Our Catlwlic ff e1·itage in Texas
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Peter Richard, welcomed the Sisters and gave them his five-room home for the new foundation. The first Monday in October the school opened with thirty-six students. Such was the humble beginning of the work of the Sisters of Divine Providence in the United States that since then have multiplied their educational and social service activities and spread to the 2.rchdioceses of San Antonio, Santa Fe, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, and the dioceses of Alexandria, Little Rock, San Diego, and Oklahoma-Tulsa. From 1868 to 1883, Mother St. Andrew carried on as Provincial Su- perior in spite of many apparently insurmountable difficulties until the separation of the American Province from the Motherhouse in St. Jean- de-Bassel. She accepted and trained new members, procured the means for building a school and a convent in Castroville, and opened parish !>chools in various sections of Texas. In need of personnel, she went to Europe three times and succeeded in obtaining about ninety-five Sisters and Novices from St. Jean--de-Bassel, in addition to numerous recruits secured in France, Germany, and Ireland. At the same time, she set up the basis for an educational system modeled upon the best European systems then in vogue, but elastic enough to make it adaptable to the changing pattern of a rapidly developing new world that has come to be known as the American public school system. The great success attained may be attributed largely to Mother St. Andrew's strict observance of the Constitutions of the Congregation. She insisted that every member, young and old, should keep it, she herself setting an example. From this spiritual discipline she and all the Sisters of Divine Providence drew boundless strength each day. Separati<m from tlie Motherlt01ese, r883. After his ad limina visit to Rome, Bishop John C. Neraz returned by way of St. Jean-de-Bassel and visited the Superior to ask for a separation of the Texas province from the French community. The request was granted and the foundation in Castroville became the headquarters of an independent diocesan Con- gregation. The Bishop was now the ecclesiastical superior of the Sisters of Divine Providence and Mother St. Andrew became the Mother General. With unabated energy, she proceeded to enlarge the Motherhouse in Cas- troville and, looking to the future, she secured a piece of property near St. Joseph's Church in San Antonio on which she built a large academy during the next three years. At the suggestion of Bishop Neraz, elec- tions were held and on August 25, 1886, Mother Florence Walter was elected to succeed the indefatigable Mother General Andrew, founder ancl builder of the Congregation.
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