Labadists

 Laban

 Labarum

 Jean-Baptiste Labat

 Philippe Labbe

 Labour and Labour Legislation

 Moral Aspects of Labour Unions

 Jean de La Bruyère

 Labyrinth

 Stanislas Du Lac

 Lace

 Diocese of Lacedonia

 François d'Aix de la Chaise

 Jean-Baptiste-Henri Dominique Lacordaire

 Diocese of La Crosse

 Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius

 James Laderchi

 St. Ladislaus

 René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec

 Laetare Sunday

 Pomponius Laetus

 Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette

 Joseph-François Lafitau

 Louis-François Richer Laflèche

 Jean de La Fontaine

 Nicolas-Joseph Laforêt

 Charles de La Fosse

 Modesto Lafuente y Zamalloa

 Lagania

 Pierre Lagrené

 Jean-François La Harpe

 Jean de La Haye (Jesuit Biblical scholar)

 Jean de La Haye

 Philippe de la Hire

 Diocese of Lahore

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 Laicization

 James Lainez

 Laity

 Lake Indians

 Charles Lalemant

 Gabriel Lalemant

 Jerome Lalemant

 Jacques-Philippe Lallemant

 Louis Lallemant

 Teresa Lalor

 César-Guillaume La Luzerne

 Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck

 Alphonse de Lamartine

 Paschal Lamb

 Lamb in Early Christian Symbolism

 Peter Lambeck

 St. Lambert

 Lambert Le Bègue

 Lambert of Hersfeld

 Lambert of St-Bertin

 Jacques and Jean de Lamberville

 Louis Lambillotte

 Denis Lambin

 Luigi Lambruschini

 Ven. Joseph Lambton

 Diocese of Lamego

 Félicité Robert de Lamennais

 Jean-Marie-Robert de Lamennais

 Family of Lamoignon

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 Louis-Christophe-Leon Juchault de la Moricière

 Wilhelm Lamormaini

 Lampa

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 Lamus

 Bernard Lamy

 François Lamy

 Thomas Joseph Lamy

 Francesco Lana

 The Holy Lance

 Giovanni Paolo Lancelotti

 Archdiocese of Lanciano and Ortona

 Land-Tenure in the Christian Era

 Pope Lando

 Jean-François-Anne Landriot

 Lanfranc

 Giovanni Lanfranco

 Matthew Lang

 Rudolph von Langen

 Benoit-Marie Langénieux

 Simon Langham

 Langheim

 Ven. Richard Langhorne

 Richard Langley

 Diocese of Langres

 Stephen Langton

 Lanspergius

 Lantern

 Luigi Lanzi

 Laodicea

 Vicariate Apostolic of Laos

 Diocese of La Paz

 Pierre-Simon Laplace

 Lapland and Lapps

 Diocese of La Plata

 Archdiocese of La Plata

 Albert Auguste de Lapparent

 Volume 10

 Victor de Laprade

 Lapsi

 Ven. Luis de Lapuente

 Laranda

 Lares

 Armand de La Richardie

 Diocese of Larino

 Larissa

 Joseph de La Roche Daillon

 The Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

 Henri-Auguste-Georges du Vergier, Comte de la Rochejacquelein

 Diocese of La Rochelle

 Dominique-Jean Larrey

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 La Salette

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 René-Robert-Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

 Ernst von Lasaulx

 Constantine Lascaris

 Janus Lascaris

 John Laski

 Baron Joseph Maria Christoph von Lassberg

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 Marie Lataste

 Flaminius Annibali de Latera

 Christian Museum of Lateran

 Saint John Lateran

 Lateran Councils

 Ecclesiastical Latin

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 Latria

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 Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie

 Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva

 Jean de Lauzon

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 François de Montmorency Laval

 Jean Parisot de La Valette

 Laval University of Quebec

 Lavant

 Charles-Honoré Laverdière

 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de Lavérendrye

 Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère

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 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

 Law

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 Moral Aspect of Divine Law

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 St. Lawrence (2)

 St. Lawrence (1)

 St. Lawrence Justinian

 St. Lawrence O'Toole

 Lay Abbot

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 Lebanon

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 Miecislas Halka Ledochowski

 Diocese of Leeds

 Camille Lefebvre

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 Legacies

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 Literary or Profane Legends

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Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross

Loretto, Sisters of, at the Foot of the Cross, the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross were founded in Kentucky, in 1812, by Father Charles Nerinckx, who first called them "The Little Society of the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross of Jesus". The Holy See approved the institute under the title: The Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross. The special work to which the Sisters devote their lives is Christian education. Amid the rude conditions of life in Kentucky during the first decade of the nineteenth century, the pioneer missionaries, Fathers Stephen Theodore Badin and Charles Nerinckx, realized the necessity for schools conducted by trained Christian teachers. It was practically impossible for them to bring such teachers from Europe or elsewhere, but the possibility remained of finding the means to establish such schools without going abroad. The catholic colonists in Kentucky were in general good people, some of them eminently virtuous. Strong practical faith and unwavering attachment to Catholic truth marked their earnest religious character and sustained their solicitude for the Christian training of their children. Noting these traits Fathers Badin and Nerinckx cherished hopes of establishing a religious community. In 1812 their hopes were realized when Loretto sprang into existence with no other provision for its subsistence than an abiding trust in Divine Providence.

