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.

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Beginning a Conversation about Loretto Slaveholding and its Implications

By Loretto Community / February 11, 2021 /

Carved faces on a bronze plate mark the Slave Memorial at the Loretto Motherhouse.

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…

Loretto Heights College to Serve as Affordable Housing

By Mary Nelle Gage SL / February 1, 2021 /

The front entrance of a large brick building with a large staircase sprinkled with snow before the front doors.

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…

Loretto and Female Academies: 1830-1842

By Joy Jensen SL / February 1, 2021 /

The front entrance of a red brick building with a large white awning with 4 columns creates a grand entrance up the stairs for the front door.

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…

November 11, 1918: War and Pandemic

By Regina Drey SL / November 11, 2020 /

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…

St. Stephen’s Farm: Our Loretto Heritage

By Joy Jensen SL / May 1, 2020 /

A freshly cut green hay field on a farm.

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…

Loretto’s Legacy Resounds as a Grace and Challenge

By Loretto Community / April 19, 2020 /

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…

The Story of the Land

By Joy Jensen SL / April 1, 2020 /

A wide green pasture with small sheds far in the distance and thick green trees behind.

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…

Experiencing the Stories: Learning History That Makes Loretto Unique

By Ayla Toussaint / December 1, 2019 /

A woman with long brown hair and black-framed glasses smiling brightly for a selfie picture in an office.

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…

Forward, Forward Loretto

By Mary Nelle Gage SL / December 1, 2019 /

A large red brick building with a large tower in the center and big green trees on either side.

“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…

Father Nerinckx’s Kneecap and Other Relics

By Loretto Heritage Center / November 1, 2019 /

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…

Bonjour Delayed

By Mary Louise Denny SL / November 1, 2019 /

A group picture indoors of three tall men with dark skin complexions, and two shorter women with lighter skin complexions.

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…

Connections Across Time and Place

By Cathy Mueller SL / October 1, 2019 /

Two women, Cathy Mueller and Claire Skyes, smiling brightly together for a picture indoors aat a social event. They are both wearing dress clothes, one woman has short brown hair and the other has short grey hair and glasses.

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…

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The Loretto Community consists of the congregation of the Sisters of Loretto and Loretto Co-members. The congregation of the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross was founded in rural Kentucky in 1812. Today, our Sisters and Co-members continue to live out the Loretto Community’s mission to “work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.” In the United States and throughout the world, Loretto Community members serve in many fields, including education, healthcare, elder care, environmental stewardship and advocacy.