Bishop Paul Leonard Hagarty, O.S.P.
Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa
Community archives are filled with meaningful stories of students who maintained enriching lifelong connections with sisters. This story of Bishop Paul Leonard Hagarty, O.S.P., who was a second-grade student of Clinton Franciscan Mother Mary Leona Griffin at Sacred Heart Academy in Greene, Iowa, from 1917-1918, is no exception.
On August 14, 1950, Bishop Elect Hagarty, of Nassau in the Bahama Islands, visited Sister Mary Leona Griffin and Mother Mary Regis Cleary. He arranged for two sisters from Nassau, members of the Sisters of Blessed Martin de Porres, to be enrolled as students at Mount St. Clare College that fall; they were the first Black students at the college. In subsequent years, several Bahama sisters attended Mount St. Clare College. One sister, Gertrude Mary Cartwright, ended up receiving her Associate of Arts degree in 1954 and went on to join the Clinton Franciscans, pronouncing final vows on December 12, 1963.
On October 16, 1950, Sister Mary Leona and Mother Mary Regis traveled to Nassau to attend Bishop Hagarty’s Consecration. They also drove to Greene, Iowa, on November 26, 1950, to attend his Pontifical Mass.
Bishop Hagarty visited Clinton several times over the years to visit Mother Mary Leona and sisters from the Bahamas. On May 29, 1952, he delivered the commencement address at Mount St. Clare Academy and College.
On May 2, 1960, Mother Mary Regis Cleary announced that, in answer to a request from Bishop Hagarty, in September 1960 the Clinton Franciscans would be sending sisters to open a new school in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island, the congregation’s first international mission.
Mary, Star of the Sea School opened on September 1, 1960, with 29 students enrolled. Sister Eleanor Dunning served as superior and teacher of grades 6-8, Sister Francis Burke taught kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, and Sister Jeanine Bradford taught grades 3-5. By September 19, 1960, enrollment had grown to 47 students. The blessing of the new convent and Mary, Star of the Sea School by Bishop Hagarty was held on September 9, 1962. New classrooms and specialized rooms were added in 1963, 1967, 1980, and 1982. During the 1975-1976 school year, there were 649 students enrolled in the school. During the school’s Silver Jubilee in 1985, there were 850 students enrolled with a staff of 48. Clinton Franciscans served at the parish school until 1999.
On January 27, 1963, Sisters Mary Lois Ann Martin, Sister Mary Regina Seidl and Sister Ruth Cox left Mount St. Clare to travel to Freeport to serve at Grand Bahama Clinic. Sister Marie de Lourdes Davenport served as a health worker in Freeport from 1967 to 1979.
Following her term as superior general from 1960-1966, Mother Leona returned to the Bahamas in 1967 and served as secretary at Mary, Star of the Sea School for 5 years, retiring to Mount St. Clare convent, Clinton, Iowa, in 1971.
Bishop Hagarty continued to remain connected to the community by presiding at Mother Mary Leona’s Golden Jubilee Mass, concelebrating at the Mass of the Resurrection for Mother Mary Regis, and even moving his mother to Mount Alverno, a home for the aged and infirmed operated by the Sisters of St. Francis. Bishop Hagarty died on September 22, 1984.
God has a plan for us all, and we never know where our childhood connections may lead us.
