On Friday, December 1, 2006, the College of Saint Elizabeth (CSE), 2 Convent Road, Morristown, NJ, held its 50th annual Christmas Concert and Evening Prayer in Celebration of Founders Day on the College campus. (l - r) CSE alumna of 1950 and 2000 Mother Xavier Award recipient Viola Higgins Masterson, proudly stands beside both Sister Francis Raftery, president of CSE, and her daughter, CSE alumna of 1982 Joanne M. Spahn, MS, RD, FADA, as Joanne was honored with this year’s Mother Xavier Award.  (Photo by Donna Lindemeyer)

Mrs. Spahn and her mother have made CSE history, as they became the College’s first mother/daughter pair to receive the Mother Xavier Award since its inception more than 50 years ago. The Mother Xavier Award is the most prestigious award given to a graduate of CSE. The awardees are selected for living out the vision, courage and faith of the foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan (1825 - 1915), who also founded the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth in 1859.

In addition to the presentation of the 2006 Mother Xavier Award, the evening’s celebration also included an evening prayer, Christmas Concert in Holy Family Chapel by CSE Elizabeth Singers (co-directed by CSE Campus Minister Carol Jaworski and Roger Pisani), and a reception afterwards in Saint Joseph Hall McGuire Lounge.