LOBZTZ
361
LOBBAIN
faith and unwavering attachment to Catholic truth
marked their earnest religious character and sustained
their solicitude for the Christian training of their
children. Notine these traits Fathers Badm and Ne-
rinckx cherished hopes of establishing a religious com-
munity. In 1812 their hopes were realized when
Loretto sprang into existence with no other provision
for its subsistence than an abiding trust in Divine
Providence.
Miss Mary Rhodes, educated in Baltimore, opened a school in a log cabin near St. Charles's church. Two companions, Miss Christina Stewart and Miss Anne Havem, soon joined her. Father Nerinckx, seeing a ray of promise for realizing the hope he had cherished so long, encouraged their desire to aedicatc themselves to the service of God and instructed them in the duties of the religious life. With the approval of the Right Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, first Bishop of Bards- town, he clothed them with the religious nabit on 25 April, 1812. This date is, therefore, commemorated by the sisters as their foundation day. Two other young ladies, Miss Anne Rhodes and Miss Sarah Hav- em, tnen asked for the habit and received it on 29 June, 1812. The little society then organized and Miss Anne Rhodes was chosen the first superioress. They were soon joined by Miss Nellie Morgan wiio had been a successful teacher. She received the hubit on 12 August, 1812. The health of Mother Anne soon failed; she pronounced her vows on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and died on 11 December, 1812. Biary Rhodes Was then chosen superioress. Mother Manr and her four companions pronoimced their vows of perpetual poverty, chastity, and olxjdi- ence on 15 August, 1813. Postulants continued to seek admission and Father Nerinckx w^atched over and encouraged the first efforts of the aspirants and directed them till his death (12 August, 1824) in the practices of the spiritual life and in their efforts to acquire greater proficiency as teachers. The life of the sis- ters edined all who knew them. Their austere rule breathed the purest spirit of Christian perfection, and though some of the regulations were found by experi- ence to be too rigid for observance in this country and were subsequently omitted, the spirit has been fully
S reserved and still animates the society. After the eath of Father Nerinckx, Bishop Flaget moved Lor- etto from the place of its first foundation to St. Ste- phen's, so called from the fact that Father Badin had Duilt a small log church near his residence and dedi- cated it to St. Stephen. The convent and church erected here by the sisters, dedicated in 1826 and de- stroyed by fire in 1858, have been replaced by more spacious buildings, and here the mother house of the ^ters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross still re- mains.
In the transfer of Loretto te this now location, noth- ing was lost of the primitive spirit of the society. The growth of the society rendered branch establishments necessary during the first decade of its existence. The first was founded in 1816, near Holy Mary's church; the second, in 1818, at the place where the great Cis- tercian Abbey of Gethsemani now stands; three others in Kentucky, and one in Missouri were founded before the death of Father Nerinckx. His zeal ani- mated the sisters and led them westward to labour and establish schools among the Indians and pioneers, where no provision had been made for their su{)port; these early foundations were for education what the early missionary churches were for religion. Incor- porated by Act of the Legislature of Kentuckv, in 1829, under the title, "The I-ioretto Literary and Benevo- lent Institution", the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross have maintained their academic courses abreast with current progress in education, and when the episcopate advocated the establishment of paro- chial schools, they were among the first to support the movement aiid devote themselves to the work. In
1816 Father Nerinckx submitted their rules and con-
stitutions to Pius VII for approval. The Holy Fa-
ther, well pleased with its spirit, placed the new insti-
tute under the protection of the Sacred Congregation
of the Propaganda and granted it many favours.
Again in 1851, Right Rev. Martin John Spalding,
after^'ards Archbishop of Baltimore, presented the
constitutions to the Holy See for the encouragement
and blessing of Pius IX. At the l>eginning of the
twentieth century the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of
the Cross turned again to the Holy See for guidance.
In 1904 Mother Praxedes Carty presente<l the consti-
tutions which Pius X fully and nnally confirmed in
1907.
The general government of the society is vested in the mother general and her councillors residing at the mother house. Each establishment is presided over by a local superior and her two assistants. The society is conif)Osed of but one class of sisters, no distinctions being made in the manner of training to the prac- tice of religious virtues, all are subject to the same reg- ulations of the religious state. The novitiate lasts one full year, at the completion of which the sisters pro- nounce the three simple vows which they renew annu- ally, mitil at the expiration of the fifth year, they make perpetual vows. The young professed sisters pass an examination and thasc having proper qualifi- cations for teachers are placed in the normal training school of the society. Whatever educational advan- tages a sister may have had before entering the society, she is required to apply herself to the special line oi studies chosen by her superiors and to follow a course of pedagogical training in the normal school. In 1909 the Sisters of Ix)retto at the Foot of the Cross conducted schools in the Archdioceses of St. Louis and Santa F^, and in thci Dioceses of Louisville, Covington, Columbus, Cleveland, Mobile, Bellville, Kansas City, Lincoln, Denver, Tucson, and Dallas.
The A rch ives of the Society,
Edwin Drurt. Loriti, IIeixrich. See Glarean, Henry.
Lorrain, Claudk de (Claude Gillke or Gelli^), French painter and etcher, b. in IGOOat Chamagncon the banks of the Moselle in Lorraine; d. in Rome, 21 Nov., 1G81 (or 21] Nov., 1682). Ilis parents, Jean Gell^e and Anna Padosc, poor and with a large family, gave Claude little schooling. Left an orphan at the age of twelve, he lived with an elder brother, a wood carver, at Freiburg, and there learned to draw orna- ments and arabesques. Sandrart-, a writer on art and Claude's friend, says that the l.)oy was apprenticed to a pa<?try-cook; but piston may have been a misprint for pictori (a painter) . About i 6 1 3 a relative took Claude to Rome, where he appears to have abandoned the boy. Claude wandered to Naples seciking Gottfried Wals, a Cologne artist, whose pictures he greatly ad- mired. For two yeiirs Wals taught him architectural perspective and landscape painting. In lOlo Claude returned to Rome, and became a member of the house- hold of Agostino Tassi, who was painting a scries of decorations for Pope Paul V. Claude was half domes- tic servant and lialf artistic assistant to Tassi, who mentions him as a co-worker in decorating Cardinal Montalto's palace. In 1025 Claude went to Venice, a city which deeply impressed him and his future work, and made a pilgrimivge to the IIolv Virgin of Lo- retto for devotion and meditation, lie then roamed tlu-ough the Tyrol, Bavaria, the Black Forest, and to Nancy where he worked for a year on architectural painting. These wanderings impoverished his purse and his health, and he longed for Rome, to which he returned in 1627 to reside there until his death. The Eternal City welcomed him, and commissions from the illustrious of all Europe f)Oured in upon him. Among them were Popes Innocent X, Urban VIII, Clement IX (Cardinal Rospigliosi), and Alexander VII, Emperor Leopold I, Philip IV <il ^\»ncn.^ *<5oa
