{{short description|Catholic religious institute}} {{Distinguish|Sisters of Loreto}} {{Infobox organization | name = {{big|Sisters of Loretto }} | former_name = | image = Loretto_Community_Logo.png | image_border = | image_size = 180px | caption = | abbreviation = SL | predecessor = | successor = | formation = | extinction = | merger = | merged_into = | established = {{Start date and age|1812 }} | type = | status = | purpose = | headquarters = | location = Nerinx, Kentucky | coordinates = | region_served = Americas and Asia | num_members = | language = | general_secretary = | leader_title = President | leader_name = Barbara Nicholas SL<ref name="lc-pres">{{Cite web |url=https://www.lorettocommunity.org/about/leadership/executive-committee/ |title=President and Executive Committee |website=Loretto Community |language=en-US |access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref> | leader_title2 = | leader_name2 = | leader_title3 = | leader_name3 = | leader_title4 = | leader_name4 = | key_people = | main_organ = Loretto Magazine | parent_organization = | affiliations = Catholic | budget = | num_staff = | num_volunteers = | website = [https://www.lorettocommunity.org LorettoCommunity.org] | remarks = The Loretto Community includes both vowed members and committed co-members. }}
The '''Sisters of Loretto''' or the '''Loretto Community''' is a Catholic religious institute that strives "to bring the healing Spirit of God into our world." Founded in the United States in 1812 and based in the rural community of Nerinx, Kentucky,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://awards.aaslh.org/award/sisters-of-loretto-heritage-center/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531003148/http://awards.aaslh.org/award/sisters-of-loretto-heritage-center/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-05-31|title=Sisters of Loretto Heritage Center (National Historic Site)|website=awards.aaslh.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> the organization has communities in 16 US states and in Bolivia, Chile, China, Ghana, Pakistan, and Peru.
==History== The Sisters of Loretto were founded in 1812 by three women, Mary Rhodes, Ann Havern, and Christina Stuart, under the guidance of Fr Charles Nerinckx in Kentucky as '''The Little Society of the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross'''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/sisters-of-loretto-at-the-foot-of-the-cross|title=Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross {{!}} Catholic Answers|website=www.catholic.com|language=en|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> Their mission was to educate the poor children of the frontier. They were an early group to receive Black novices, including Clare Morgan as a founding member in 1812, but they segregated many of them in various ways and most eventually were released from their vows.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lucas|first=Marion|date=2003-01-01|title=A History of Blacks in Kentucky: From Slavery to Segregation, 1760-1891|url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_african_american_studies/27|journal=African American Studies}}</ref> The order is also known to have owned slaves.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gershon |first=Livia |date=2022-05-26 |title=The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-hidden-history-of-black-catholic-nuns/ |access-date=2023-11-03 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref>
When the community was formed into a religious congregation, it was renamed the '''Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross'''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lorettocommunity.org/who-we-are/loretto-history/|title=Loretto History - Loretto Community}}</ref> Mother Praxedes Carty updated the constitution of the Sisters of Loretto with Rome in the early 1900s.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6wNAQAAIAAJ&q=praxedes+carty&pg=PA89|title=The American Catholic Who's Who|date=1911|publisher=B. Herder|editor-last=Curtis|editor-first=Georgina Pell|location=St. Louis|pages=89|language=en}}</ref>
The Sisters were early collaborators with the Jesuits in their missionary endeavors among the native Americans.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.acatholicmission.org/5-the-catholic-osage-mission.html|title=The Catholic Osage Mission|website=A Catholic Mission|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> The work of the Sisters spread to the American Southwest during the 1870s,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://epcc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=309255&sid=2583799|title=Library Research Guides. Borderlands. Sisters of Loretto Have Long Tradition in Southwest 19 (2000).|last=Murphree|first=Rachel|website=epcc.libguides.com|language=en|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> as the Sisters opened a Loretto Academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (This school is the site of the famed staircase in the former school chapel, believed by some to have been built through supernatural intervention.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Loretto : the sisters and their Santa Fe chapel|last=Straw)|first=Cook, Mary J. Straw (Mary Jean|date=2002-01-01|publisher=Museum of New Mexico Press|isbn=0890133980|oclc=49991630}}</ref>) They also began an all-girls school in Montgomery, AL, in 1873, called Loretto High.
