Mount St Mary Academy - Mercian Yearbook (Little Rock, AR)

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1851-1951-ONE HUNDRED ST. MAR Y'S, 1851 One hundred years of devotion and sac- rifice! One hundred years of dedication to God! One hundred years of progress for St. Mary's! So reads the record of the Sisters of Mercy in Arkansas. It was in 1850 that the recently consecrated Andrew J. Byrne, first Bishop of the Little Rock Diocese, recognized the great need for Religious to spread the word of God to the poor, the sick, and the ignorant of his territory. Believing that the recently founded Order of the Sisters of Mercy, begun in 1831 by Mother Catherine McAuley, would best fit the needs of the hard and trying voyage across the Atlantic. They spent the time on board teaching the children, visit- ing the sick, instructing the older people, and saying their prayers in the small chapel erected for them in a stateroom. During the journey, the ship was once lost in a storm and then for some time was becalmed at sea, but through the fer- vent and constant prayers of the Sisters, all on board remained safe. After the crossing, the ship sailed in- to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississip- pi, landing at New Orleans, where the Sis- ters rested and visited for several days with the Ursuline nuns. The Bishop and the Sisters then boarded the steamer Pontiac and sailed up the Mississippi, into the Arkansas River, and arrived at the Little Rock wharf February 5, 1851. During the absence of the Bishop, the Vicar-General, who had been appointed to build the Sisters' convent, had died, and there was no home ready for them when they arrived. The Bishop turned over to them his home on Second and Center Streets and soon purchased for them a school, a former meetinghouse located at religion starved people of Arkansas, Bishop Byrne went to the Motherhouse of the Order in Dublin, Ire- land. From there he was directed to the branch house in Naas, where he delivered his fervent and eloquent plea. He found the Sisters willing and ea- ger to answer his call, and at last it was decided that four professed Sisters and eight postulants would make up the little band to sail November 30 on the John O'Toole. The Sisters, unaccus- tomed to sea travel, had a ST. MARY'S, 1885

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YEARS Sixth and Louisiana Streets. The Sisters made many friends among the people of Arkansas, but there were those who strove to make them unwelcome in the ter- ritory. However, this only helped to strengthen the Sisters' efforts and gain for them the support of their friends and admirers. As soon as they arrived, they started a catechism school and went out to visit the poor and the sick in their homes. During the War between the States, the Sisters cared for the wounded and needy, regardless of color of uniform. They vol- unteered the use of one of their buildings as a temporary hospital and gave them- selves over to treating the wounded, car- ing for their spiritual as well as their physical needs. The days after the war were hard ones for the people of Arkansas. The Sisters of Mercy, then overburdened by the care of many of the children left homeless by the war, found it hard to carry on, but were frequently aided by the military authorities who had also given them pro- tection during the war. With the increase in students, the land on which the first St. Mary's was located became too cramped, and in 1908 Bishop John B. Morris, third Bishop of the dio- cese, secured for the Sisters the site in CGNVENT ANNEX, 1923 CF PROGRESS ST. MARY'S 1909 Pulaski Heights on which stands today Mt. St. Mary's, Alma Mater of the Class of '51 and nearly one hundred preceding classes. In 1923 a three-and-a-half-story annex was built to serve as a novitiate and en- larged Sisters' quarters. An auditorium- gymnasium with an indoor swimming pool was built in 1928. The next year the Sisters of Mercy of Arkansas joined the Union of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States, and Mt. St. Mary's became a mem- ber of the St. Louis Provincial House. Mt. St. Mary's, during the past quar- ter century, has grown and progressed in its educational work, directed by its staff of 19 highly-trained teachers and holds membership in the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Col- leges. The day is not far off when St. Mary's will have to under- take another building pro- gram if, in its second cen- tury, it is to maintain the h i g h-quality educational standards it has upheld for the past one hundred years. The Centennial MER- CIAN, throughout its pages of proof of progress and development in one hun- dred years, will try to show, through the eyes of the Miss of 1851, the St. Mary's of 1951. i 1 l -A