Incarnate Word Heritage – More Hospitals, a Charter, and More Schools

With the arrival of the railroad to San Antonio (1877) and its expansion across Texas, the population of the city and the state rose exponentially at the turn of the century (San Antonio, from 20,000 in 1880 to almost 100,000 in 1920; Texas, from 1.5 mil. to almost 4 mil.), which increased the need for hospitals and schools.  Through those years, the Incarnate Word Sisters opened and staffed or administered hospitals at many important railroad centers, including Amarillo, Corpus Christi, San Angelo – and even in St. Louis, Missouri and in Mexico.  The Sisters also sent to those hospitals nurses they had trained at Santa Rosa.  At the same time, the Sisters taught in half a dozen parish schools in San Antonio, another dozen and a half or so across the state and, again, in St. Louis and in Mexico.  The teaching mission was solidified by the acquisition of a Texas State Charter (1881).  As the Congregation grew in numbers, the Sisters decided to establish their own school.  For this, they purchased the estate of George Brackenridge (1897) a couple of miles from downtown San Antonio and opened the College and Academy of the Incarnate Word as a boarding school for girls (1900) with the hope of teaching from kindergarten through the twelfth grade.  It’s a story of vision, courage, dedication, and service to God’s people.

Sr. Margaret Patrice Slattery recounts this odyssey.