Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
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land and secured nine volunteers in Ireland, who returned with her to dedicate their lives to the education of the long-neglected Negro of the South. Three of the brave little band of founders were still living in 1951: Sisters Mary Francis, Mary Agnes, and Mary Cecilia. Although the Rule stipulates that their primary work is to be the education of Negro children, they have accepted schools for white children as well. They have more than forty houses and schools in the United States, with an entry house or Novitiate in Mount Bellew, Galway, Ireland. The Congregation is largely made up of Irish volunteers. The strug- gling little school at St. Peter Claver's parish has developed into a first class academy for Negro boys and girls in Texas. It has more than five hundred students in the grade and high school, in modem brick buildings and spacious playgrounds. It has both day and boarding students. Many of them are not Catholics. The Motherhouse was moved in 1922 from St. Peter Claver's Church to Grandview Heights, on Yucca Street, in San Antonio, and the Mother General in 1951 was Mother Mary Imelda, S.H.G. Humbly and modestly, in the true spirit of the Master, the Sisters Servants of the Holy Ghost and Mary Immaculate carry on their work, their ranks unequal to the tremendous task before them. They are handicapped in not being able to draw recruits from their own students because the number of schools for white children is yet small. The harvest is great but the devoted reapers are few. 95 Olivetan Benedictine Sisters, I895. The Congregation in Jonesboro, Arkansas, from whence they came to Texas in 1895, had its origin in the Benedictine Convent of Maria Rickenbach, founded· by the monks of Engelberg in Switzerland. The primary object of the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters of Jonesboro, the only Olivetans in the United States, is the glory of God through their own personal sanctification and by endeavoring to lead souls to the knowledge and love of God. They conduct both day and boarding schools for grade and high school students. They also have a hospital and nurses training school. In the year 1895, the Reverend Bonaventure Benzigger, O.S.B., pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Muenster, Texas~ asked the Olivetan Bene- dictine Sisters of Jonesboro to take care of his parish school. They accepted the offer and took over the school, which has grown under their direction from a five-grade school to a complete, modern, elementary and high school 95 Summary drawn largely from W. T. Cullen, "Dark Harvest," Perpetual, H1Jlj Bulletin (published by the Redemptorist Fathers), February, 1950, pp. 8-x I.
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