Loyola University - Wolf Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

Page 14 text:

Grand Coteau, Louisiana Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama JESUITS RETURN That the Society of Jesus played a major role English colonists set foot in that area, long before in the Christianization and colonization of both the Mayflower reached Massachusetts. North and South America is a matter of record. Although the Jesuits had penetrated into the History presents long lists of Jesuit martyrs, mis- Southland long before 1723, it was not until then sionaries, educators, explorers in the early periods that they were established in New Orleans. Be- of both the Americas. Jesuits were being martyred tween the years 1723 and 1763, a number of by Indians in what is now Virginia, near the pres- Jesuits missionaries fell victims to the very savages ent site of Washington, D. C, long before the they sought to convert. Jesuit influence with the

Page 13 text:

LOYOLA ' S S T C L Candidates for first graduation class

Page 15 text:

Indians was, however, considerable. The efforts St. Charles Avenue to the IlHnois Central Rail- of the missionaries greatly aided the development road tracks. In 1904, on a section of this prop- of the whole Louisiana colony. erty, an educational institution named Loyola In 1762, the Jesuits, victims of political intrigue. College began functioning. In the infant days of were banished from Louisiana. The year 1763 the new college there were no indications of the saw the last Jesuit departing from New Orleans. great university it was destined to become. On Eighty-four years rolled on, and then, in the year the opening day, only six students registered. Cash 1847, New Orleans witnessed the return of the on hand amounted to but 100. There was, how- Jesuit Order. ever, on all sides, a realization of the desperate need In 1857, the Jesuit Fathers opened, on Baronne St., the College and Church of the Immaculate Conception, dedicating both college and church to the Virgin Mother of God. Just three years previ- for a Catholic university in the Southland. Many generous souls came to the aid of the struggling, Jesuits High School ously, the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception had been defined as an Article of Faith by Pope Pius IX. In 1889, Father John O ' Shanahan, S. J., pur- chased for 22,500 a tract of land stretching from