Women Building Bridges
Dear Saint Mary’s Friends,
As Women's History Month draws to a close, it's a perfect time to reflect on the powerful ways that Saint Mary’s women act as bridges, connecting past, present, and future generations. And the month is going out with a bang on campus, thanks to simulated musket shots in Our Lady of Peace Cemetery on Saturday afternoon!
You may wonder why the deep tranquility of that beautiful resting place was broken. During the American Civil War, and without having formal training, the Sisters of the Holy Cross played a vital role as nurses. Although the order, founded in 1841 in France, was primarily dedicated to education in the United States, they answered the call to serve when the war broke out in 1861, transforming their mission to meet the dire medical needs of the time. Their service was commemorated and celebrated on Saturday at a special ceremony hosted by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, in cooperation with the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
The Sisters are, of course, the very first Saint Mary’s women, yesterday and today. This particular service as nurses is one of many ways they have modeled and continue to model bridge-building in their work. During the perilously divisive moment of the Civil War, they provided compassionate care, under the leadership of Mother Angela Gillespie, to wounded soldiers on both sides of the conflict, at one point threatening to withdraw their service to the Mound City Hospital if they were not allowed to treat a wounded Confederate soldier.
That particular story is one of many told in great detail in a wonderful article about the Sisters’ Civil War service—Barbara Mann Wall’s “Grace Under Pressure: The Nursing Sisters of the Holy Cross, 1861-65.” Published in 1993 in the Nursing History Review, the article shows another kind of bridging, too. Wall was then a faculty member in the Saint Mary’s College nursing department, and she wanted to bridge backwards—to show her deep admiration for these women who practiced in her own discipline under extreme conditions, in military hospitals and on medical transport ships such as the Red Rover, where they tirelessly tended to soldiers suffering from battlefield wounds, infectious diseases, and malnutrition.
Of course, it was also the Sisters who later established a Nursing Science program at Saint Mary’s College. And today’s nursing students are encouraged by our nursing faculty to learn more about this history and to tour the cemetery, where the Civil War nurse graves are marked not only with the traditional flat stone used by the Sisters, but also with a standing stone provided by the U.S. government. The visionary Sisters who still sponsor the College today are a living testament to their ongoing commitment to bridge-building.
This month, a new opportunity to be “bridging” people was announced by the Office of Alumnae Relations. We have just launched The Bridge, a social and professional networking platform created exclusively for Saint Mary’s alumnae and students. Here, members can connect with classmates through a robust alumnae directory, explore career opportunities, expand their professional circles, even hire fellow graduates. In addition, members of The Bridge can learn about alumnae programming and events.
While we are in the pilot phase for students, The Bridge will become an embedded part of our signature Avenue Experience—the College’s unique, personalized academic journey for all students. An exciting aspect currently in development is a mentoring program in which alumnae share expertise in their chosen field with students, offer career and professional advice, and serve as partners on a shared journey. In this way, The Bridge emphasizes that Saint Mary’s is a community where people and relationships matter. Alumnae, we hope you’ll sign up using this link.
It’s Women’s History Month every month here at Saint Mary’s College. But in this moment, it is a joy to reflect on women who have played and continue to play pivotal roles in preserving and sharing the rich histories of their work, their communities, and their families. Women often are the storytellers, the historians, the keepers of cultural legacies, and they can ensure that the experiences, struggles, and triumphs of past generations are not forgotten. By mentoring and offering guidance, encouragement, and support to the next generation of women, they actively shape the future, modeling the power of collaboration and resilience and showing younger women how to navigate both obstacles and opportunities.
Let’s appreciate—in every month—the rich history of bridge-building women at Saint Mary’s as we pave the way for those women who will take on the challenges of tomorrow.
March 31, 2025