gift of Don Juan Lopez, a captain who gave up the career of the sword, for that of charity. He was then bookkeeper of the above mentioned charitable institution. The crucifix was placed in a shrine near the treasury of the Real Casa de La Misericordia as a guardian keeping a vigilant eye on the treasures of his beloved children. In fact, the crucified Christ proved that the treasury remained inexhaustible inspite of the many poor whose cries for alms and mercy were unfailingly answered. Day in and out, the number of grateful devotees to the image increased. The Walled City of Manila counted the Santo Cristo del Tesoro among the images of popular devotion.
What began as the poor's material treasure became an infinite treasury of divine grace, open to all who seek the Lord's mercy in their needs. Even in the mission fields of China and Japan, the missionaries have attributed the conversion of the pagans to Santo Cristo del Tesoro. In times of drought, the Archbishop of Manila with his parishioners joined in a solemn procession in honor of this image, imploring for rain, and the events that followed did not fall short of the trust he and the people of Manila had placed in the Black Christ.
During the Japanese occupation, devotion to Santo Cristo del Tesoro found its way into the dreaded Fort Santiago and other places of torture. Freed or liberated prisoners form the fort went to the chapel of Santa Isabel College in Intramuros to bend their faltering knees before His image in fervent and humble thanksgiving.
In 1625, he founded the Congregation of the Mission, also called Vincentians or Lazarists, to preach and educate priests. In 1633, he founded the "little company" of the Daughters of Charity which numbered around 54,000 all over the world. More than 600 are in the Philippines today.
ST. VINCENT DE PAUL
Feast Day: September 27
It was in the 16th century when France was terribly ravaged by political and religious wars when Vincent de Paul, who later became an ardent Apostle of Charity, was born. That was on April 24, 1581, in a remote village of Pouy, Landes at the southernmost part of France near the border of Spain. At an early age, he exhibited the qualities of kindness, generosity and great compassion for the poor. He was not only a bright but also a pious boy. He was only fifteen when he went to college, sixteen when he received the tonsure and at 20, he was ordained priest. That was on September 23, 1600. He offered his first mass in a small chapel in Buzet where he often prayed as a child. At 40, he was a wholly man of God; ready to give himself to the point of heroism in relieving the spiritual and material needs of the poor he saw everywhere. "I belong," he said "to God and to the poor".
Vincent suffered countless tribulations; he was sold in a slave market and accused as thief. The piety he practiced was simple, nourished on the words and example of Christ, and oriented towards action. He had excelled in practical judgment, but his gift, inspiring and working with others was, in a special way, the fruit of humility. He once said, "I have tried over and over again to find out the best means of living in union with God and in Charity with my neighbors, and I have never found anything that helped as much as humility- the lowering of oneself below everyone else, with the sense that is really worse than others, and the refusal to judge anyone". He made it a practice that, whenever two ways of saying something came to his mind, he chose the less brilliant.
In one of the many dialogue-conferences preserved in priceless notes by the Sisters, he said, "God has given me such a high esteem for simplicity that I call it my Gospel". He was always himself, whether with galley slaves or in the Council of Conscience, the selecting bishops for France. He was a great influence in the spiritual formation of St. Louise de Marillac who received from St. Francis de Sales the care of the Visitation nuns in Paris.
In 1625, he founded the Congregation of the Mission, also called Vincentians or Lazarists, to preach and educate priests. In 1633, he founded the "little company" of the Daughters of Charity which numbered around 54,000 all over the world. More than 600 are in the Philippines today.
ST. LOUISE DE MARILLAC
Feast Day: May 09
St. Louise de Marillac, co-founder of St. Vincent de Paul of the Daughters of Charity, is declared Patroness of those who do social work. She was born on August 12, 1591. She married a relatively rich man who left her a widow with a young son while she was very young.
She became increasingly immersed under the influence of St. Vincent who discovered, along with her scruples and complexes, great generosity and burning desire to love God and be of help to others. He put her in-charge of the young women he was organizing to care for the poor sick in their homes. Under him, she trained the first recruits in the Parish home and drew up the original rules for the Company of the Daughters of Charity. She reinforced St. Vincent's desire to keep the Sisters out of the standard requirement of enclosure. She strongly supported St. Vincent's exhortation to the sisters: "Your convent will be the house of the sick; your cloister, the streets of the city and wards of the hospital; your enclosure, obedience, your grille, the fear of God; your veil, holy modesty".
St. Louise died on March 15, 1660. On her deathbed, St. Louise pleaded with her sisters, "Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them my children, as you would honor Christ himself".
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
Feast Day: november 17
Elizabeth was the daughter of the King of Hungary. She married Louis IV, Duke of Thuringia, at the age of 14. She was a mother with three children.
Her life is an example of devotion to her husband and to the poor. She set up three hospitals, and spent the best years of her life in piety and services to the poor and the sick. She became a widow at the age of 24 and thereupon entered the Third Order of Saint Francis where she practiced heroic works of charity. She spent the remaining years of her life administering to the poor, the destitute and the sick.
Amidst great deprivations and even rejection by her own household, she continued her works of charity, mercy, and kindness. She died on November 17, 1231 and was canonized four years after her death.
There are two well-known miracles during the lifetime of St. Elizabeth. One is the Miracle of Roses. Elizabeth was coming from the royal kitchen with bread for the poor which she bid under her apron when she met Louis who asked her what she was hiding. She said, "Roses my Lord". When Louis gestured to see, she let go her apron and down fell, fresh red roses. And there are no roses on winter.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary is the patroness of Santa Isabel College and our school is named after her.
ST. CATHERINE LABOURE
Feast Day: May 09
On July 27, 1947, His Holiness Pius XII among the number of Saints, St. Catherine Laboure whom she was pleased to name: THE SAINT OF SILENCE.
On the third apparition on November 27, Sister Catherine was commissioned to have a medal struck after the models shown to her. "Those who wear it will receive great graces; abundant graces will be given to those who have confidence" our Lady told her. This is the Miraculous Medal.
Then it was 1876. the moment to speak has come; the Blessed Virgin released her from her silence and before her last breath on December 31, 1876, Sister Catherine confided the story to the Superior of the house of Reifully, Sister Dufes.
Fifty-six years after her burial, her body was exhumed for beatification proceedings authorized by Cardinal Verdier. Witnesses, including two doctors and the Superior General, found her body supple, just as it was when buried, and her eye pupils were blue. Her body now rests in a glass reliquary in the Chapel of the Motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity on Rue de Bac, at the altar of the Blessed Mother where Mary appeared to her over a century earlier.
