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FEATURE STORY
120 YEARS OF FAITH & JOY
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School has returned to full swing and this month we are celebrating Catholic education in West Tennessee. During this season, it is appropriate to celebrate the religious communities that have served our region and diocese. Among these communities are the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (also known as the “Nashville Dominicans”). The Dominican Sisters have been a strong and welcome presence in this region since the late-19th century, and they continue to educate and form children here, faithfully and joyfully.
The presence and ministry of the Dominican sisters began in West Tennessee after the bishops of our country emphasized the importance of Catholic parents sending their children to Catholic schools. At that point, the whole state of Tennessee was the Diocese of Nashville. In the western third of the state, what became the Diocese of Memphis in 1971, the first school at which the Dominican sisters taught was St. Mary’s School in Jackson. The sisters came in 1889, but taught just two brief years before being replaced by the Sisters of Mercy. Then, in 1900, they returned as teachers and administrators, and they have served at the school ever since. That’s more than 120 years of service to this school and this region!
The Dominican sisters also taught at St. Joseph School in Jackson, which was established in 1919 to serve Black children and families in the area. The sisters faithfully taught at St. Joseph’s until it closed in 1960, and when the student population was merged with St. Mary’s School. By serving in this capacity, these sisters exhibited their commitment to making great education available to all children, regardless of socioeconomic status. They have been examples of educating in diversity, for the sake of unity, for many years.
Many parishioners and residents of Jackson and the surrounding area have attended St. Mary’s and been educated by the Dominican sisters. Maggie Poole Vucina, who still lives in Jackson, attended St. Mary’s through 1950, with nine other siblings. “We got a good, very thorough education,” she reminisced. She specifically recalled the memory of all the students attending daily Mass at the first school, in downtown Jackson. That lesson of faith remains with Vucina to this day, who still attends daily Mass.
There were many other young ladies who were impacted by the witness of the Dominican sisters and desired to follow them into consecrated life. One of those was Adele Poole, who graduated from St. Mary’s in 1949 and entered the community in 1954, taking the name Sister Mary Camille. She lived out her vocation, the Dominican vocation, of teaching schoolchildren until she passed away in 2002. Another graduate of St. Mary’s was Mary Margaret Long, who graduated from St. Mary’s in 1946 and then attended St. Cecilia Academy in Nashville, run by the Dominican sisters. After high school, Long entered the convent in Nashville, taking the name Sister Assumpta. Later, she served as prioress general of the community; and then in the late 1990s, Sister Assumpta helped Cardinal O’Connor form the Sisters of Life in New York and then founded the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Many families from Jackson, like the Longs and Pooles, would certainly tell us that the Dominican vocation provided the solid foundation for these young women’s lives.
Father David Graham, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, is also a native son of Jackson and a product of Dominican education at the school. Father Graham recalled that these sisters taught the schoolchildren a life of prayer, to pray hard. He recalled noticing that one sister had prayed her rosary so much that the paint had rubbed off the beads. That image, he said, helped him to understand that prayer is something to be brought into every aspect of life. There is no more important lesson of faith that these sisters (or any teacher) teach: the lessons of prayer and growing in faith.
In addition to serving at St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s, the sisters have a long-standing ministry in Memphis. They taught first at St. Thomas School and Academy, from 1947 to 1965. After the closure of St. Thomas Academy in 1965, they began ministering at Bishop Byrne High School and St. Paul’s School in Memphis. They ended their mission at Bishop Byrne in 2010, but they continue to teach at St. Paul’s School to this day. The sisters’ mission continues at our diocesan high school, St. Benedict at Auburndale, as well.
David Delgado, a local attorney and judge, attended Bishop Byrne from 1989 to 1993. He was taught by Dominican sisters in religion, psychology and sociology. He recalled that the Dominicans who taught him provided a visible presence of the Church, specifically because they wore the well-known black-and-white habit. He recalled that the presence of sisters in habits gave a sense that there was something holy and devout happening there. Devotion and holiness are two of the best things that any young Catholic ought to learn, and we are grateful for the sisters helping to pass on these qualities to youth in West Tennessee.
Within their work, the sisters bring one other vital element. Dominican education is built on forming students in the liberal arts and virtue (those “arts” and habits that free us to live a good life). Dominican education in West Tennessee has always provided an education that nurtures the whole person, intellectually, morally, spiritually and socially. It helps children in our diocese live as joyfully and fruitfully as God has made us to live, preparing them also for eternal life.
We all ought to celebrate the 120 years that the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia have served in West Tennessee! We pray that our diocese will continue to grow and flourish with the ongoing service and assistance of this wonderful consecrated community! Sts. Cecilia and Dominic, continue to pray for us!
BY DEREK ROTTY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAREN PULFER FOCHT
