New Emmitsburg school chapel honors son who overcame cancer

In the shadow of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, a new chapel at Mother Seton Catholic School in Emmitsburg tells a story of faith, resilience and a mother’s enduring love.

St. Joseph’s Chapel, dedicated Dec. 3 by Archbishop William E. Lori, stands as a living memorial to Christopher Demmon, a 1988 graduate who defied the odds by surviving cancer in elementary school, only to die in an automobile accident in 1991 while attending what is now St. John’s Catholic Prep in Frederick.

The chapel’s existence traces back to a 2023 phone call that transformed a school’s wish into reality. When Donna Demmon read in a Mother Seton newsletter that the school hoped to build a chapel, she knew immediately what she needed to do.

“We actually put that dream out there to the community about four years ago or so. We had a little wish list and one of them was to have a chapel in our school,” said Kathleen Kilty, Mother Seton’s principal. “Donna happened to read one of our newsletters. She saw that and prayed about it, thought about it, and just called us one day and said that she would like to construct this chapel for her and her husband T.J.’s son’s memory, Christopher’s memory. It just kind of grew from there.”

Christopher’s battle with cancer as a third grader left an indelible mark on the school community. Daughter of Charity Sister Patricia Anne Bossle, who served as principal from 1979 to 1983, remembered the devastation when Christopher was diagnosed.

“He was such a wonderful young man,” she said. “We couldn’t imagine it. Everybody prayed and prayed, and it was such a miracle on the day he came back to school. It was like Christmas.”

His triumph over illness made his death in 1991 all the more shocking. Julianne LaCroce, who regularly drove Christopher to his high school classes, recalled the community’s grief.

“It was really hard, because everybody knew Chris,” she said. “They had the funeral at the Basilica (of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton), and all the kids came. They were that much in awe of him.”

Following Donna’s call, months of planning meetings determined the chapel’s location, features and construction details. The timber ceiling was crafted by a company owned by Christopher’s uncle, adding another family connection to the project. Individual donors contributed funds for the tabernacle and other sacred items.

“Conversations kept going, and we came up with what’s there now. It’s just perfect,” said Donna, a parishioner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Thurmont. “It was destined that he was going to go to Mother Seton. His experience was very good. The love that’s in that school is tremendous.”

Archbishop Lori celebrated Mass in the school gymnasium on Dec. 3 to accommodate the overflow crowd before blessing the intimate chapel space. Designed to seat a large class rather than the entire school, the chapel serves as a place for quiet reflection, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Stations of the Cross and individual class Masses.

The personal scale creates what Kilty called “a little more intimate feel to it.”

“It is a sacred space and Jesus in the Eucharist, in the Blessed Sacrament, is in the chapel and we’re really physically and spiritually close,” she said. “It’s just kind of a warm comfortable feeling in there.”

For current students such as sixth-grader Maximilian Field, the chapel offers something rare in modern school life: a sanctuary for stillness.

“I think it’s beautiful to have a chapel, somewhere you can just pray, have a peaceful time, just be with Jesus,” Field said. “I know I might sometimes not even go to recess. I might just go to the chapel and pray.”

The boy loves the green lanterns adorning the chapel’s roof and the bell placed inside.

For Kilty, Christopher has become a tangible presence at the school, even decades after his death.

“I feel like I know Christopher now, having heard people talk so much about him and tell so many stories about him, that he walked these halls in this school,” she said. “Now this chapel is here, really because of him.”

Donna Demmon plans to make the chapel a regular part of her life, attending as many Masses as possible in the space created in her son’s memory.

“I look at what has been created, and I can’t believe this thing has been created in Christopher’s name,” she said. “I want to go to every Mass that I can attend. And I can sit back there and feel this, feel Chris. And I will.”

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