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History

Two hundred years and counting! Loretto has responded to the call of God to serve God’s people. From children to adults, from elementary to graduate-level education, from eldercare to advocacy for the homelessness and underserved, Loretto has left its mark on the world as it seeks to “work for justice and act for peace.” Learn more about the history of Loretto.

Home » History

Happy 212th Birthday, Loretto! 

By Loretto Community / April 22, 2024 /
Cecily Jones SL and Mary Luke Tobin SL smile while posed with a strawberry birthday cake.

Loretto Foundation Day – 212 Years: April 25, 1812 – April 25, 2024 The Constitutions of the Sisters of Loretto “direct us to praise and minister in Jesus name. Grounded…

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Plans unveiled for Catholic Sisters’ Heritage Center in Cleveland

By Loretto Community / March 11, 2024 /

Originally posted by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland on March 10, 2024 The Women’s Religious Archives Collaborative will establish a Heritage Center in Cleveland to preserve and celebrate the unique…

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Loretto Heritage Center’s 1st Family History Day draws crowd

By Loretto Community / March 4, 2024 /

Written by David Neri and published by The Lebanon Enterprise on February 28, 2024 For many of the people who spoke at last Saturday’s Family History Day at the Loretto…

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Read all about it! Loretto Magazine, Winter 2024 issue now out!

By Loretto Community / March 4, 2024 /
Cover of Loretto Magazine winter 2024. Photo of seven women posing together on the front steps of a building. Text at the top reads: Inside... Loretto's new Justice Fellowship program, Loretto welcomes migrants, Pioneers at Loretto Heights College ... and more

Loretto Magazine’s winter edition is now available! Your heart will be stirred by the Loretto Justice Fellows, women who provide service hours to local community organizations while studying in the…

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The early: Grassroots desegregation at Webster College

By Annie Stevens CoL / March 1, 2024 /
A black and white headshot picture of a young woman with straight black hair with bangs. She is smiling brightly in front of a plain background.

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…

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Holy Family Catholic Church

By Loretto Community / February 26, 2024 /

Published by the Southeast Missourian on February 24, 2024 Too often, Black history is thought of as something to be celebrated only in February, with Martin Luther King Jr.’s rousing…

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A sneak peek at the Loretto Heritage Center oversized photo collection

By Amanda Beard / February 26, 2024 /

At the Loretto Heritage Center, I have had the pleasure of getting to learn about the amazing history that surrounds the Sisters of Loretto. I have been one of the…

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Loretto pioneers of education in the West

By Loretto Community / February 20, 2024 /
Sepia toned photo of a college building surrounded by trees. A Celtic cross graces the building's tower.

Loretto Heights College The bodies of 62 Sisters of Loretto who had been buried in the cemetery at Loretto Heights College in Denver were moved to a new resting place…

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Polyglot Perspectives: Archiving Loretto’s Multilingual Collections

By Reba Weatherford / January 30, 2024 /

Imagine I handed you a document and instructed you to file it in its proper place. What’s the first thing you might do? Hopefully, you would read through the document…

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Family History Day at the Loretto Heritage Center

By Loretto Community / January 29, 2024 /
The front of a brick building with white french doors, an arched window, and the name plaque: Loretto Heritage Center featuring a vintage-inspired logo of a drawing of an old building. Stairs and a handrail are leading up to the doors and the photo features green leafy branches around the perimeter of the picture.

The Loretto Heritage Center is hosting a Family History Day on Saturday, February 24th, 9am – 4:30pm. Twelve speakers will discus a range of genealogical topics including accessing local sources…

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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…

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12 Days of Christmas in the Archives

By Susanna Pyatt / December 25, 2023 /
Teenage girls in shimmering dresses dance on stage with two large rings as props.

Happy holidays! It is once again time for the Heritage Center’s annual “12 Days of Christmas” spree. If you did not follow along on our Facebook page, all of the…

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