who started the first catholic school in america
History of Catholic education in the United States Much more important were schools of New Orleans, under Spanish and French control until 1803. Well-to-do families sent their children to private Catholic schools run by Ursulines and other orders of nuns. The Sisters of the Holy Family brought literacy and training in job skills to both free and enslaved black girls.[1] The earliest continually operating school for girls in the United States is Ursuline Academy in New Orleans. It was founded in 1727 by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula. The Academy graduated the first female pharmacist, and the first woman to contribute a book of literary merit. It contained the first convent. It was the first free school and first retreat center for ladies, and first classes for female African-American slaves, free women of color, and Native Americans. In the Gulf Coast and Mississippi Valley, Ursulines provided the first center of social welfare in the Mississippi Valley, first boarding school in Louisiana and the first school of music in New Orleans.[2]