Trail Blazers...
| During Mother Pauline's thirty-year administration, the community grew to 115 members. In 1925, ground breaking for a new mother house at 6501 Almeda Road, in Houston, was held, partly due to the disastrous 1900 Galveston Storm which cost 6000 lives. In 1943, our status changed from diocesan to a papal congregation, and in this same time period we provided leadership for the organization and accreditation of the diocesan school system, the Montessori method, and Project Head Start. Following the Second Vatican Council, we began ministry in areas other than schools - parish religious education, the mission in Guatemala, campus ministry, and social work. Sacred Heart Dominican College, (later Dominican College), operated on the mother house grounds from 1945 to 1974. Many of the Houston Dominicans earned their degrees and teacher certification there. Following the close of the college, the Diocese of Galveston-Houston bought the land and college buildings. Sale of a second tract to the diocese in 1981 enabled the rebuilding of our generalate facilities and the diocesan chancery operation on Holcombe Blvd. - our neighbor! In 1975, when the Dominican Leadership Conference declared the ministry of justice to be a priority for U.S, Dominicans, we embraced this priority. On September 20, 1987, we declared and offered public sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala. Professor Samuel Gideon, one of the architects for the Hall, captures the experience many people had in living and working with Mother Pauline. He said, "One of the strongest influences in my life has
been that of Mother Pauline. (She was) a lovable character, a capable business woman, and one with a keen sense of humor, impressing everyone with the radiance of her spirituality and personality."
Dominican Women in Texas, Sheila Hackett, OP, l986. In 1997, the Congregation embraced our identity as Communities of the Holy Preaching and women preachers of justice with our Corporate Commitment statement. To broaden collaborative undertakings with the U.S. Dominican Family, we joined Dominican Sisters, USA, in 1999 and the Dominican Alliance in 2001. Our membership is now 114, with one-third ministering in education, while others serve in parish ministry, religious education, social service, campus ministry, counseling, medical, legal, family and women's services, music and art, the Guatemala mission, retreat work, community organizing and refugee assistance. |
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Texas Dominican Trail
In 1874, Bishop Rosecrans of Columbus, Ohio, named Sister Mary Agnes Magevney of Memphis, Tennessee (right), Superioress of the house to open the Cathedral School of the Sacred Heartin Columbus, along with assistance from Mother Rose Lynch. Both were members of the Dominican Congregation of St. Mary of the Springs, Columbus - daughter community of the original American foundation, St. Catharine, Kentucky (l822).  Sister Mary Agnes Magevney When Bishop Rosecrans died, the Cathedral School in Columbus was lost due to lack of finances, and Mother Mary Agnes made arrangements to relocate in Somerset, Ohio, opening Sacred Heart School there in May, 1879. Bishop John Watterson did not want two mother houses so close, so Mother Agnes asked for and received from Bishop Nicholas Gallagher admission into the Diocese of Galveston, Texas, the mother diocese of the state. 
Leaving Somerset on September 26, 1882, a group of twenty sisters arrived in Galveston by train on September 29 (our Founders' Day). Sacred Heart Academy was opened immediately in Galveston. By 1891, the year of Mother Agnes' death, 26 women had joined the congregation. In June, 1902, we received formal affiliation with the Order of Preachers. Mother Pauline Gannon, second prioress, wanted each teacher state-certified and with a university degree, expanding our reputation in education.. In 1918, Newman Hall was opened as a residence for women attending the University of Texas in Austin.
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Dominic de Guzman
c. 1172-3 - 1221 Dominic was a man of God who had great compassion for people. He was profoundly moved by the sufferings people endured, both physical and spiritual, and he had an unwavering conviction about the necessity for truth to be preached with compassion for those in error. Dominic developed a unique life-style of prayer, study and contemplation of the Word of God in order to give the fruits of that contemplation to others. "To contemplate and give to others what is contemplated" later became one of the mottos for the Order of Preachers.
Catherine of Siena
1347 - 1380 Catherina di Iacopo di Benincasa dedicated herself to service, putting on the habit and mantel of the Dominicans, joining the Mantellate, widows who lived by a Dominican rule and dedicating their lives and resources to the sick and poor. She nursed the sick, ministered to prisoners, distributed alms to the poor, and was a peacemaker for feuding families. Catherine exercised spiritual authority, which flowed, from her union with God. Though uneducated, she was filled with wisdom, tirelessly in her preaching of the truth and dictating hundreds of letters to the pope and to monarchs counseling them on the performance of their duties. She also dictated the Dialogue describing her conversations with Christ while in a state of ecstasy.
Catherine was a prophet to the Church. She mediated the burning love of God to the needs of her time. She was a mystic, a miracle worker, a tireless servant, a witness to God's love, a counselor and advisor to the pope. She was a "Mystic in the Marketplace." As a follower of St. Dominic, Catherine was true to the Dominican call to contemplate and to preach the truth. She died on April 29, 1380 at the age of thirty-three. In 1970 she was named Doctor of the Church along with Theresa of Avila. Pope Paul VI made special mention of Catherine's "lucid, profound and inebriating absorption of divine truths" and of her "charism of exhortation."
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