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Eleanor Craig SL

Eleanor has been a Sister of Loretto since 1963 and an educator since birth. She graduated from two of Loretto's best known St. Louis institutions, Nerinx Hall High School in 1960, and Webster University in 1967. She taught mathematics at Loretto in Kansas City, where her personal passion for adventure history inspired her to develop and lead treks along the historic Oregon Trail. From 1998 to 2010 she created an award-winning program of outdoor adventure along the Western trails for teens who are visually impaired. Eleanor claims to have conducted more wagon trains to the West than the Mountain Men! From 2012 to 2021, Eleanor led a talented staff of archivists and preservationists at the Loretto Heritage Center on the grounds of the Motherhouse. Now retired, she still serves in the Heritage Center as Loretto Community Historian.

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Ann (formerly Sister Ann Maurice) Barrett SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / December 13, 2021 /
A woman with short grey hair and black-framed glasses wearing a white collared blouse, a red sweater and a grey jacket smiling brightly for a headshot picture indoors.

Sister Ann Barrett wrote a brief account of her family life in 1976.  We recognize in these two paragraphs her lifelong love for her family and place of origin, an…

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Reflection on the First Sunday of Advent

By Eleanor Craig SL / November 28, 2021 /
A mandala being created on a small square paper with a black pen on a wooden desk.

Jeremiah 33:14-16      1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2      Luke 21:25-36 Last Sunday, the final Sunday of the liturgical year, Mary Swain pointed out to us that the Feast of…

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Reflection on the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Eleanor Craig SL / November 7, 2021 /

1 Kings 17:10-16     Hebrews 9:24-28     Mark 12:41-44 Widows are the heroines of today’s readings.  That’s an odd reversal of scriptural stereotypes.  Widows are poor and rarely…

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Bernalillo Indian Boarding School

By Eleanor Craig SL / November 1, 2021 /
Indian School Archived Image: A black and white image of a large light-colored stone boarding school with a two-story balcony and deck filled with numerous students in dark-colored long dress uniforms on both the upper and lower levels of the balcony and deck.

Loretto’s school at Bernalillo opened in April 1875 as a day school for local children. It did not at first include Native American children but did have 15 orphan girls…

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Reflection on the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Eleanor Craig SL / October 17, 2021 /

Isaiah 53:10-11          Hebrews 4: 14-16          Mark 10-35-45 For the last couple of months of Sunday readings, we have heard Jesus teaching his…

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What’s in a Date?

By Eleanor Craig SL / October 1, 2021 /
Two pages of an antique book displaying biblical images and text.

August 15, September 8 and 15, October 25, December 8, April 25, May 24, May 31. What do these dates have in common? By the zodiac, they loosely demark the…

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Loretto and Native American Boarding Schools

By Eleanor Craig SL / October 1, 2021 /
A hand-drawn landscape of green grass and numerous small brown log buildings, a small well, horse carriage and walking path.

Now that directorship of the Heritage Center is in the capable hands of Ayla Toussaint, I have time to write occasional pieces of Loretto history for the Community. As there…

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Reflection on the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Eleanor Craig SL / September 26, 2021 /

Numbers 11:25-29 James 5:1-6 Mark 9:38 … 48 “Whoever is not against us is for us.”  With these cryptic words, Jesus breaks through the partisan clannishness of his disciples and…

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Reflection on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 15, 2021 /

Revelation 11:19; 12:1-10         1 Corinthians 15:20-27         Luke 7:39-56 When I rose early this morning, my Amaryllis had opened two glorious red blooms…

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Remembrance of the Life of Sister Jean (formerly Sister Regina Rose Burke) Johnson SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 15, 2021 /
A woman with short grey hair and glasses wearing pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, and a lilac blouse smiling for a headshot picture with a blue and white vignette background.

(Editor’s Note: The first portion of this remembrance is Sister Jean Johnson’s autobiography. The latter portion was written by Eleanor Craig SL.) “On May 12, 1927, I arrived, the fifth…

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Remembrance of the Life of Sister Theresa (formerly Sister John Bosco) Coyle SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / July 14, 2021 /
A woman with short white hair and round wire glasses wearing a bright colorful patterned collared shirt smiling softly for a headshot picture while sitting in a chair lined with a white crochet blanket.

Editor’s note: This is Theresa Louise Coyle’s own account of her life, pieced together from much longer essays whichshe composed in the decades since her Golden Jubilee in 1998. “In…

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Remembrance of the Life of Sister Sylvia Ginder SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / June 26, 2021 /
A woman with short white hair and wire-framed glasses wearing orange bead dangly earrings and a white collared blouse smiling for a headshot picture outdoors with a dark greenery background.

In early March of 1970, Sister Sylvia Ginder wrote to Sister Mary Luke Tobin, then completing her 12 years as the General Superior of the Sisters of Loretto. Sylvia’s letter is…

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