St Stephen's Medal

Beginning in 2021 and awarded each year in Catholic Education Week, the St Stephen’s Medal is presented to a staff member or community member who has contributed long-standing service and commitment to the College. The recipient exemplifies what it means to follow Christ in the footsteps of our patron and has demonstrated the College values of faith, service and courage. At this year’s Catholic Education Week assembly the St Stephen’s Medal was awarded to Fr Robert Greenup OSA.

During the presentation, Fr Rob’s significant contributions to St Stephen’s were acknowledged. He was a foundational figure in the establishment of the College, attended several adventurous school camps, and presided over numerous masses and liturgies.

Reflecting on the challenges faced during the College’s planning stages, Fr Rob drew a parallel with his own experiences walking through remote areas of England and Ireland. While on these journeys, he read an account by a Scottish man who described his treks through the wilds of Scotland. Fr Rob found the man’s reflections particularly resonant.

“He said that during those walks, if he came across a stream or a creek that looked like being difficult to cross, the first thing he did was to throw his backpack over to the other bank. Then he was committed. He had to find a way across. Now, somehow that way of proceeding sounds a bit similar to the eight years of planning and hard work that preceded the opening of the College. A truly dedicated and committed group of local men and women, with the support of the Diocesan Catholic Education Office, were convinced that Mareeba deserved and needed a Catholic high school. They, as it were, had thrown their backpack over the obstacles to where they wanted to be. It only then remained for them to find a way through the difficult terrain that lay ahead.”

“I think that the foundation story of the College stands as something of an example for all of us.  It is a story about the importance of perseverance. Perseverance in attaining our goals and not being deterred or discouraged by the difficulties we may encounter along the way.  A challenge, as it were, for us to set goals for ourselves, to be people who live good and caring lives, lives of love and generosity and discipline and justice and peace. To be prepared, that is, to throw our backpack over whatever obstacles may stand in the way or divert us from being the people we were made to be, the people that God would have us be, and to push on holding fast to the beliefs we hold.

Indeed, to live in the very spirit of St Stephen himself.”