posted by admin on Jan 14

Meet Sister Matilda – Saint Francis Catholic Church

One of my favorite things to do is to listen to persons older than me, especially relatives tell stories of times when things were very different. The stories and descriptions that I have heard give dimension to those time periods and bring to life some of that past…if only for a short time.

When the Waco Community formed the non-profit, the Waco History Project whose Mission is to “Connect people of all ages to the community by telling the story of Waco’s diverse past,” it gave me the opportunity to interview some of my relatives and tell their stories at different local forums.

Recently I had the privilege to interview my relatives, Helen Duron Hurtado, Alicia Duron Yglecias and Carol Duron. I also interviewed five other individuals that did not want their names mentioned. Through the interviews I was introduced to one of the most inspirational individuals that lived in Waco that I have never met – Sister Matilda.

Sister Matilda was a very stern, no nonsense German nun who lived in the Saint Mary’s Academy Convent. The Academy, according to Roger Conger’s Pictorial History of Waco, started in 1873 and was the first Catholic School in the state of Texas. Tuition was charged to students that came mostly from the rural areas surrounding Waco. In the beginning, students lived on the campus and the Academy was full, but as the need grew greater for the students to help at home, enrollment numbers dwindled.

In 1924, because the Hispanic Community was growing and mostly Spanish speaking and Catholic, missionaries came from Mallorca Spain to establish a mission – they built St. Francis Church and Mission on land that surrounded the growing Waco Hispanic Community and was donated by the Clifton/Burgess Family. The original Church burned downed and the community came together to build anew…families pledged to make bricks and get the materials to build a new church and in 1931, Saint Francis Church was re-dedicated.

Soon after the dedication, Sacred Heart Academy appointed and sent Sister Matilda to start and head a school at St. Francis for the growing Hispanic Community. At first, Sister Matilda had help from Sister Matthew, an elderly nun who past away soon after the assignment, she was replaced with young Sister Bertha – enthusiastic, loving and sweet from England, who taught Kindergarten through 2nd Grade. Sister Matilda taught the 3rd through 6th graders. The two nuns would walk to St. Francis every day…about 8 blocks…no matter the weather.

Now remember, this community was primarily Hispanic who spoke Spanish in the home. Sister Bertha did not speak Spanish. Sister Matilda spoke five languages and was very educated, but she would communicate in English and give some of the instruction for the lessons in Spanish, but it was an immersion in English. Sister Matilda was preparing the students to enter higher education and learn English, she was always saying, “English, English, English – don’t speak Spanish.” “It was hard, but she was right,” said one of the persons I interviewed. Sister Matilda arranged for a volunteer named Ms. Francis to help teach grammar to the students and this was very helpful when a lot of the students went on to West Jr. and Waco High. The grammar was learned; it was the conversation and pronunciation of the words that was hard. But…because the nuns were very patient and good, the students tried very hard to speak English.

Sister Matilda was a strict teacher and did not tolerate disobedience; she once spanked the whole class on the hands with a ruler when some of the older boys acted out. But, all the persons who I interviewed for this story said, Sister Matilda was the one who had to raise all the funds for the school. There was no tuition charged to attend St. Francis School, most of the surrounding community would not be able to attend if they had to pay…that is why Sister Matilda took education very seriously.

Sister Matilda would collect the used writing paper from the Sacred Heart Academy…the Academy students would write their lessons on side and the students at St. Francis would use the other side to do their lessons.

Along with the lessons, the students received lunch every day, thanks to Sister Matilda and her solicitation of donations. She would recruit volunteers to cook the lunch and they would set it on a table outside and the children would line up to collect their lunch. They would sit on a concrete divider wall by the side and in front of the school (it is still there today) to eat their lunch. One of the people I interviewed said they received all kinds of different food and it was nourishing but sometimes they would get a soup that was not so good, but they were always grateful to the nuns.

Sister Matilda sought donations from many Wacoans, one in particular everyone remembers is the owner of then, Jones Bread, later bought by Mrs. Bairds. The gentleman once visited the students, by Sister Matilda’s request and they learned to sing the Jones Bread song to thank him and sang it over and over to him, when hearing this story I asked, “What did Mr. Jones do during the song,”… they said he just clapped. They got a lot of bread donations from him, so they ate bread with every meal.

One of the people I interviewed said one of the volunteer cooks had made tamales and to make them go a longer way, Sister Matilda had the cooks wrap the tamale in a slice of Jones Bread like a sandwich…she told me she still eats tamales this way.

Sister Matilda would collect toys and other things all year long to give each student a shoebox full of stuff at Christmas; each student’s desk would have a box waiting for them when they arrived – the catch…you had to attend Midnight Mass.

When Alice Duron Yglecias and Helen Duron Hurtado finished 6th Grade at St. Francis School, in 1942, they were 2 of 3 students selected to go on to attend Sacred Heart Academy, Sister Matilda arranged this, the two were following their cousin, Blasita Duron, who was the first Hispanic Graduate of the Sacred Heart Academy.

Sister Matilda would pay half the tuition for the selected students by raising funds…she gave language lessons, remember she spoke 5 different languages… have fiestas where she would sell raffle tickets… the attending students paid the other half by cleaning the classroom after school until they could afford to pay.

Sacred Heart Academy was very hard because of the language barrier…they did not know English fluent enough to hold long conversations. But, one of them said they were blessed by meeting Sister Benita Francis who helped them tremendously. The Sacred Heart Academy experience was wonderful, the nuns were very patient and giving – it was a different world and atmosphere. The nuns at the Sacred Heart Academy were mostly Irish and Italian and very educated. They learned a lot, they said, from the nuns, lessons they still remember today.

When Helen and Alicia reached tenth grade in 1946, St. Francis School and Sacred Heart Academy closed and Alicia and Helen transferred to Waco High. Today, St. Francis School just has the kindergarten, but it has a lot of alumni who remember Sister Matilda with gratitude.

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