The Dominican Order
 |
| The coat of arms for the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs
features the Dominican colors of black and gold signifying penance and piety.
The rose is for Mary the Blessed Mother, often called the Divine Rose. And the
three circular water marks symbolize the spring that once occupied the grounds. |
Ohio Dominican is imbued with the values of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans,
who founded the school and are still a major presence and partner on campus.
The Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs were founded in 1822. The first
congregation of Dominican Sisters started in Kentucky where Mother Angela Sansbury,
along with eight other women, responded to a call from Dominican Father Wilson for
women to respond to the needs of the frontier church and teach and form an "Order
of Preachers" (O.P.).
In 1830, at the request of Bishop Fenwick, O.P. of Cincinnati, five members of the
Kentucky Dominicans left for Somerset, Ohio to found St. Mary's Academy, the first
Catholic school in Ohio. The four sisters arrived at Somerset on February 5, 1830.
This academy offered education to pioneer children of Catholics and non-Catholics.
Mother Angela Gillespie, first Mother General of the Holy Cross Sisters in America
was educated here, as was her cousin Ellen Ewing, wife of General William Tecumseh
Sherman, and General Phil Sheridan's sister was a pupil.
From 1830--when they arrived in Ohio--until 1864, the Dominican Sisters were
under the direction of the Dominican Father Provincial who resided at St. Joseph's
in Somerset. That priest is referred to in the annals of the time when they needed
to request additional teachers. From 1864 until 1868 they were under the direction
of the Bishop of Cincinnati, whose Diocese included all of Ohio. In 1868 the Diocese
of Columbus was formed and they were under the direction of that Bishop until 1895.
In 1895 the congregation became a Pontifical Institute under Mother Vincentia
Erskine, who exercised the ancient Dominican privilege of requesting a pontifical
designation for the community rather than being under the direction of the local
Bishop.
In 1866 a devastating fire consumed the St. Mary's Academy buildings, leaving
the sisters with nothing but spared lives. The sisters occupied borrowed space
for two years until Theodore Leonard, a Columbus businessman, who had five daughters
to educate, offered the sisters land on his old brickyard if they would build an
academy in Columbus. The sisters traveled by covered wagon to found St. Mary's
Academy, in Columbus in 1868. Bishop Watterson suggested the name change to St.
Mary of the Springs due to the preponderance of natural springs on the property.
It operated until 1966.
In addition to Ohio Dominican, the Dominican Sisters founded and Albertus Magnus
in Connecticut and administered and staffed 11 other schools in Columbus, 18 other
schools in Ohio, 7 schools in New York, 6 schools in Connecticut, 6 schools in
Pittsburgh, two in New Mexico and one in Michigan, and Texas. They ran missions
in China and Peru, and the St. Francis/St. George Hospital in Cincinnati. They
continue to manage HUD housing, run a literacy center, and do hospital and
parish ministry in Columbus as well as high school and teaching.
The Dominican roots are deep in the American soil. The Springs Dominicans
were one of the first congregations in America, and their members were American
born women of pioneer stock. Columbus was the "mother" community for
the Houston Dominicans and the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor.
The O.P. after a Dominican sister's name signifies they are a member of the
Order of Preachers founded by Saint Dominic in the 13th century. As a vibrant
community of women they have found that there are many pulpits for the Order of
Preachers. They are part of a long history of Women who Changed the World through
prayer and service.
