On the evening of Friday, February 11, the Sons of St. Patrick, a Catholic men’s student group at Boston College, hosted Gratia Plena (GP), a Catholic women’s student group and sister organization to the Sons, for their annual St. Valentine’s Day dinner. This dinner marked the return of the event after a one-year hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions during the Spring 2021 semester.
The Sons in organizing the dinner continued the annual tradition of inviting the women of GP to a formal dinner on or around February 14, the traditional Feast of St. Valentine, patron saint of engaged couples and young people. The aim of the dinner is to show appreciation for the women of GP’s commitment to living as virtuous Catholic women, especially in the context of a college campus environment.
In a change from its previous iteration in February 2020, which was held in the basement of St. Ignatius Church, this year’s dinner was held in the third-floor lounge of Voute Hall. Despite the location being a residence hall lounge, the space was able to be transformed into one capable of hosting a formal dinner for what happened to be just short of 50 attendees.
Tablecloths and cloth napkins were provided courtesy of the kitchen at St. Mary’s Hall, home to Boston College’s on-campus Jesuit community. Enough tables and chairs were available in the lounge once supplemented by some extra tables from St. Mary’s Hall and extra chairs from the residence of some members of Sons. Plates and silverware from previous Sons/GP dinners had been stored by members of Sons over the years for future use. Aided by the abundance of windows in the Voute 3 lounge and the post-sunset timing of the dinner, electric candles, recognizable by some as those used to illuminate the weeknight Candlelight Masses at St. Joseph Chapel, adorned the tables to provide mood lighting. A recording of a fireplace played on the lounge TV screen to provide some extra ambiance.
In keeping with tradition, as the Sons, dressed in suits and ties, completed their final preparations for the venue, the women of GP gathered in a senior member’s residence to prepare for their arrival. After the Sons completed the lounge’s transformation, they made their way to the dorm to greet the women of GP and escort them back to the venue.
Seating was arranged in groups of about six people to a table so that each table contained a mix of people in terms of both men and women as well as class year. After some opening remarks and a blessing of the food by Fr. Paul McNellis, S.J., the advisor for the Sons of St. Patrick, the attendees were treated to spaghetti, meatballs, and lasagna prepared earlier that day by members of Sons.
Dessert followed afterwards, consisting of chocolate cake provided by the kitchen of St. Mary’s Hall.
Similarly to previous editions of the Sons/GP Valentine’s Day dinner, where either a senior member of Sons or GP invited attendees to an informal gathering directly following the dinner, a gathering was held in the residence of a group of four senior members of Sons.
Adam is a senior from Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as Campus News and Culture Editor, and boasts the title of least cultured to ever serve as the latter. Holding a minor in Biology, he recently converted from STEM and now majors in Philosophy and Classical Studies. He currently leads Una Voce, the Latin Mass society at BC, and sings with the University Chorale of Boston College and the Chorale Chamber Singers. He enjoys Gregorian Chant, relearning the clarinet, and is an unabashed Ohio apologist.
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