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f-yf-dkc-)Sa-idt,git.0(1-3rales-d.rsTy)iea-iniltan1’tr-gegyC-ldrse-FormerconventHERALD STAFF REPORTThe Martin County Convent Foundation is now ready to enter the preservation stage of the Our Lady of Mercy Convent. A program the foundation hopes will benefit Martin County residents for years to come.Convent members met several times to establish events to raise money to finance their efforts. These events have included a music club talent show, a soup cook-off, a buggy ride during the county fair and the opening of the convent for a tour during Old Settlers Day.The restoration of the 108-years-old monastery has been faced with the lack of funds. Restoration costs are estimated at $500,000, according to Foundation treasurer James McGilray.Since 1987, the foundation has raised $45,000, which $25,000 wasused to purchase the building.A $1,750 grant was presented to the foundation from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to hire Killis Almond, a San Antonio preservation architect, to submit restoration recommendations. Almond reported the original construction was still in tack, gabled and encased with wood. The design turned out to be a loggia, a roofed walkway with adobe arches opening to the outside, running along the one side of the building. The arches, long since sealed off with mud brick, wood and windows, are believed to have opened to a prayer garden or meditation area. According to Almond, the structure was a significant find because there was not another structure like it in the state.Two former convent residents, in recent interviews, gave their reactions to recent trips back to the convent. Former student Helen Dunn, now of Kermit, attended school in 1936. She spent nearly a year at the convent. The other resident was Sister Odilia, a former student who became a nun and devoted 20 years as a nurse atstruct in his far missionarv*districts. After he pleaded his case with Sister Kast, she told him that if it would be alright with her superiors, she would accept his offer.”She added, “On March 1894 asmall band of Sisters of Mercy left St. Mary convent, in San Francisco, to devote their lives in West Texas. Pupils consisted of parents who were working with the railroad, prospecting, oilfield and just wanted their child to go to boarding school. And there were pupils from all over the state. Carmelite missions extended from east of the Colorado River to the Rio Grande; on to the West of Carlsbad to South Brogar-do, New Mexico. When the academy opened it had 16 pupils.”Dunn remembers the huge building was enoromous andrather interesting. “The huge building was built in a horseshoe shape, with verandas runningcompletely across the top andbottom floors. There were wooden railings along all the verandas. In front of the verandas, on the bottom floor, was hedges and evergreens. In the center of the driveway wasft/another large bed of evergreens, shrubbery and red cannas.”She added, “we were greeted at the door by a nun, complete with black habit and hood, complimented by a square stiff white collar. A long rosary dangled from her waist. Her name was Sister Aloyeius. 1 later learned that upon becoming a nun, she took the name of Saint Aloyeius Gonzaga; a Jesuit priest, born at Catiglione and educated at the Florentine Court of Medicine in Rome, who later devoted himself to caring for plague victims during the famine and pestilence in Rome in 1591. He himself later became a victim of the plague.“My parents were ready to leave, after having made the ar-• CONVENT page 8 AHelen Dunn, above, stands by the picture she drew of how the convent looked when she was a student there in 1936. Efforts to perserve the convent, top photo, continue.Fast to visit her sister. On stopp ing over at Hotel Dieu in El Paso she met Rev. Simon Weeg Prioi from Marienfeld in Martin Coun ty. The good father was anxiously looking for Sisters to teach and inMercy Hospital in Slaton,Sister Odilia recounted how the sisters decided to move to West Texas.“Mother superior Sister MBerchman Kast made a trip to the
Newspaper Details
Big Spring Stanton Herald
Big Spring, Texas, US
Wed, Dec 26, 1990
Page 1
Full Page
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San A.
TX, USA 25 May 2023
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