History
The Congregation was founded ‘to witness
in the Church and in the world that God continues
to be faithful in love for the Jewish people and
to hasten the fulfilment of the promises concerning
the Jews and the Gentiles’.
 Theodore
Ratisbonne was born in Strasbourg in 1802 into a Jewish
family that was in the process of being assimilated.
He grew up in an atmosphere of learning and affection,
but where religion did not play a significant part.
‘Religion was repugnant to me, my own and all
other religions.’ Then one day a prayer arose
out of his confusion: ‘Oh God, if you really
exist, let me know the truth, and I swear to consecrate
my life to it’.
The teaching of Louis Bautain, a young philosophy
professor who drew on the Scriptures in his studies,
gradually set Theodore on the path of discovery
of the Bible and he was baptised at the age of twenty
four. Throughout his life as a Christian, and later
as a priest, the Word of God inspired him and he
was called to apostolic life, a call that was fulfilled
only fifteen years later.
On 20 January 1842, his younger brother Alphonse
also decided to become a Christian after Mary appeared
to him in a vision in Rome. In the light of the
Word of God, Theodore was able to interpret this
sign from Mary and, encouraged by his brother, founded
the congregation of Our Lady of Sion in 1843. In
1852, he gathered together the first small group
of what was to become the men’s Congregation
of the Religious Order of Our Lady of Sion.
Our school in Worthing was founded in 1862 and is
one of several Sion schools situated around the world.
Its aim is to foster bridge-building and tolerance
and it welcomes pupils from all faiths and ethnic
backgrounds. In the years following its establishment
the Sisters of Sion played a key role in its development
and then, in 1984, the first lay Head was appointed,
Mr. Brian Sexton. He introduced co-education, a major
innovation which made Sion one of the very few schools
in the UK offering a complete education, for both
sexes, between the ages of 2½ and 18.
In September 2000 Michael Scullion took over as
Headmaster and he continues to lead the school
forward into the challenging 21st century.
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