THE LORETTO
      CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

  The Centenary of Loretto harks back to the
days when the conditions of life in Kentucky
were rude and difficult, when the building of
homes in untamed forests was but begun, and
little attention was given to education beyond
the cultivation of ingenious prowess and indus-
try that might extort from undeveloped re-
sources the things necessary for comfortable
living. The solitary missionary, heroically sac-
rificing his life to God, passed to and fro min-
istering to the scattered Catholics, striving to
keep alive among them the faith of their fathers.
Under such conditions Loretto sprang into ex-
istence as if spontaneous from virgin soil, a new
creation, a gift direct from the hand of Divine
Providence, to the sturdy settlers toiling in the
van of civilization. Christian training and in-
struction, Christian education, is the most es-
sential requisite for the establishment and main-
tenance of Christian homes and Christian
civilization. To supply this requisite where it
was sadly needed, Divine Providence established
Loretto.
                       I