Topic archive
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.
Vietnam: answering the call
‘Get your passport, get your shots; I need help.’ Susan Carol McDonald SL to Mary Nelle Gage SL in June 1973 The Vietnam War gave rise to thousands of orphans. As husbands and fathers were killed, surviving mothers became the…
Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification
During the 2021 Assembly, Loretto invited all to observe its “I Was Here” Project, a ritual of remembrance and sanctification at the Loretto Motherhouse, a community of wounding for more than 50 individuals enslaved between 1812-1865. The “I Was Here”…
Bernalillo Indian Boarding School
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 whose tuition was paid by the Territory of New Mexico…
A Fond Farewell to the Powerhouse
After the powerhouse was built in 1921, the coal trucks have lumbered up the entrance hill, dumped the boiler’s sole diet, then rattled down the hill empty. Whether it was late at night or early in the morning when the…
Loretto and Native American Boarding Schools
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 are more questions all the time about Loretto’s involvement with…
Projects from the Heritage Center
Although the Heritage Center has been closed to the public for over a year, the center’s staff still has been moving forward with several projects. Throughout this month, a traveling Smithsonian exhibit, “Crossroads: Change in Rural America,” will be at…
Answering the Call To Serve: Loretto Missions in Latin America
At the Loretto Assembly in 1958, six years after the last Sister of Loretto returned from China, Loretto members called for the Community to continue its work in the missions. The pope had called for religious congregations to send personnel…
Loretto Foundation Day Celebration 2021
Loretto celebrated its Foundation Day – April 25 – with memories, snapshots, reflections and sharing, including this video on “The Spirit of 1812.” Enjoy!:
Loretto: A Community on Pilgrimage, Following God’s Call Together for 209 Years
Loretto has been graced by God to become a Community on pilgrimage. We have walked together and believed in each other on every journey we have undertaken. Some journeys are impossible to do alone. On occasion, one person would be…
The Mission Bell Repair
“We found the large cedar tree in the holler near the Valley House,” said Robbie Lyvers. It had been felled during what then Gov. Steve Beshear had called “the biggest natural disaster in modern Kentucky history — the ice storm…
1835 Loretto Female Academy
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…
Beginning a Conversation about Loretto Slaveholding and its Implications
What the Loretto Community now knows about its practices of slaveholding, 1812-1865, is an unsatisfactory combination of a very few documents, some speculation and good guesses, and a very disconcerting realization that we have a large responsibility to which we…