The Sisters gained a reputation for educational innovation, as well as racial and religious tolerance, which created a strong interest in having their services. By the 1890s they had opened a girls' school in St. Paul, Kansas, in the Diocese of Wichita, and in 1899 were invited to work in the Diocese of Kansas City in Missouri, where they first started teaching in parochial schools of the city and opened a Loretto Academy in 1901. The Sisters also worked in Iowa and had a mission school for the children of the Osage nation in Oklahoma.<ref>[http://www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/83001009.pdf National Park Service "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Forms"]</ref> The Sisters founded two colleges: Loretto Heights College in Denver (founded as an academy in 1891 and becoming a college in 1918) and Loretto College in Webster Groves, Missouri (later known as Webster College, now known as Webster University), in 1915.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://library.webster.edu/archives/loretto.html|title=Sisters of Loretto--Webster University Library|website=library.webster.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> The campus in Denver has changed hands several times in recent years and now is home to affordable housing units in [https://www.denverhousing.org/pancratia-hall/ Pancratia Lofts], and will offer the May Bonfils Stanton Theater and the Commún Community Center in the future. In 2012 the Sisters received the ''Civis Princeps'' award from Regis University, with mention of their founding 27 schools in Colorado, ten still in operation, including St. Mary’s Academy which bestowed the first high school diploma in the Colorado territory in 1875. In addition the Sisters founded 21 nonprofits in Colorado including Earthlinks,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.earthlinks-colorado.org/about/history/|title=History {{!}} EarthLinks, Inc.|website=www.earthlinks-colorado.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> Project WISE,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2002b/041202/041202k.htm|title=Far-flung networks serve the margins|website=natcath.org|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> and the Women’s Bean Project.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.regis.edu/~/media/Files/University/Community-Relations/CivisPrinceps13new.ashx|title=Civis Princeps award|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref>
== Organization == In recent years, the institute has diffused into a larger '''Loretto Community''', which includes the Loretto Sisters with vows and members without religious vows, as well as volunteers.<ref>{{Citation|last=Loretto Volunteers|title=Celebrating 25 Years of Loretto Volunteers|date=2015-07-17|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq-PPSYVh6I |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/Eq-PPSYVh6I |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|access-date=2017-03-17}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.razoo.com/story/Loretto-Volunteers-25th-Anniversary-Celebration|title=25-year celebration|website=Razoo.com|language=en-us|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317234432/https://www.razoo.com/story/Loretto%2DVolunteers%2D25th%2DAnniversary%2DCelebration|archive-date=2017-03-17|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> These young adult volunteers serve in New York City, Washington, DC,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.waterwomensalliance.org/water-welcomes-loretto-volunteers/|title=WATER - Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual {{!}} WATER Welcomes Loretto Volunteers|website=www.waterwomensalliance.org|date=15 October 2013 |language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> and St. Louis, MO.<ref>{{cite web|last1=The Loretto Community|title=Loretto Volunteers|url=http://www.lorettovolunteers.org/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catholicvolunteernetwork.org/program/loretto-volunteer-program|title=Loretto Volunteer Program {{!}} Catholic Volunteer Network|website=catholicvolunteernetwork.org|language=en|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref>
In June 2005, the Loretto Community dedicated the Colorado affordable-housing community of Mount Loretto, built in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Denver. In order to advance its charitable activities, the group holds NGO status with the United Nations. Strongly committed to social justice, the Loretto Community opposes nuclear weaponry and proliferation, and advocates for migrant workers and torture victims of oppressive regimes.
Other works of the Loretto Community include the Loretto Earth Network,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzcDPs_V9xwC&q=loretto+earth+network&pg=PA191|title=Deep Ecology and World Religions|date=2001|publisher=State U. of New York|isbn=0791448843|access-date=17 March 2017}}. P.191.</ref> an environmentalist education and activism group.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/sisters-of-loretto/|title=Sisters of Loretto|website=www.huffingtonpost.com|language=en|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://globalsistersreport.org/column/capital-e-earth/environment/achieve-sustainable-prosperity-we-need-bring-moderates-43401|title=To achieve sustainable prosperity, we need to bring the moderates|date=2016-11-17|work=Global Sisters Report|access-date=2017-03-17|language=en}}</ref> A Disarmament Committee lobbies against nuclear weapons, landmines, and militarism, and in favor of "develop[ing] a culture of peace."<ref>Loretto Community. [http://www.lorettocommunity.org/disarmament.html Loretto Disarmament Committee] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506011719/http://www.lorettocommunity.org/disarmament.html |date=2006-05-06 }}. Accessed June 11, 2006.</ref> The Community also operates two facilities which offer spiritual retreats<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lorettocommunity.org/retreat-centers/ | title=Retreat Centers }}</ref> Nerinx.
==Publications== The Loretto Community publishes ''Loretto Magazine'', ''Loretto Earth Network News'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sisterfarm.org/news.html|title=Santuario Sisterfarm - A Sanctuary in the Texas Hill Country for Cultivating Bio-Diversity and Cultural Diversity|website=www.sisterfarm.org|access-date=2017-03-17}}</ref> and the ''Justice and Peace Newsletter''.<ref>Loretto Community. [http://www.lorettocommunity.org/publications.html Publications] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060810150305/http://www.lorettocommunity.org/publications.html |date=2006-08-10 }} and [http://www.lorettocommunity.org/justice_update.htm Justice Update] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060810194439/http://www.lorettocommunity.org/justice_update.htm |date=2006-08-10 }}. Both accessed June 11, 2006.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.lorettocommunity.org/about/history/ Loretto Community] * ''[https://www.lorettocommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gods-Own-Frontier_Reduced.pdf God's Own Frontier]'' {{Coord|37|39|50.6|N|85|23|54.67|W|display=title}} {{North America in topic|Roman Catholicism in}}
Category:Sisters of Loretto Category:Catholic teaching orders Category:Religious organizations established in 1812 Category:Catholic religious institutes established in the 19th century Category:Catholic female orders and societies Category:1812 establishments in the United States