Author archive

Annie Stevens CoL

Annie has lived Loretto life, both as a vowed and a co-member, since 2001. She loves teaching at Webster University, serving on the board of Nerinx Hall High School, and researching Loretto history. In her free time, she likes to travel and frequently visits the Missouri Botanical Garden. She enjoys sharing her flower photos on Facebook.

Home » Archives for Annie Stevens CoL

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Barbara Ann (formerly Sister Mary Bernard) Barbato SL

By Annie Stevens CoL / August 7, 2024 /

Sister Barbara Ann (formerly Sister Mary Bernard) Barbato SL died peacefully Aug. 7, 2024, at her home in St. Louis, with her dear housemate Annie Stevens CoL by her side. Barbara Ann had…

Charles Nerinckx and Loretto Transcending boundaries

By Annie Stevens CoL / May 1, 2024 /

An archival black and white image of a man, Charles Nerinckx.

Two centuries after his death in 1824, Reverend Charles Nerinckx, priest-founder of Loretto, is commemorated in a cover essay I was invited to write for American Catholic Studies journal. With…

The early: Grassroots desegregation at Webster College

By Annie Stevens CoL / March 1, 2024 /

As part of my Loretto Roots research in the spring of 2022, I read Professor Shannen Dee Williams’s new book, “Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American…

Bound for the Promised Land: Loretto Roots and Enslavement

By Annie Stevens CoL / January 24, 2024 /

Carved faces on a bronze plate mark the Slave Memorial at the Loretto Motherhouse.

For the first five decades of its existence in the antebellum South, the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross, as an early American religious congregation, participated in…

Following the Osage Trail

By Annie Stevens CoL / October 1, 2023 /

A woman with short white hair and wire glasses is wearing a butter-yellow collared button-up shirt and dark wash jeans. She's smiling for a picture on a sunny day while standing next to a stone plaque that says 'ST. LOUIS SCHOOL' and additional information.

Inspired by Libby Comeaux’s Loretto Roots research, Barbara Ann Barbato and I traveled across Missouri in June, heading west to Kansas and Oklahoma where Loretto taught Osage children in the…

Loretto Roots: Down the Mississippi where Histories and Cultures Interact

By Annie Stevens CoL / May 1, 2023 /

Two women smiling next to a museum sign outside.

Barbara Ann Barbato and I spent a week of March driving through history along the lower Mississippi River Valley, where Loretto established convents and schools during the 1820s-1840s. We not…

The Sarah Community Celebrates 25 Years

By Annie Stevens CoL / October 1, 2022 /

A plaque celebrating and sharing gratitude about the 25th anniversary of the Sarah Community.

In 1997 The Sarah Community (TSC) was founded by five women’s congregations in Saint Louis, Mo., to meet the retirement and long-term care needs for their members and the general…

Building Bridges to the Future at Webster University

By Annie Stevens CoL / May 1, 2022 /

Six different women of diverse backgrounds and ages conversing happily in a discussion setting.

On April 5, a large virtual gathering of Webster University scholarship students and donors celebrated together and shared stories. Among the participants was Barbara Ann Barbato, long-time Webster faculty member,…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Webster University

By Annie Stevens CoL / May 1, 2021 /

An introduction slide on a digital presentation. A dark blue background, with a circular cropped portrait picture of a woman wearing an orange and green head wrap, gold statement earrings, a gold necklace, and a black blouse while leaning on the front of a boxy white car. To the left of this picture is the introductory text: 2020 Jaqueline Grennen Wexler Award for Humanitarianism & Servant Leadership Winner Wafa Osman Student Leadership Awards.

From its historic home campus in Webster Groves, Mo., Webster University continues to carry on its Loretto founders’ commitment to provide educational opportunities for those who had not been served.…

What’s Happening on the Nerinx Campus?

By Annie Stevens CoL / December 1, 2019 /

A large white house hidden in a tree line of big aspen and oak trees. It is a sunny autumn day, the leaves start changing colors to yellow and orange.

Since the last residents of the St. Louis Loretto Center moved in 2017 and the property was sold to Nerinx Hall, many people have asked, “What’s happening on the Nerinx…

Nerinx Hall Celebrates Shared Past and Deeply-linked Future with Loretto

By Annie Stevens CoL / November 1, 2018 /

Five women standing in front of a high school gym with small white gift bags with bright green tissue paper in their hands.

On the 257th birthday of Charles Nerinckx, Oct. 2 of this year, the St. Louis Loretto Community and more than 600 students and faculty of Nerinx Hall gathered to celebrate…

‘And Sarah Laughed…’

By Annie Stevens CoL / February 1, 2017 /

A short haired woman in blue shirt stands next to a brass statue and mimics the pose on a sunny day.

A joyful crowd of more than 100 gathered Oct. 9, 2016, at the main entrance of The Sarah Community in Bridgeton, Mo., to dedicate a statue of the Biblical Sarah,…

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The Loretto Community consists of the congregation of the Sisters of Loretto and Loretto Co-members. The congregation of the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross was founded in rural Kentucky in 1812. Today, our Sisters and Co-members continue to live out the Loretto Community’s mission to “work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.” In the United States and throughout the world, Loretto Community members serve in many fields, including education, healthcare, elder care, environmental stewardship and advocacy.