DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Convent of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, down in Cameron County. Now picture a city block surrounded by a ten-foot wall. Not a fence — a wall.
And inside that wall, one of the most remarkable institutions this state has ever seen. America's first colony of Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, a cloistered teaching order, right here on the Texas frontier. The year was 1853.
These women had sailed from their mother house in Lyons, France, and stepped off into Brownsville — a frontier village at the far edge of the map. And what did they find waiting for them? An unfurnished former warehouse.
That was their school. That was their home while the first convent was being built. No desks, no materials, no textbooks written in the languages their students actually spoke.
Their pupils needed bilingual instruction — Spanish and English — but every resource the Sisters had was written in French. So what did they do? They translated those materials themselves and printed them on a small hand press.
Now, the frontier had opinions about all of this, and those opinions were not gentle. Indian raids. Yellow fever epidemics.
Storms rolling in off the Gulf. Then the Civil War, 1861 to 1865. Through every single one of those trials, the Sisters kept teaching.
Didn't stop. Didn't slow. Taught without interruption — until 1867, when a hurricane came through and destroyed the original convent entirely.
Most people might have read that as a sign. The Sisters read it as a setback. Their patrons petitioned them to reopen, and the Sisters agreed.
And this time, they built something meant to last. On this very site, they raised a New Orleans French-style convent of distinctive architecture — twenty thousand dollars in specie. The Sisters moved in on December 25th, 1868.
Christmas Day. For many generations after that, the convent served as a boarding and day school for girls. The ten-foot wall stood.
The school endured. It wasn't until 1967 that the Sisters finally moved on — to Villa Maria, a modern educational center — closing a chapter that had opened in a bare warehouse more than a hundred years before. Indian raids, yellow fever, storms, a war, and a hurricane.
And still, they taught.
What the marker says
This block was once surrounded by a ten-foot wall enclosing a beautiful structure housing America's first colony of Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, a cloistered teaching order. The convent had a history of vicissitudes and heroism. Arriving in the frontier village of Brownsville in 1853 from their mother house in Lyons, France, the nuns moved into an unfurnished former warehouse to begin their school while their first convent was being built. For their bilingual (Spanish-English) pupils, they were compelled to translate from French and print textbooks on a small hand press. Indian raids, yellow fever epidemics, storms, and the Civil War (1861-65) did not deter the Sisters, who taught without interruption until 1867, when the original convent was destroyed by a hurricane. On petition of patrons, the Sisters agreed to reopen their school. On this site was built, at cost of $20,000 in Specie, a New Orleans French-style convent of distinctive architecture. The Sisters occupied it on Dec. 25, 1868. For many generations it served as a boarding and day school for girls, until in 1967 the Sisters moved to Villa Maria, a modern educational center.