Charles Nerinckx set a high standard in education for the Sisters of Loretto. His “progressive spirit animated the Sisters, and foreseeing that more than primary branches would be called for in their schools, they prepared for the exigency.” So, in…
After the Revolutionary War patriots believed that their daughters should be educated to uphold the virtues of republicanism to pass these virtues on to the next generation. During this time there were few opportunities for women’s education beyond the elementary-type…
The covid-19 virus has not walked into the Motherhouse Infirmary. We Infirmary residents have been in lockdown since mid-March. We are isolated but not unknowing of the suffering world around us. As I sit at my Infirmary window my heart…
The 200-acre tract that Stephen Badin purchased from Basil Hayden lay on the west side of Coleman’s Run, a branch of Hardin’s Creek. That land, called a plantation, had belonged to Coleman Brown, who had purchased and cleared some of…
This is the story of the land that was to become a new Loretto. In 1785 Basil Hayden led 20 families from St. Mary’s County in Maryland to their land grant in central Kentucky. The grant was located at the…
If you drive to Bardstown, Ky., on Route 49 from Loretto, you will see a high, cone-shaped hill rising from the surrounding trees near the hamlet of Holy Cross. Everyone calls it Rohan’s Knob. Upon seeing it, you will know…
A few years ago a juvenile red-tailed hawk was injured while flying into an electrical line. It died of starvation. I searched and found it under a tree. I stroked its beautiful feathers, and cried. I mourned the loss of…
Did you know that our Loretto Motherhouse farm is an ecosystem? Remember that an ecosystem is made up of living and non-living things that interact and exchange energy. A farm ecosystem differs from a forest or a lake ecosystem in…
Little Loretto occupies a sacred place in Loretto’s history and memory. The landscape of Little Loretto evokes what is precious in Loretto spirituality. Little Loretto is an example of landscape spirituality in the American experience. In writing about landscape spirituality…
Little Loretto (the first Loretto Motherhouse, located near St. Charles, Ky.) is an example of Upland South folk architecture in early 19th century Kentucky. Folk architecture is architecture built for local people, by local builders, using local materials. Father Charles…
A bird feeder hangs outside on my Infirmary window. A Chipping sparrow visits it daily and is occasionally joined by a Harris’s sparrow. After eating they fly to the Japanese maple growing near my window. The gray squirrel who lives…
Editor’s Note: This is the last of the four-part series. The Loretto Motherhouse is situated in the Ohio River Basin. The basin is an area that drains into the Ohio River from the convergence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers…