Sisters of Loretto Records

Fonds

Identifier: LOR

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Correspondence and other documents in the archives of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in Rome; involving the Sisters of Loretto, Father Charles Nerinckx, and Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget, Martin John Spalding, and Francis Patrick Kenrick; letters and typewritten transcripts of letters written by or to Sisters of Loretto, including letters from bishops Simon Bruté, John Timon, CM, George A. Carrell, and Peter Joseph Lavialle; a dissertation entitled "Bishop Joseph Rosati, CM, and the Diocese of New Orleans, 1824-1830," by Sister Mary Carmel Murphy, MSC, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO, 1960, and other material concerning Rosati; a book entitled Missions of Western New York and Church History of the Diocese of Buffalo by John Timon, Bishop of Buffalo, 1862; and pictures of bishops Rosati, Timon, Leo Raymond de Neckere, Thaddeus Amat, Michael Domenec, John Mary Odin, and John J. Glennon, and of priests, scenes, and buildings of Perry County, Missouri.

Dates

Creation: 1806-1960.

Language of Materials

English.

Background

In 1812 at Hardin's Creek, Kentucky, Father Charles Nerinckx founded the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross, the first Catholic religious order of women in the United States to have no European affiliation.

In 1823 Bishop William Dubourg asked Father Nerinckx to send sisters to work in Missouri, and twelve sisters went there to establish the first Lorettine house outside Kentucky. They settled in Perry County and worked there in cooperation with Vincentian Fathers including Joseph Rosati and John Timon, both of whom later became bishops.