Our Cat/10/ic Heritage in Texas
The new Bishop was anxious to promote parochial schools for which the need was great. But the Ursulines, being a cloistered Order, were not prepared to help in parochial educational work at this time. Consequently Bishop Pellicer entrusted this work to the Sisters of the Incarnate Word, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Divine Providence. "It was with an aching heart ... that the Ursuline Nuns beheld the 300 Mexican children of their free school that had been attached to the Academy pass from their care to that of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word." 20 After Reconstruction days the Ursuline Academy became strictly a boarding and day school only for the English-speaking in the rapidly growing city. It has grown and developed with the community, main- taining its high standard of culture and scholastic attainment. In 1883, it was officially chartered by the State and authorized to grant diplomas. 21 Its enrollment in 1949 was almost 500. It is fully accredited with the State University and is a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.u The Ursulines in Laredo, I868. Mother St. Joseph Aubert, the Ursu- line from Brignoles, France, who helped establish the Community in San Antonio, was was on her way to her home convent when she stopped in Galveston. While in the Ursuline convent in Galveston awaiting passage to France, she met Bishop Dubuis, who, remembering the futile attempt of his illustrious predecessor and friend to make a foundation in Laredo twenty years before, urged Mother St. Joseph to undertake the arduous enterprise. Realizing the need for a Catholic school in the border town among the Mexican people she had learned to love in San Antonio she accepted the offer, even though it meant renunciation of ever seeing her homeland again. Teaching in the Academy at Galveston at the time was Sister Teresa Pereda, her former pupil in San Antonio. At her request, she was allowed to accompany Mother St. Joseph to Laredo to found a new Community. 23 The Bishop gave the two volunteers $200.00 to launch their educa- tional enterprise. With his blessing, they set out overland from Galveston to Laredo on the Rio Grande. After over a week of stage coach travel, they :OSister M. A. Ursulina, "Excerpts," 3. 21Parisot and Smith, History of tl,e Catl10Uc Cl,urcl, in the Diocese of San An- lnnio (San Antonio), I 19-123. 22Archdiocese of San Antonio, Diamond Jubilee J874·I949 [p. 38]. 2ST/1e Ursuline Sisters, Laredo, Texas, n.d., 2-3. This ten-page booklet was sent to the Author in 1951 by Mother Mary Constance, Superior of the Academy in Laredo.
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