St. Mary's Academy is 160! It is a rare accomplishment in Denver and a testimony to the faith and courage of Sister Joanna Walsh, Sister Beatriz Maes Torres, and Sister Ignatia Mora. They left their cherished community and school in Santa Fe to answer Father Machebeuf’s call to open St. Mary’s Academy in wild Denver City. How wild? There were six churches, schools, and hospitals and five times that many saloons. 

Headed for Denver City in a mail coach, the trio tearfully said goodbye to the Sisters at Our Lady of Light Academy, unsure if they would ever see them again. They traveled light with one trunk of cherished items to set up a small altar for prayer and a few books and slates to start SMA, the first Catholic school in the Colorado Territory. Their desire to help children grow spiritually and academically inspired their mission, and we are their beneficiaries. 

SMA is blessed that Sister Joanna wrote about the five-day journey and opening day on August 1. She writes vividly of hot days and sleepless nights in a cramped coach, stops at forlorn places for meager meals, hours of delay when one of the mules pulling the coach sinks into a mud hole, and then, as if a reward for their arduous journey, God’s grandeur on full display at the Garden of the Gods.

There was no stopping until they arrived at the white frame house at the corner of 14th and California Streets. Exhausted but eager, they soon started settling in. Sister wrote, “By the time for night prayers … we selected a little room for our oratory. There we knelt before a frameless picture of the Crucifixion standing on our trunk — we had but one — and supported against the wall. We tried to pray most fervently, and for the first time from those prairie wilds, Hail to the Queen was wafted to the ears of our Immaculate Mother by her three lone pioneer children.”

By singing Loretto’s traditional evening hymn, the Sisters joined in spirit with Sisters of Loretto everywhere, whether at the Motherhouse, in St. Louis, or their dear Santa Fe. Through their faith and courage, Loretto’s mission of loving service was firmly planted in Denver City.  One-hundred-sixty years later, our gratitude is boundless.