St. Louis nuns shaped Joetown
By Fred Slater

A century and a half ago, people in the frontier town of St. Joseph were surprised by the arrival of four strangely garbed women. The newcomers were members of the Religio de Sacre Couer de Jesu (Religious of the Sacred Heart) who came from St. Louis to open a school for girls here. Since then, thousands of young women were educated here by the nuns, whose long black-skirted habits, including a white coif, edged neatly with a starched, fluted border, topped with a black veil, made them an unusual sight in the wild and wooly town.

On Oct. 18, 2003, alumnae and friends of the former Convent of the Sacred Heart at 12th and Messanie streets will gather in St. Joseph to commemorate that arrival. At first, the four nuns operated a girls school in the Galt House, once a hotel at Fourth and Sylvanie streets, until the convent was erected at its hilltop location in 1857.

Legend has it that the religious superior in St. Louis had asked the Rev. Thomas Scanlon, pioneer St. Joseph priest who had requested the nuns, Will we have enough students? The priest, so the story goes, replied, You bring the teachers and we will supply the students.

While it has been decades since the Sacred Heart nuns, called Madames for years, then Mothers but now known as Sisters closed their school in St. Joseph, the traditions and memories of former students of the convent linger. The order was founded by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat in France. An American nun, St. Phillipine Duchesne, a member of the order, spent many years among Indians and in St. Louis.

Those convent memories will be revived on at 11 a.m. Oct. 18 at a Mass, celebrated by Bishop Raymond Boland of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, at St. Francis Xavier Church. That will be followed by a luncheon at the Parish Center.

At the Mass, two St. Joseph natives, Sister Joanne Fitzpatrick, class of 1950, and Sister Marianne Ruggeri, class of 1951, will celebrate the 50th anniversaries of their taking religious vows as Sacred Heart nuns.

When the religious looked for a permanent location for their convent and growing school 150 years ago, they considered two sites. One was at the northwest corner of Frederick and Ashland avenues. The other was several square blocks at the northeast of 12th and Messanie streets.

The Ashland site was rejected because it was too far out in the country. The Messanie location was decided upon because its hilltop location gave it an excellent view and the site was close to the student population. The school opened on June 12, 1853.

For more than a century, the school, with students from the first-grade through high school, was mainly a boarding school, including many St. Joseph girls as boarders. During Civil War days, so legend goes, some girls from the South remained at the convent during summers because they could not go through battle zones to their homes.

As the student population grew, so did the convent building. A chapel wing was added to the north in 1884 and a south wing, to accommodate more boarders, was erected in 1890. As a result, the three-story edifice, with its slate mansard roof and the cross-topped bell tower, dominated the St. Joseph skyline.

At the turn of the century, the religious were asked by St. Joseph Bishop Maurice Burke to operate the newly built Cathedral School at 11th and Isadore streets. That they did, including staffing a girls high school there, until 1920 when they returned to the hilltop. The Cathedral School was turned over to the Benedictine Sisters from Atchison, Kan.

The location on South 12th Street was originally a self-sustaining operation, even including a cemetery. There was a small herd of cattle and a flock of chickens. Crops included corn and various vegetables. That work was carried on by sisters, the work force of the Convent. The bodies in the cemetery were moved later to a special plot at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Personal recollections:

In the 1919-20 school year, I was in the chart grade and was promoted at mid-year to the first-grade.

One day our teacher, Mother Johnson, announced no one could go to the adjoining cloakroom to get a drink of water during class unless they had a note from a parent or doctor. I immediately wrote on a page in my Big Chief tablet Please let Fred get a drink. Mrs. Slater.

I presented the note to Mother Johnson, who called the note a forgery. More than that, she gave it to one of my brothers to take home to my parents who also lectured me on my crime.

When Bishop Francis Gilfillan headed the St. Joseph diocese, he offered Mass at the convent early on Sunday mornings. Dick Snooks, now a deacon at the cathedral, and I were the altar boys for the Masses for several years.

While I was writing stories for the 100th anniversary of the convent, Rev. Mother Celeste Thompson, the superior then, took me up to the roof of the convent for the unusual view. That rooftop excursion usually was a privilege given only to students in the annual graduating class. Tiny Mother Thompson was a ball of fire, energetic, firm but kind.

People with Convent-related articles that might be displayed at the October reunion should contact Mrs. Janet (Larry) Schiesl, publicity chairman, or Diane Slentz, at Bishop LeBlond High School, the successor of the Convent, which closed in 1960.

The convent, razed and replaced by an apartment complex, is long gone but the memories continue to live.