• Feather-Icon
    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.

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Dolores Kelledy SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 30, 2020 /
A woman with short white hair and oval wire glasses wearing a white blouse with dainty floral patterns smiling brightly for a portrait headshot picture with a black and grey vignette background.

The first words of Dolores Kelledy’s 1976 autobiography go right to the heart of the matter: “I became interested in the Sisters of Loretto while attending elementary school in the…

Read More

MY EXPERIENCES AS A PROTESTER

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 18, 2020 /

I am a white female who grew up in a St. Louis suburb featured in the CBS documentary “16 in Webster Groves” (1966), a critique of the insular life of…

Read More

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Mary Peter Bruce SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 6, 2020 /
A woman with short grey hair wearing a white undershirt, pink sweater, beaded necklace, and dangly earrings smiling brightly for a headshot picture while leaning against a red brick wall.

Mary Peter Bruce was the eldest daughter of James H. Bruce and Dolores Novoa, known as Lola.  They named her Dolores Patricia and called her Patsy. She had three siblings,…

Read More

Reflection on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Eleanor Craig SL / August 2, 2020 /

Isaiah 55: 1-3           Ps 145                   Romans 8: 35-39                   Mt 14: 13-21 In today’s liturgy all the readings have the same simple message: Love permeates the world. God loves all of us and…

Read More

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Mary Frances (formerly Sister Margaret Mary) Lottes SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / July 31, 2020 /
A woman with short white hair and oval glasses smiling brightly for a flash picture headshot while wearing a black blouse and a light blue jacket.

Mary Frances Lottes was born into what she describes as “a secure and happy life in a large family during the Depression years.”  She was the fourth child of Arthur…

Read More

Reflection on the Feast of Corpus Christi

By Eleanor Craig SL / June 14, 2020 /
An imperfect yellow cross graphic with a purple circle in the center.

Today’s feast of Corpus Christi is about sacraments.  It encourages us to reflect on the ways God uses the most simple human realities to bring us to the holy, how…

Read More

Reflection on the Fourth Sunday of Easter

By Eleanor Craig SL / May 3, 2020 /

Acts 2:14, 36-41    Psalm 23 (24)    1 Peter 2:20-25    John 10:1-10     Last Sunday we had the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and how they recognized…

Read More

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Nancy Finneran SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / April 25, 2020 /
A woman with short brown hair and oval wire glasses smiling for a headshot picture wearing a light green blouse and a dark-colored chevron-patterned sweater with a dark red plain background.

In Granite City, Ill., at the height of the Depression, Martin Joseph Finneran and his wife Fannie Price Finneran welcomed their fifth and final child and named her Nancy Jane. …

Read More

Remembrance of the Life of Anne Spillane CoL

By Eleanor Craig SL / April 23, 2020 /
A woman with short grey hair and round wire glasses smiling brightly for a headshot picture outdoors in front of spruce tree greenery wearing a bright blue blouse.

“I was born in St. Louis in 1927, the youngest of Thomas and Mary Elizabeth’s three children. I spent a marvelously happy childhood in St. Luke’s Parish, Richmond Heights, Mo.…

Read More

Remembrance of the Life of Jossy Eyre CoL

By Eleanor Craig SL / April 20, 2020 /
A woman with shoulder-length grey hair wearing a patterned blouse with a white collar and a black blazer smiling for a headshot picture while sitting on a black leather seat in front of a brick wall.

Josepha Eyre was the eighth of 10 children born to Elizabeth Margaret Purcell and Francis Anton Schretien in Nijmegan, Holland, in 1931. She described her life as “before” and “since…

Read More

Reflection on the Fourth Sunday of Lent

By Eleanor Craig SL / March 22, 2020 /
Sunlight shines through the window in the Motherhouse Church

1 Samuel 16, Psalm 23 (22), Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9: 1-41 Having come to the conclusion of our celebration this morning, what will we take with us into this day,…

Read More

Remembrance of the Life of Sister Kay Carlew SL

By Eleanor Craig SL / March 11, 2020 /
A woman with short, white hair and wire glasses smiling brightly for a headshot picture wearing a white t-shirt and a grey collared jacket outside in front of a brick building and greenery.

Sister Kay Carlew wrote a brief introduction of herself for Loretto Magazine at the time of her Golden Jubilee in 2011.  We’ll start there but be warned: Kay left out…

Read More