Our Catltolic Heritage in T ezas
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Pius XI conferred upon her the title of Papal Countess, a rare distinction seldom bestowed on women. In the meantime, Bishop Gerken and his worthy successor, Bishop Lucey, maintained Price College, which included a junior and senior high school division, with the aid of their overworked priests, who sacrificed their time and their comfort to the Catholic education of the young men of the diocese. "The missions ... of the diocese have ... suffered," the Bishop admitted, and tried in vain to secure other teachers. The various teaching orders solicited lacked the personnel needed to relieve the un- selfish diocesan priests. The school made progress, nevertheless. "We have a fine crowd of boys in attendance this year," said the enthusiastic new Bishop Lucey in 1934 in a letter to Mrs. Price. Two years later, the college department had to be abandoned in favor of a stronger high school division. The effort to secure a teaching order of men to take over the instruc- tion had been continued. With unfeigned joy, Bishop Lucey informed Countess Price on June II, 1938, that the Christian Brothers would take over the teaching duties at the College that fall, leaving the diocesan priests free to care for the many other needs of the growing diocese. Before the end of the summer the Christian Brothers arrived. They in- cluded Brothers Ignatius Francis, Director, Luke Paschal, Gentran Francis, Lawrence Paul, Leandor Paul, Ignatius Basil, and Isidore Conrad. Father John Steinlage was appointed chaplain. Encouraged by the good news, the Countess donated a new gymnasium-auditorium, which was dedicated and blessed on October 29, 1939; early the next year a new library was provided, and before another year passed she gave a beautiful chapel, dedicated on March 27, 1941, by Archbishop Lucey under the advocation of St. Lucien of Antioch in memory of her husband's patron saint. Under the able and paternal direction of Bishop Laurence J. FitzSimon and the zealous Christian Brothers, Price College of Amarillo has made steady progress and rendered signal service in the field of Catholic education in the State. Its enrollment has risen to more than one hundred. Countess Price, who gave over a million dollars to the College before her death on November 23, 1952, helped build a magnificent memorial by aiding through her generosity to found and develop a first class Catholic school in that area for boys, whose influence will spread with the years.
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