St Marys Academy - Blue Star Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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God seems to have been raised in benediction over the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross since the beginning of their work in Austin. On a Sunday in April of 1947 citizens of Austin reading their morning papers were amazed to learn that Mother M. Rose Elizabeth, Superior General of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, had purchased for the Congregation the former E. H. Perry estate. On the ten acre plot in northeast Austin is a residence of Italian Renaissance architecture built of grey stucco and roofed with red tile. Terraced gardens surround the two main buildings. Through the lower part of the campus runs a small creek bridged by a picturesque arch of stone. These new quarters, although beautiful, were not spacious enough to provide » adequate room for all the faculty and students. Therefore, in February of 1949 it was announced that construction would begin immediately upon three new buildings. There will be a chapel, a convent, and a classroom building erected on the campus. The buildings, which are still under construction, will be ready for occupancy in the Fall of 1949. It seems fitting that Saint Mary s Academy should begin a new program expansion during this year, the Diamond Jubilee year. In these new buildings the Sisters of the Holy Cross and their students will begin to shape the remaining twenty - five years which must elapse before the academy reaches its centenary. The seventy-five years be tw e e n the first small class in the cabin near Saint Mary’s Cathedral and the present academy have been years of struggle and years of triumph. The work is not yet completed and will not be until there are no more girls to throng the halls of Saint Mary’s. The sisters will continue to give their utmost in the effort to educate all the girls who come to them in the ways of a Mary- like life. Because the Sisters of the Holy Cross have given Austin a school whose excellence is material as well as spiritual, they deserve the praise and commenda- tion which their friends give them. Because throughout seventy-five years there has always been a sister to teach an eager mind, to soothe an uneasy spirit, or to love a lonely heart, the Sisters of the Holy Cross unreservedly deserve the love that each student, young and old, bears for them and for Saint Mary’s Academy of Austin, Texas.

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The Administration Building of Saint Mary’s Academy at Forty-first and Red River Streets, where Sisters of the Holy Cross will continue the work they began seventy-five years ago in Austin, Texas.

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WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY (For the Students of Saint Mary’s Academy — Past and Present) Whatsoever things are lovely. Lord of all loveliness, Let their eyes see.......... Your majesty in mountains, in the sea. In storms that shake the earth; Your constancy in changeless stars; Your simplicity in a field flower Or in the clear eyes of a child. Whatsoever things are lovely, Lord of all loveliness. Let their lives hold...... A faith that finds in the dull things of time The burning beauty of eternity; A hope that penetrates the clouds of fear To gaze upon the brightness of Your Face; And a love that encompasses the whole world As a small child clasps a treasured toy to its heart. Sister M. Lucy, C.S.C.