Catholic Educational EndeavfJrs
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planned to have them take charge of parochial schools in the diocese. Mother M. Gerarda was the first superior. She came with ten Sisters. While waiting for assignment to parish school work, some of the Sisters took care of the kitchen and laundry departments at the new Price College. St. Francis Convent was built in 1933 on the Price College campus with funds of the Congregation. The ground on which the convent was built was donated by the Diocese of Amarillo. The principal work of this Congregation is teaching grammar schools and institutes of advanced education. Special permission was obtained from the Holy See for them to do the housework they undertook at Price College while awaiting assignment. In the meantime some of the Sisters attended Our Lady of the Lake and Incarnate Word colleges in San Antonio to prepare themselves to meet the state requirements for state teachers certificates. From St. Francis Convent in Amarillo Sisters went to New Mexico and California to establish new foundations and take charge of parish ~:chools. Because of the depression of 1929, which did not hit West Texas until three years later, there were few new parish schools in the area to be placed under the care of the Sisters. Later, when calls came from parishes, the available personnel had been used in other states. They took charge of St. Francis School in Amarillo in 1933; a parish school in Colorado City, Texas, in 1933; and one in Hereford, Texas, in 1942. The St. Francis Convent and Academy in Amarillo were incorporated tmder the laws of Texas in 1950 as the Franciscan Sisters of Mary I mmaculate. 126 Salesian Sisters of St. Jolm Bosco, I935. The Institute of the Daugh- ters of Mary Help of Christians, popularly known as the Salesian Sisters of St. Bosco, was founded in 1872 by St. John Bosco and Mary Maz- zarelle. The primitive Motherhouse is in Turin, Italy. Its growth and development has been truly phenomenal. By 1951 the Congregation had 1,078 houses and 13,580 members scattered all over the world. It has twenty-five houses in the United States, four of which are in Texas. The latter are under the jurisdiction of the Province of Mexico, from whence they were founded. The chief objectives of the Salesians is the education of youth and their formation through schools, orphanages, oratories, trade and vocational schools, and night schools for working young people. U6Summary made from data sent to the Author by Sister M. Afra, Superior at Amarillo.
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