daughters of the cross
the final installment:
legacy
Crowds of the faithful welcome Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, St. Vincent’s Academy, 1949 Courtesy of Sister Sharon Rambin, SFCC, Edited by Madeline Howard Elford
When I began studying the history of the Daughters of the Cross in 2016, I was preparing for a paper in a course on local history at LSU Shreveport. Ever since seeing “The Shape of Shreveport,” a series of documentary short films shown at the Strand Theatre in the summer of 2015, the idea of researching the influence of Catholic religious orders in Shreveport had been haunting me. On the evening after receiving my assignment, a chance encounter with Msgr. Earl Provenza led to my introduction to Sister Sharon Rambin, SFCC, and through her to Sisters Maria Smith and Lucy Scallan, Daughters of the Cross. Although I had attended St.Vincent’s Academy, 18
CATHOLIC CONNECTION
I knew very little about the Order. I had no idea that they had operated other schools in Shreveport and across north Louisiana, dating back to 1856. The more I learned and the more I came to know the Sisters and their story, the more I came to realize that their impact on Shreveport, north Louisiana, and beyond cannot be quantified or circumscribed. How many former students, like me, can say that their association with the Daughters of the Cross was a factor in their decision to come into the Catholic Church? Having attended public schools for eleven years, I noticed the superior quality of the texts and instruction at St. Vincent’s, as well as a spirit of community that I hadn’t seen in my former schools. The Sisters’ dignified presence in their habits, some short and some long, and their evident care for their pupils and for the elderly Sisters in the convent, impressed me. Most of all, I could never forget the old Sisters in their long habits working in the heat in their garden, who I often glimpsed as I entered the parking lot from our air-conditioned school. Somehow, that sight spoke to me of their faith, of their unity, of their sacrifice. From the very first, the educational and religious foundation provided by the Daughters of the Cross
