Ou,· C atleolic H e1-itage in Texas
312
San Antonio" became a reality. Appropriate modifications of the Consti- tutions were approved by Rome on August 14, 1939. At the first General Chapter which was held at the Blessed Sacrament Convent, San Antonio, Texas, on December 28, 1939, the Union was canonically effected. Mother Gerard Peltier was elected Mother General and Nazareth Convent, Victoria, Texas, was chosen as the Motherhouse and Novitiate. At the present time the activities of the Congregation include private. parochial, and public schools, hospitals, and catechetical work. 56 Sisters of St. ilfary of Namur, 1863. The Institute of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, devoted exclusi_vely to the education of girls, orig- inally founded in Namur, Belgium, by a Cistercian, Father Nicholas Joseph Minsart in 1819, came to the United States in 1863 at the invita- tion of the Most Reverend John Timon, C.M., Bishop of Buffalo, former Prefect Apostolic of Texas and an intimate friend of Archbishop Odin. Their first foundation in America was established in Lockport, New York. That same year, in reply to an appeal from Bishop Dubuis of Texas, Mother Emilie, the first Superioress in America, sent three Sisters to establish a House and open a school in Waco, a truly frontier town then, which boasted only three Catholic children of school age. Poverty laid the cornerstone and hardships built the walls of their foundation in Texas. Sister Mary Angela, the first Superior, almost died of yelJow fever the first year. Our Lady of Mercy, on whose feast day they arrived in ·waco. took pity on them, apparently, and enabled them to succeed in spite of t:verything. 57 The Academy of the Sacred Heart, thus modestly founded in Waco, proved to be a most fruitful mission in Central Texas. Not only did it become a large and flourishing institution, but it led in rapid succession to the establishment of eight more schools in the State: three in Fort Worth, two in Dallas and one each in Sherman, Denison and Wichita Falls. When the Western Province was formed in 1921, the Academy of Our Lady of Victory in Fort Worth became the Provincial and Novitbtc House. Otw Lady of Victory in Fort Wort!&, 1885. This foundation, now the Motherhouse of the Western Province of the Institute of the Sisters of St. 56 The summary of the Union of the Houses in the Archdiocese of San Antonio here presented was prepared by Sister M. Imelda O'Conner and sent to the Author by Sister M. George, Secretary General. C . .A. T. 57 Dehey, op. cit., 586-587: Our Lady of Victory, Fort Worth, n.d., 11.
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