Author archive

Eleanor Craig SL

Eleanor has been a Sister of Loretto since 1963 and an educator since birth. She graduated from two of Loretto's best known St. Louis institutions, Nerinx Hall High School in 1960, and Webster University in 1967. She taught mathematics at Loretto in Kansas City, where her personal passion for adventure history inspired her to develop and lead treks along the historic Oregon Trail. From 1998 to 2010 she created an award-winning program of outdoor adventure along the Western trails for teens who are visually impaired. Eleanor claims to have conducted more wagon trains to the West than the Mountain Men! From 2012 to 2021, Eleanor led a talented staff of archivists and preservationists at the Loretto Heritage Center on the grounds of the Motherhouse. Now retired, she still serves in the Heritage Center as Loretto Community Historian.

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Remembrance of the Life of Patricia Jean Saddler Hughes CoL

By Eleanor Craig SL / January 6, 2020 /

Patricia Jean Saddler was understandably proud of her ancestry. Her distant kin, Basil Hayden, led the first band of Catholics from Maryland to central Kentucky in 1785. Her mother’s family,…

Reflection: Feast of the Holy Family

By Eleanor Craig SL / December 29, 2019 /

This morning we continue our Christmas celebrations with a feast focused on the family. That makes a lot of sense, because the Christmas child has been given to us in…

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Patricia Jean (PJ) Manion SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / September 12, 2019 /

This remembrance is just a little bit shorter than PJ’s long life. I could blame the length on PJ, who insisted on living life to the full. I certainly did…

Remembrance of the Life of Patricia Kenoyer CoL (formerly Sister Marie Francis Kenoyer SL)

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 17, 2019 /

A woman with short, grey hair smiling warmly wearing a bright aqua blue shirt, beaded necklace and big black circular framed glasses. She is standing in front of a plain wooden wall.

Patricia Ann Kenoyer was born on Flag Day, and each of her 95 birthdays she celebrated as though all the flags were flying for her! Her father John Jay Kenoyer…

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Mary Genevieve Cavanaugh SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 9, 2019 /

Jeanne Frances Cavanaugh was born 99 years ago, in Kansas City, Mo., to Frank Edward Cavanaugh of Kansas City and Mary Frances Mullen Cavanaugh of Salina, Kan. Jeanne was the…

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Patricia (formerly Sister Margaret Rose) Hummel SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / July 30, 2019 /

A woman with short, light brown hair and big round glasses, smiling for a portrait picture with a grey vignette background while wearing a navy blue and white patterned blouse and a white necklace with matching earrings.

The following is the autobiography which Sister Pat Hummel herself has written starting in 1989 and added to periodically until quite recently. “I was born in Louisville, Ky., June 30,…

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Mary Ann (formerly Sister Charles Loretto) Coyle SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / June 15, 2019 /

Mary Ann Coyle was born in Des Moines, Iowa on Nov. 1, 1925. Her parents were Charles L. Coyle and Loretta Teatum Coyle, both Catholic and lifetime residents of…

Loretto Heritage Center Staff Hang Together Through Thick and Thin!

By Eleanor Craig SL / May 1, 2019 /

Three women smiling for a picture while exploring a basement crawl space.

Curator Susanna Pyatt, Archivist Ayla Toussaint and I laugh as we inspect the space beneath our building; above the crawl space, Heritage Center Assistant Marcia Mohin enjoys the less dusty…

A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Documents

By Eleanor Craig SL / April 1, 2019 /

A woman with grey hair wearing a colorful plaid shirt smiling while grabbing a file box on a large file shelf covering the whole wall.

Last June the Archivists at the Loretto Heritage Center noticed buckling in the hardwood floor beneath the racks of documents. At least one sensitive nose also smelled musty, moldy smells.…

Which Way to the Novitiate?

By Eleanor Craig SL / November 16, 2018 /

On the grounds of Loretto Motherhouse, in an area of central Kentucky which is today still quite rural, two imposing brick buildings stand as witnesses to more than 175 years…

LOREtto Teaching: FIDES, MORES, CULTURA

By Eleanor Craig SL / September 13, 2018 /

Loretto Academy at Loretto Motherhouse, opened in 1834 in today’s “Rhodes Hall,” steadily pursued its mission of education, through times of financial boom and bust, through the fire of 1858…

Teaching: From the Three Rs to the Higher Branches

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 16, 2018 /

Two buildings on the grounds of Loretto Motherhouse are in the midst of significant anniversaries. The buildings that today we call “Rhodes Hall” and the “Novitiate/Academy Building” together mark 175…

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The Loretto Community consists of the congregation of the Sisters of Loretto and Loretto Co-members. The congregation of the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross was founded in rural Kentucky in 1812. Today, our Sisters and Co-members continue to live out the Loretto Community’s mission to “work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.” In the United States and throughout the world, Loretto Community members serve in many fields, including education, healthcare, elder care, environmental stewardship and advocacy.