LOREtto

Welcome to LOREtto, a blog created by Loretto Heritage Center to share insights into the rich history of the Loretto Community. Learn more about our Heritage Center and archives.

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Exploring the School Photograph Collection, State-by-State

By Reba Weatherford / September 12, 2023 /

After more than a year of work, the digitizing of the school photographs from Loretto schools in the United States is finally complete! Soon I will begin work on the…

5×5 Sister-Sisters

By Susanna Pyatt / August 28, 2023 /

Archived newspaper clipping showing a family posing for a photo around the piano. There are five women in one style of habit, one wearing a different type of habit, two men standing to the left of the photo and one older man sitting on the piano bench.

Browsing through Loretto’s database of Sisters and Co-members, it is fascinating to see how many members had blood relatives who also joined the community. Five family groupings in particular stand…

Representations of the Loretto Staircase Mystery

By Reba Weatherford / July 19, 2023 /

1960 comic book cover showing a circular staircase in a church with several people standing around and looking at it. Title reads "Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact" Subtitle "The Wonderful Staircase of Santa Fe"

Archives are full of primary sources that answer historical questions, and the archives at the Loretto Heritage Center are no exception. The archives hold annals, correspondence, annual reports, photographs, journals,…

Glimpses of Loretto’s Agricultural Past

By Susanna Pyatt / May 31, 2023 /

Black and white archival photo of two men standing by a large garden.

While the Loretto Heritage Center contains a lot of archival papers that document Loretto’s past, one aspect that is difficult to see in the archives is the history of agriculture…

“Related to Many in the Society”

By Susanna Pyatt / April 6, 2023 /

Three-by-three collage of nine nuns, eight of which are in habits. The most recent photo is the woman in the lower right corner who is not in a habit and is in color.

A note in Sr. Matilda Drury’s file mentions that she was “related to many in the Society and in the priesthood.” Like the Bowling family highlighted in January’s LOREtto post,…

Loretto and the Arts

By Susanna Pyatt / February 28, 2023 /

Students in an art class, standing at easels and painting portraits of a man smoking a pipe.

The Sisters of Loretto were founded in 1812 with a mission of teaching, but what were their schools like? To answer one aspect of this question, an upcoming exhibit at…

Tracing the Bowling Family

By Susanna Pyatt / January 31, 2023 /

Photo collage of 14 habited nuns, all sharing a family resemblance.

Updated on March 4, 2024 after additional discoveries in the Loretto Archives. It’s not uncommon to find Sisters of Loretto who are biologically related to each other, usually as sisters,…

“On the twelfth day of Christmas…”

By Loretto Community / December 25, 2022 /

Archival photo of young women dancing around May Poles.

Happy holidays from the Loretto Heritage Center staff! To celebrate the season, we posted photos for the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” to our Facebook page. All of the…

Sister Gabriel Mary’s Artwork

By Susanna Pyatt / November 29, 2022 /

A smiling woman stands in a silkscreening workshop, holding up a beautiful print of pinks, reds and white.

Guess which artist is most represented in the Loretto Heritage Center? Sister Gabriel Mary Hoare! We have over 70 works by her in the collections here. People who have been…

The Spalding Women and Loretto

By Susanna Pyatt / October 24, 2022 /

Mid-1800's Portrait of a woman in a buttoned-up dress with a lace collar. Her hair is pulled up with a wide ribbon.

Loretto numbers among its early students and Sisters several descendants of Benedict Spalding (1746-1815), one of the leaders of the Maryland-to-Kentucky Catholic migration. Benedict’s wife and children accompanied him in…

Tragedy and Triumph: The Early Days of Lorettines in Missouri

By Loretto Community / August 19, 2022 /

Archival photo of seven nuns in habits standing in front of a train car.

By Katie Daugherty The Heritage Center was thrilled to welcome Katie Daugherty as our 2022 summer intern. Katie came from Sylva, NC, where she is Head of the Circulation Department…

Tales from the Ledgers: Bartering in Early Loretto Academies

By Loretto Community / July 28, 2022 /

Photo of 1887 ledger listing cost of tuition and books, and a payment of $41.25 - "By Sheep"

By Katie Daugherty The Heritage Center is thrilled to welcome Katie Daugherty as our 2022 summer intern. Katie comes from Sylva, NC, where she is Head of the Circulation Department…

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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.