While the focus of Women’s History Month often — and rightly — falls on well-known trailblazers, I find myself thinking about the quietly impactful lives of the early Sisters of Loretto at SMA, who were trailblazers decades earlier

In summer 2022, the remains of some of these sisters were among 62 exhumed from Loretto Heights Cemetery and lovingly reburied at Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery.

I visited Loretto Heights Cemetery on several hot July days, timing my arrival to coincide with the work of a team of professors and university students as they respectfully exhumed the remains of the SMA sisters. The deaths of 10 sisters dated back to the late 1800s when they were originally buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery, in what is now the Denver Botanic Gardens, before being moved to Loretto Heights Cemetery.

Peering down into the graves and listening as a brief biography of each sister was read before the exhumation began, I imagined these remarkable women in the white frame house on California Street—teaching challenging subjects, caring for homesick boarding students, and finding solace in prayer. I imagined them laughing with their young charges, hiking in Morrison during the summer, and joining Father Machebeuf for Mass in their chapel.  As the workers dug deeper into the earth, they carefully collected fabric scraps from the sisters’ habits, a rusted crucifix or religious medal, bits of wood, and bone fragments. 

The sisters’ names appear on gravestones, not banners. Without fanfare, they devoted their lives to uplifting others, inspiring students to become their best selves, facing hardships with resilience and courage, and shaping the future. In this month dedicated to honoring women, may we humbly remember these Sisters of Loretto living remarkable lives 100 years before Women’s History Month was created.