From the Archives

I have been looking more closely at the history of the school crest, motto and badge. The Genazzano Yearbook from 1907 features a special article on the subject. That year, the school adopted the use of the first official badge and motto. The badge was: 

“a silver shield, in the form of a brooch, with the words Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter on a scroll beneath”.

The Latin words “fortiter, fideliter, feliciter”, meaning “boldly, loyally, happily” became the school motto. The article also states that:

 “…several of the Old Girls petitioned that they might be allowed to procure one [the new badge] and wear it. Gladly was the request granted and a second lot of badges was ordered within a month”.

The article also cheekily reports that wearing the badge was an earned privilege: 

“While our badge and colours (pale blue and white) are appreciated and admired by the Senior Girls, they are much envied by the Juniors, who, on account of their years, are debarred (very unjustly, as they consider) the privilege of wearing the distinctive mark of Genazzano Girls”.

In 1913, things changed slightly. The Yearbook for that year reports:

“About a year ago a change of School Badge was suggested by the Old Girls Association and the suggestion was followed, with the result produced in this number”. 

The badge design was changed to one we are more familiar with today – a simpler shield, with the Crown of Mary and the letters FCJ remaining. The motto was also changed to a simpler Fidelis. The Yearbook explains this:

“The restriction of the motto to the word Fidelis concentrates all the energy of the school on the practice of the grand virtue of Fidelity, that virtue which can be brought to bear on the most sublime and also the most trifling acts of School life, and, above all, on life after school”.