Our Catltolic Heritage in Texas
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Sisters founded their first convent and school in Texas. From this humble beginning St. Joseph's Academy at San Elizario rose and flourished until it- was moved to El Paso in 1892. By that time a second floor had been added to the building, which had been greatly enlarged. From a single fig tree, an orchard was developed in the backyard, where plums, peaches, pears, apples, and almonds were gathered, and there was a truck garden that supplied the community with vegetables, as well as a beautiful flower garden in front, all tended by the Sisters. 86 Move to El Paso, r892. While in El Paso in the spring of 1892 to take a sick child to Dr. Williams, Sister Magdalene Dietz, the Superior at St. Joseph's Academy in San Elizario, learned that the Irish Sisters of Mercy brought by Bishop Bourgade to El Paso to conduct a school, had just withdrawn and that there was an urgent need for someone to take over their work. Here was an opportunity, Sister Magdalene thought, for the Lorettines to expand their work. When she attended the convention of local superiors at the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky in July, 1892, she tried in vain to discuss her plans with Mother General Da Frosa. She was advised, however, to see the new Bishop of Dallas, the Most Reverend Thomas Francis Brennan, on her way back to New Mexico. She did so, and received from him authorization to take full charge of all the schools in El Paso and permission to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in their convent chapel. After some hesitation, and due to the enthusiasm of Sister Magdalene and her staunch supporters, Mother Francisca Lamy and Sister Prazedes Carty, the Motherhouse at Loretto, Kentucky, gave its approval for the establishment of a community in El ·Paso. Before the end of the summer, all the furniture, two pianos, and all other belongings in San Elizario had been moved in five wagons. On September I, 1892, St. Joseph's was reopened in El Paso and shortly afterwards the boarding students at San Elizario were brought to the new Academy, twenty-two miles away, by Sister Magdalene, who then joined Sister Mary Bernard Doyle, who had opened the school. Father Carlos M. Pinto, S.J., Superior of the Jesuits in El Paso, was delighted with the coming of the Sisters of Loretto and for years afterwards gave them his unstinted support, a factor contributing greatly to their success. Growth and Development of Sacred Heart Sclzool. The next month, _in October, the Sisters took charge of the new school of the Sacred Heart "Sister M. Lillian Owens, S.L., Reverend Carlos M. Pinte, S.J., Apostle of El Paso, 1829-1919, pp. 67-71.
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