Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/552

394 which bore them across the river, climbed the hill, and by dint of another brisk walk, reached their destination at 8:30. In 1892 the location itself was purchased from the archdiocese for $5,000. From this time the staff of sisters employed in the school resided there, and in the obedience of 1893 East Portland received its rank among the local houses of the province of Oregon. The school at first bore the name of "Holy Names Academy," but this title was changed to "St. Francis Academy."

In the north section of Portland is St. Patrick's school, in St. Patrick's parish, which was accepted by the Sisters of the Holy Names in 1885. St. Mary's Academy Annex, under the protection of Most Rev. Alexander Christie, has since 1900 been a favored resort for little children of St. Mary's cathedral parish. Some time in the near future these little ones will swell the ranks of the pupils of the contemplated cathedral school.

Last year the Holy Names sisters took charge of two new schools in Portland; The school of the Holy Redeemer, in the Redemptorist parish, Piedmont, and St. Ignatius' school in the new Jesuit parish.

The congregation of the Sister- Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded about sixty years ago, at Monroe, Michigan.

Six years ago the sisters of this order were called upon to take charge of St. Lawrence Academy, Portland, in the work of which six sisters are engaged; the academy has had an average of two hundred pupils a year since its commencement. One year ago St. Andrew's school, on the east side, Portland, under the care of these sisters, was opened, with an enrollment of over one hundred pupils; in this school there are five sisters employed. Besides these schools, the sisters have charge of the academy of the Immaculate Heart, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which was opened the same year as St. Lawrence Academy, and also of St. Joseph's Academy, Spokane, Washington, which was opened the following year.

The Sisters of St. Dominic came to Oregon in 1888 to take charge of St. Joseph's parochial school and in 1889 they opened a school in St. Mary's parish, on Stanton street. Besides directing the school, attached to the church, the sisters take a limited number of select boarders.

The mother house of the Dominican sisters of Portland is in Mission San Jose, California. Here is also situated the novitiate house, where aspirants to the order receive the requisite training.

The Dominican order was founded by St. Dominic in the first half of the thirteenth century. It has a triple organization. The first comprises the fathers, students and brothers living in community under the three solemn vows; the second, or cloistered order, consists of women only, who spend their lives in the seclusion of the cloister praying, as Moses of old, for the success of those who battle for God in the midst of the world; the third order embraces both sexes in every variety of religious life in the world, to the cloistered, though not enclosed, communities binding themselves to teaching in schools, nursing the sick; reclaiming the prodigals and the Magdalens; training the orphans; taking care of lepers and the plague-striken.

The brothers of the Christian schools were founded by St. John Baptist de la Salle, who was born at Rheims, France, in 165 1. His congregation was first established to provide schools for the poor of his native city. The thorough preparation which he demanded of his teachers and the many improvements which