Seminarians medal at Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon
21 seminarians from Mount St. Mary's Seminary ran in the 28th Flying Pig Marathon on May 5 They competed among roughly 45,000 other runners Emerson Wells finished second overall with a personal best time of 2:23:52 His time would have won first place in nine of the last ten years of the race The seminarians ran as a team called Verso l’Alto
5 months ago
Seminarians from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati took part in the 28th Flying Pig Marathon on May 5, 2026, competing alongside roughly 45 000 runners and earning top honors in both the individual race and a four‑person relay 1 2.
Twenty‑one seminarians ran the full marathon, representing the Archdiocese of Louisville, the Diocese of Columbus and the local archdiocese 1 2.
The marathon attracted about 45 000 participants, making the seminarians’ performance notable within a large field 1 2.
Emerson Wells, a seminarian studying for Louisville, finished second overall with a personal‑best time of 2:23:52, averaging 5 minutes 30 seconds per mile 1 2.
His time would have secured first place in nine of the past ten editions of the race 1 2.
The seminarians formed the Verso l’Alto Track Club, a Catholic running group named after St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, canonized by Pope Leo XIV in 2025 1 2.
The four‑person relay team—Chatham Anderson, Nick Merk, Kevin Bonfield and David Adamitis—won first place with a time of 2:30:39, nearly 20 minutes ahead of the runner‑up 1 2.
Wells dedicated his race to a group of Sisters of the Children of Mary who were preparing perpetual vows, invoking Our Lady’s intercession during the run 1 2.
He wore a brown scapular throughout the marathon as a sign of Marian devotion 1 2.
Team members emphasized that physical excellence is meant to foster spiritual growth and glorify God 1 2.
Both Wells and Adamitis intend to continue competing in distance events.
The Verso l’Alto Track Club will host a summer cross‑country challenge for Catholic high‑school students and adults on August 7, 2026, aiming to build a lasting community of faith‑centered athletes 1 2.
How does Catholic holistic formation integrate physical endurance?
Catholic holistic formation integrates physical endurance not as a merely athletic goal, but as a means of forming the whole person—body, soul, and spirit—so that the person grows in virtue, moral responsibility, and spiritual maturity, ultimately ordered toward communion with God.
Catholic formation treats the human person as one unity rather than a “body over here, spirit over there.” John Paul II explicitly frames man in terms of the union of body and soul: neither is sufficient alone, because what is human is born from their union.
This “holistic” approach also means that education and formation aim at the flourishing of the human person in view of an ultimate good. Archbishop Cordileone describes Catholic education as oriented toward the integral development of the person, ultimately ordered to beatitude (happiness with God).
So physical endurance belongs within Catholic formation because the Church sees physical life and growth as capable of being assumed, purified, and directed toward that ultimate end—not discarded or treated as irrelevant.
The Church’s Magisterium presents sport and athletic discipline as capable of shaping inner moral qualities. John Paul II teaches that when athletic activity is done according to “correct criteria,” it aims at developing not only bodily capacities (strength, skill, resistance, balance) but also interior energies, becoming a “school of loyalty, courage, endurance, resoluteness, and brotherhood.”
This links endurance to fortitude, one of the key virtues often mentioned in Catholic formation frameworks. In a formation resource for lay ministry, the virtues of discipleship are listed, including the cardinal virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance—along with courage and energy.
In Catholic terms, endurance is not simply the ability to “push through pain.” It is the formation of the will under difficulty toward a good pursued faithfully. That’s why endurance can become a moral and spiritual habit: it trains the person to stay committed when comfort or enthusiasm fades.
Catholic holistic formation insists that sport and exercise must remain subordinate to the dignity of the human person. The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life states clearly that “The human person… is more important than sport. The person does not exist to serve sport, but rather sport should serve the human person in his or her integral development.”
From this perspective, endurance is integrated correctly when it:
Benedict XVI similarly frames sports initiatives as contributing to human and spiritual growth for youth when they aim at integral development and are managed by qualified and competent personnel.
The Church explicitly connects education and formation to caring for “physical, moral and intellectual talents.” In a message to bishops, John Paul II cites the Council’s educational aim and notes that Catholic education requires care for the physical (as well as moral and intellectual) talents of children and young people so they can attain responsibility and the right use of freedom.
So, physical endurance is integrated as part of forming:
The Magisterium repeatedly emphasizes that physical activity should be placed within a formed community and a pastoral framework, not left to chance or commercial motives.
The Dicastery document argues that the Church should integrate sports through concrete ecclesial initiatives—suggesting the visible establishment of a sports apostolate in dioceses and parishes, so it becomes a manifestation of the Church’s commitment to the human person and enables formation in Christian values.
It also states that sport can be lived as a model “when it respects the dignity of the person” and is “free from economic, media or political exploitation.”
Benedict XVI insists that sports programs for youth should be managed by competent personnel and should avoid trends that pervert sport—especially practices that damage the body, explicitly mentioning doping.
That matters for holistic formation: endurance must be formed through truthful and health-respecting means, so that the “school of virtues” does not become a school of harm, deception, or disregard for the person.
Physical endurance becomes properly Catholic within a formation process where faith is not merely “added on,” but interiorized and connected to daily life.
John Paul II teaches that when Christians realize an “unbreakable bond between their faith and daily life,” they become instruments of the Holy Spirit transforming the world “from within.” He adds that formation aims at engaging “all their energies,” and that interiorized faith—through communion with God in liturgy and personal prayer—shows itself as personal responsibility.
So endurance is integrated when bodily discipline is accompanied by:
Because Catholic formation is truly holistic, it also rejects distortions.
Putting these teachings together, Catholic holistic formation would integrate physical endurance through an approach like this:
In short, Catholic holistic formation integrates physical endurance by treating it as a legitimate, safeguarded, and virtue-forming discipline that helps the person become more steadfast in moral courage and more open to God—so that the body’s training contributes to the soul’s growth.