Our Catholic lft:ritage in Texas
The people .. . will always be reminded of the blessings of the Ursuline Nuns as they meet and greet the cultured Christian and gentle women who garnered so much refinement from their example and teaching." 13 Tlze Ursulines i11-San Antonio, I851. The second community estab- lished by the Ursulines was in San Antonio. Father Claude Dubuis, later Bishop of Galveston, was the Pastor of old San Fernando. San Antonio was a small town in those days with some 6,000 inhabitants, largely Mex- icans, with the exception of a few hundred families of Irish, French and German descent. There had always been a deep interest in education in the former outpost of Spanish Christian culture in Texas. Father Dubuis realized the need for a Catholic school. He had repeatedly implored Bishop Odin to send Sisters to establish a foundation. The Bishop had been inter- ested in education in San Antonio since he first came to Texas and had tried on various occasions to interest the Vincentians and the Oblates in opening a school in the old mission of San Jose. In 185 I, during a pastoral visit to San Antonio, Bishop Odin became more convinced than ever of the urgent need for an educational founda- tion in the old city. He learned that a residence erected by a Frenchman for his family, who refused to come to the wilds of Texas, was for sale. Bishop Odin bought the property for a nominal sum, together with the extensive grounds that surrounded it. With the vivid picture in his mind of the splendid work being done in Galveston by the Ursuline Nuns, he made up his mind to ask the communities of New Orleans and Galveston for subjects to open a school in the property he had just acquired. 14 Upon his return to Galveston he solicited personnel from the Convent of New Orleans and the younger Convent of Galveston to found a new community in San Antonio. His request was granted and from New Orleans came Mother Marie Trouard, and Sisters Marie Alexius, Marie Isidore, and M. Eulalie, with two Religious of the House of Waterford, Ireland, who offered to join the pioneers. They were Sisters St. Stanislaus and St. Augustus, who, before returning to Ireland much later, became :\1:others of the house in San Antonio. After a short stay in Galveston, where they were joined by three volunteers from the new Convent: Mother Mary Winship, Mother Mary Xavier, and Sister Angela Noyer, the little band of nine professed Sisters, two Novices and two Postulates set out uc. E. Byrne, "A Tribute" in Ursuline Academy of GaJ.veston, Centennial, 1847- 1947 [2]. 14Sister M. A. Ursulina, "The Ursulincs in San Antonio," MS. excerpts in C. A. T.
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