NUNS DIE IN SAVING ORPHANS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1624, 16 December 1912, Page 8

NUNS DIE IN SAVING ORPHANS.

SIX PERISH IN FLAMES AT SAN ANTONIO ASYLUM.

MOTHER SUPERIOR'S REMARKABLE COURAGE. SaCTifickg their lives to rescue the 87 orphan children in their charge, six sfsters of chanty perished in a fire that destroyed St. John's Orphanage, San Antomo Texas, on October 30. One baby fell to its death with Mary 0 f the Cross, Mother Superior of tho institution, who left her place of .safety in a vain effort to save the child. Another' orphan is missing, and it is.feared it did not escape. Three sisters escaped. Instructed to pilot the first column of frightened children out of danger, they gained' the' ground in time to escape the crash of falling walls. The children owe their lives to the daring and self-sacrifice of the nuns. Many of the orphans would have been cremated in the dormitories if the nuns had not braved the first outburst of fire and piloted them to places of safe egress. The fire was discovered' at 4.30 a.m. It spread so rapidly that many of the children were cut off from the fire escapes. There was a rush for stairways and windows, and the sisters, tried heroically to savo their charges. Fire nets were stretched about the building, and a score of the childiren leaped to safety. Others appeared at the windows, hesitated, but were urged to leap by the sisters. After the frightened children had bean piloted to the tire escape on the west side of the blazing building, Sister Monica -Montez returned to take a last look in the dormitory. Her escape was cut off by a burst of flame, but she made her way to the east side, where firemen stood' below with the net spread. She leaped, but missed the net. Death was instantaneous. Mother Francis Pasteur and Sisters Peter Claver Stavin and Leacadia Nolan were unable to escape from the building. They perished in the flames. The following lost their lives:— Mother Mary of the Cross, Mother Superior of the parish. She was Mary Rossiter,- native of Wexford, Ireland; Mother Frances Pasteur, native of France; Sister Peter Claver Stavin, teacher in San Fernando School, native of Dublin, Ireland; Sister Leacadia Nolan, teacheT in San Fernando School, native of Dublin, Ireland; Sister Monica Monfcez, native of Mexico; Sister• Kostka Farrell, native of Kaldar, Ireland. Also Charles Mathlow,' orphan, aged three. Tho injured ara: A. Detemple, native of Germany, and E. Standish, native of St. Hedwig, both women employees. ■ The death of the Mother Superior, Mary of the 'Cross, was a sequel to a demonstration of remarkable courage. She "returned to the burning dormitory when she heard tho ory of a child who had been overlooked in the hurry and excitement; A few moments later she appeared at a window in the front of the Building with a babe in her arms. Chief Wright, of the Fire Department, attempted to save her, but failed. A ladder was placed against the unsteady wall, and the Chief scaled it, but before he reached her the Mother Superior, with the child, fell back into the flames. Tho three nuns who escaped helped in 1 taking the children from the blazing structure. They were marching them across the yard when the walls began to fall.

Sister Kostka, in jumping from tho fourth floor window to reach a life net, evidently lost her balance. Her body struck the railing on the second story. Her back was broken, and she had been severely burned. '. . Attaches from the' orphanage hospitals helped in the rescue work. The Right Rev. Bishop J. W. Shaw was one of the first to go into the burning building. Ho carried out several children, some ■ of whom were mere babies, unable to help themselves. Even the older, children, just aroused from sound slumber, were unable to get about with any rapidity. Father Hume, the chancellor, and Father Duffy, chaplain, risked their lives to help in tho rescue work. Repeatedly'they rushed into the building, to return with some child groping helplessly about in the 6nioke. ...When.the..fire, chief and the first ap-'pai-atus reached the orphanage, the fire; had spread throughout the entire struc-. turo. The roof had crumbled, and the gashes in the walls opened draughts that fanned the fire into tremendous fury. The dead nuns belonged to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.