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.
Loretto Heights College to Serve as Affordable Housing
For a century Sisters of Loretto educated girls and young women at Loretto Heights Academy and Loretto Heights College under the banner “Fides, Mores, Cultura.” Pancratia Bonfils SL purchased farmland on Sheridan Hill in SW Denver in 1888, engaged architect…
Loretto and Female Academies: 1830-1842
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…
November 11, 1918: War and Pandemic
Note from the Editor of St. Mary’s Academy Newsletter: Veterans Day occurs on November 11 every year in the United States in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I, known as Armistice Day. Thanks to…
St. Stephen’s Farm: Our Loretto Heritage
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…
Loretto’s Legacy Resounds as a Grace and Challenge
Loretto’s first members, Mary Rhodes, Christina Stuart and Ann Havern, began their religious life together on April 25, 1812, a day celebrated as Loretto Foundation Day each year. From the very start in what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky,…
The Story of the Land
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…
Experiencing the Stories: Learning History That Makes Loretto Unique
When I was hired straight out of graduate school as the Loretto Heritage Center archivist, I was ecstatic. As an archivist, my job revolves around saving stories and preserving them for future generations. To do this, archivists collect administrative papers,…
Forward, Forward Loretto
“Forward, Forward Loretto. Hold the torch ever firm in your hand. Let the rays of its light lead you onward. Spreading courage and hope through the land. Thy shining fame has enrolled thy name. With the brightest of all our…
Father Nerinckx’s Kneecap and Other Relics
By Susanna Pyatt1 When I and the other staff at the Heritage Center opened a trunk said to be full of old chalices in November last year, we little expected what else we would find! The trunk had belonged to…
Bonjour Delayed
1973, Saigon, Vietnam, New Haven Nursery A newborn, male, was dropped off at New Haven Nursery. Susan Carol McDonald was the director/nurse at New Haven. She logged the baby into the register that she kept, as she did with every…
Connections Across Time and Place
This past May when I attended the meeting of the Union of International Superiors General (UISG) in Rome, I was at the table with Claire Sykes, a Faithful Companion of Jesus (FCJ) sister from London. She asked me if there…
Loretto Follows the Santa Fe Trail
Eleanor Craig has been heard to say that, “a few minutes of misery can provide a lifetime of great stories.” The trip following the Santa Fe Trail that 11 of us recently experienced certainly supports this statement. The idea for…