CHAPTER VIII
CATHOLIC EDUCATIONAL ENDEAVORS*
The interest of the Church in education is traditional. If the first Bishop of Texas, the remarkable Vincentian pioneer, had one constant preoccupa- tion during his fruitful years in Texas, it was to foster Catholic education. "One of his first concerns was to secure religious teaching orders for the various communities which had grown sufficiently to warrant the erection of schools." 1 With this end in view, he visited different religious houses in the United States and called upon many in Europe to help him provide Catholic education for his people. The history of Catholic educational endeavors is largely the history of religious teaching communities, for the most part of women. The teaching Sisters, the Brothers, and Fathers dedicated to the cause of Catholic educa- tion, deserve great credit for the memorable chapter they have written in Texas. It will not be possible to give more than the briefest outline of the work of each community within the compass of the general sketch here presented. Fortunately, those wishing to learn more details on the indi- vidual work of each, can, in many instances, read the accounts that have begun to be made available in recent years by the various communities themselves. Tre Ursulines Come to Gtdveston, I847. This Order, founded by St. Angela Merici in I 535, the first to unite the practice of the evangelical counsels to the education of youth, 2 was likewise the first to brave the hard- ships of pioneer work in Texas. As early as 1845, Bishop Odin had pur- chased Judge Love's two-story residence in Galveston for a school ,vhich the Ursulines of New Orleans had promised to conduct. The Ursuline Convent of New Orleans contributed to the purchase. But the lack of teachers for the undertaking delayed the coming of the Sisters until 1847. From the venerable Convent of New Orleans, founded in 1827, Bishop *The treatment here is limited largely to secondary and college education and is taken up in chronological order. Orders, congregations, and communities which have come to Texas since 1936 are not included. Almost all the Academies and Colleges have grammar school divisions and many of the teaching orders and communities take care of parish schools also. They are mentioned where such is the case. 1 Sister Mary Clarence Frisenhahn, Catlrolu: Secondary Ed11catw,, ;,, tl,e Provi,iee of San Antoni<,, 16. 2 Elinor Tong Debey, Religious Orders of Wome11 ;,, tire (/11ii,d Stales, 1. [285]
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