October 12, 2005
Ursuline Academy is the oldest girls' school in the United States and was established in 1727 by ten Ursuline nuns (the Order of St. Ursula) who came to New Orleans from France to establish a school, a hospital and an orphanage.
Their first convent and school building still stands in the French Quarter and is the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley. It is in excellent condition.
The school and convent in this gallery was built in the early 1900's and schools girls from three years old through high school. It once held a college and boarding school but that was discontinued in the late 1960's.
The Ursuline nuns stayed in the Convent during Hurricane Katrina and took in many evacuees, many of them being their elderly neighbors. After Katrina when the canal floodwalls in New Orleans broke and much of New Orleans was flooded the nuns moved all their food supplies and water to the second story where they took care of their guests for eight days. With no electricity and the City under martial law, the Province Mother Superior ordered them to leave. They and their guests were taken out in three boats to higher ground to trucks which took them to a bus and then to Baton Rouge where planes were waiting to take them to their motherhouse in Illinois and to an Ursuline Convent in Dallas.
The flood waters remained on the grounds, in the basement and in the mausoleum for three weeks, killing much vegetation and trees. A company from Missouri has been hired to clean and restore the grounds and buildings and the supervisor told me it should be back in ship shape order by January 2, 2006, an occasion to which I look forward. Water remains in the basement and in the nuns' mausoleum where the original ten nuns who came here in 1727 are interred.
Only 14 days before Katrina struck we held the ceremony of the Blessing of the Herbs in the chapel and on the grounds. What a difference two weeks made.
Nothing prepared me for what I found at Ursuline this day and I sobbed aloud for the first time since the hurricane.

NOVEMBER 3, 2005 The restoration and cleanup efforts are well underway and there are lots of changes on the grounds and lots of trees gone. The basements are dry and sprayed with a mold killer and the mausoleum is dry. The chapel and outside chapel remained untouched. Only a little rain water got into the choir loft from the window above the organ. Our Lady of Prompt Succor was looking out for her Shrine but she must have been out to lunch that Sunday before Katrina when we prayed.

JANUARY 2, 2006-the grounds and buildings are almost ready for the reopening of the Academy tomorrow, January 3, 2006 for pre-kindergarten through 7th grades. High school students will return on January 17. WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY IT WILL BE TOMORROW.
JANUARY 8-the Mass of the Battle of New Orleans was held in the chapel with New Orleans Archbishop Hughes and Bishops Roger Morin and Robert Muench celebrating. The Ursuline nuns were back in New Orleans following the hurricane evacuation and it was the first time New Orleans had been without Ursuline nuns since 1727.

MAY 13, 2006-the 279th commencement ceremonies were held in the Courtyard.
IF YOU CLICK ON THE SMALL IMAGE YOU WILL GET A FULL SCREEN IMAGE. UNDER EACH IMAGE AND TITLE I HAVE WRITTEN A HISTORY.