St. Mary’s Dominican High School has a rich heritage. In the thirteenth century St. Dominic de Guzman founded the Order of Preachers, and his followers immediately dedicated themselves to the pursuit of Truth, “Veritas.” From its humble beginnings in southern France, the Order spread throughout Europe, and with the voyages of Columbus, found its way to the New World. Dominican life in Louisiana began on November 5, 1860, with the arrival of seven Dominican Sisters (Mother Mary John Flanagan, Mother Mary Magdalen O’Farrell, Sister Mary Osanna Cahill, Sister Mary Xavier Gaynor, Sister Mary Hyacinth McQuillan, Sister Mary Ursula O’Reilly, Sister Mary Brigid Smith) from St. Mary’s Convent, Cabra, in a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. These women, the founders of the Dominican Sisters Congregation of St. Mary, were educated in the humanities and fine arts. They came to New Orleans at the request of Rev. Jeremiah Moynihan, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church, to teach the children of the Irish immigrants. Less than a month after their arrival, they opened St. John the Baptist School for Girls on December 3, 1860, with a recorded attendance of 200.
In addition to staffing the parochial school, the sisters established an academy which came under the generic heading of “select schools” in that era. Although it was housed in the community room of the sisters’ small convent, on May 10, 1861, the New Orleans Female Dominican Academy, was chartered under Louisiana state laws as an “Institute for Literary, Scientific, Religious and Charitable Purposes.”
In an auction three years later, the Dominican Sisters purchased the Macé Academy in the suburban village of Greenville. In April of 1865, boarding students from St. Mary’s Academy on Dryades Street were transferred to the Greenville campus which accommodated them until a century later when St. Mary’s Dominican High School moved to the Walmsley Avenue campus. The Dryades Street Academy and the Greenville Academy on St. Charles Avenue coexisted until 1913 when St. John’s Parish purchased the downtown buildings and established the St. John the Baptist Parochial School to educate both boys and girls. In 1881, the Sisters received permission from the Archbishop to build a new academy on the property at Greenville, and the cornerstone was laid in 1882. Later, the suburban village of Greenville was incorporated into the city of New Orleans, and the designation of its location changed from Greenville to St. Charles Avenue and Broadway. In 1885, the Sisters founded a circulating library at the Academy on Dryades Street, and in 1888 the first issue of the Salve Regina, a literary journal, was published and printed by the students at Greenville.
In 1900, Mother Mary de Ricci Hutchinson, assistant to the Prioress, called a preliminary meeting of all former pupils of Dominican Academy for the purpose of establishing an Alumnae Association. The following year, in January 1901, the group accepted the charter and by-laws proffered by the designated committees, selected St. Catherine of Siena as its patroness, and launched the Alumnae Association to develop into a well-organized group whose effectiveness in keeping Dominican tradition alive is clearly manifest in the twenty-first century.
In 1908 classes in pedagogy were introduced into the curriculum, and graduates of 1909 who wanted to teach were equipped to do so. On December 12, 1908, St. Mary’s Dominican Diocesan Training Program for Teachers was legally authorized by the state of Louisiana. Eleven members of the class of 1910 were awarded Bachelor of Arts degrees at their graduation from the Academy, and St. Mary’s Dominican College was born.
To St. Mary’s belongs the distinction of being the first Catholic academy for young ladies in the South to confer college degrees. This privilege was granted her by the last session of the general assembly of Louisiana, in an act passed by that body, June 17, 1910. Excelsa Versus, page 26
Sister Mary de Ricci Hutchinson, O.S.D.
By 1914, a four-year program of studies became imperative, and, changing its name and structure, the Academy became St. Mary’s Dominican High School. In September 1927, St. Mary’s Dominican High School was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and has maintained that status ever since.
Increased enrollment in both the high school and the college necessitated physical expansion. In 1959, Archbishop Rummel approved the construction of a new St. Mary’s Dominican High School on its current site. March 21, 1963, marked the official move of St. Mary’s Dominican High School from 7214 St. Charles Avenue to 7701 Walmsley Avenue.
Today, St. Mary’s Dominican High School thrives; its growth and development are rooted in its creative response to faithfully preach the Gospel through Catholic education. In 1989, Dominican High School was recognized as a school of excellence by the United States Department of Education, which also, in 1996, designated it a National Blue Ribbon School. Through the years the school has improved academically and with brick and mortar. While valuing the role of teacher-student interaction in the educational process, it has also recognized the value of the world of technology and has continuously striven to provide for access to its treasures. The O’Farrell Student Complex was completed in 1993 providing expanded music, athletic, and food-service facilities. In 1997, the library was renovated and named the Erminia Wadsworth Library, and another phase of technological advancement began.
After spending eighteen months engaged in the 2000 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools self-study and the formation of the 2001 Case Statement identifying areas of need, St. Mary’s Dominican High School embarked on a capital campaign, “Truth, Tradition, Tomorrow,” to construct a multipurpose facility. This resulted in the completion of the Siena Center in 2006. In 2007, Dominican established the Sr. Mary Ann McSweeney, O.P. Faculty Endowment Fund to assist the school in maintaining an excellent faculty to best serve students.
Although St. Mary’s Dominican High School was greatly impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the spirit of the Dominican community came through in every way to make sure that students continued to be served. The campus reopened on January 17, 2006.
On April 22, 2016, with the dedication and blessing of the Gayle and Tom Benson Science and Technology Complex, St. Mary’s Dominican High School celebrated and affirmed Dominican’s commitment to meaningful dialogue between faith and reason in modern times. Through the STREAM™ initiative Dominican continues to articulate the Preaching Mission of the Dominican Order.
The seven Dominican women who came to New Orleans in 1860 were not only venturing into new horizons, they carried a heritage. Like their founder St. Dominic, they possessed the spirituality, intellect, and leadership qualities to be missionaries and educators. They, too, were a joyous group eager to share the Gospel message with the New Orleans community.
The transmission of the Dominican charism, to praise, to bless, to preach, continues at St. Mary’s Dominican High School. Rooted in the motto, VERITAS (TRUTH), Dominican has been and remains today a place of foundations — a place where students learn to integrate prayer and study, community and service, joy and a zest for life.
This heritage begun by St. Dominic, continued by the Dominican Sisters from Cabra, the Congregation of St. Mary (1860-2009), the Dominican Sister of Peace (2009-2024), and now Dominican Veritas Ministries (formed by collaborating congregations of the Dominican Sisters), and sustained through Catholic education with the succeeding generations of Dominican sisters, priests, brothers, and laity remains a “Legacy Through Generations” leading to an “Eternity of Truth.”