Miss Mary Rhodes, educated in Baltimore, opened a school in a log cabin near St. Charles's church. Two companions, Miss Christina Stewart and Miss Anne Havern, soon joined her. Father Nerinckx, seeing a ray of promise for realizing the hope he had cherished so long, encouraged their desire to dedicate themselves to the service of God and instructed them in the duties of the religious life. With the approval of the Right Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, first Bishop of Bardstown, he clothed them with the religious habit on April 25, 1812. This date is, therefore, commemorated by the sisters as their foundation day. Two other young ladies, Miss Anne Rhodes and Miss Sarah Havern, then asked for the habit and received it on June 29, 1812. The little society then organized and Miss Anne Rhodes was chosen the first superioress. They were soon joined by Miss Nellie Morgan who had been a successful teacher. She received the habit on August 12, 1812. The health of Mother Anne soon failed; she pronounced her vows on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and died on December 11, 1812. Mary Rhodes was then chosen superioress. Mother Mary and her four companions pronounced their vows of perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience on August 15, 1813. Postulants continued to seek admission and Father Nerinckx watched over and encouraged the first efforts of the aspirants and directed them till his death (August 12, 1824) in the practices of the spiritual life and in their efforts to acquire greater proficiency as teachers. The life of the sisters edified all who knew them. Their austere rule breathed the purest spirit of Christian perfection, and though some of the regulations were found by experience to be too rigid for observance in this country and were subsequently omitted, the spirit has been fully preserved and still animates the society. After the death of Father Nerinckx, Bishop Flaget moved Loretto from the place of its first foundation to St. Stephen's, so called from the fact that Father Badin had built a small log church near his residence and dedicated it to St. Stephen. The convent and church erected here by the sisters, dedicated in 1826 and destroyed by fire in 1858, have been replaced by more spacious buildings, and here the mother house of the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross still remains.

In the transfer of Loretto to this new location, nothing was lost of the primitive spirit of the society. The growth of the society rendered branch establishments necessary during the first decade of its existence. The first was founded in 1816, near Holy Mary's church; the second, in 1818, at the place where the great Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani now stands; three others in Kentucky and one in Missouri were founded before the death of Father Nerinckx. His zeal animated the sisters and led them westward to labor and establish schools among the Indians and pioneers, where no provision had been made for their support; these early foundations were for education what the early missionary churches were for religion. Incorporated by Act of the Legislature of Kentucky, in 1829, under the title, "The Loretto Literary and Benevolent Institution", the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross have maintained their academic courses abreast with current progress in education, and when the episcopate advocated the establishment of parochial schools, they were among the first to support the movement and devote themselves to the work. In1816 Father Nerinckx submitted their rules and constitutions to Pius VII for approval. The Holy Father, well pleased with its spirit, placed the new institute under the protection of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda and granted it many favors. Again in 1851, Right Rev. Martin John Spalding, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore, presented the constitutions to the Holy See for the encouragement and blessing of Pius IX. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross turned again to the Holy See for guidance. In 1904 Mother Praxedes Carty presented the constitutions which Pius X fully and finally confirmed in 1907.

The general government of the society is vested in the mother general and her councillors residing at the mother house. Each establishment is presided over by a local superior and her two assistants. The society is composed of but one class of sisters, no distinctions being made in the manner of training to the practice of religious virtues, all are subject to the same regulations of the religious state. The novitiate lasts one full year, at the completion of which the sisters pronounce the three simple vows which they renew annually, until at the expiration of the fifth year, they make perpetual vows. The young professed sisters pass an examination and those having proper qualifications for teachers are placed in the normal training school of the society. Whatever educational advantages a sister may have had before entering the society, she is required to apply herself to the special line of studies chosen by her superiors and to follow a course of pedagogical training in the normal school. In 1909 the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross conducted schools in the Archdioceses of St. Louis and Santa Fe, and in the Dioceses of Louisville, Covington, Columbus, Cleveland, Mobile, Bellville, Kansas City, Lincoln, Denver, Tucson, and Dallas.

Edwin Drury.