Catholic Nuns and the Making of America

In 1883 after a funnel-shaped cloud touched down and devastated Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. W. W. Mayo took charge of the thirty-four injured victims. Mother Alfred took over the nursing functions. Afterwards, she took the good doctor aside and confided something to him. She had this dream about how the two of them might build a hospital.

This first vignette in our “Catholic Nuns and the Making of America” series highlights the influence of a sister on one of SOAR!’s founders, John Fialka, in high school.

She could not beat the Church’s system of segregation, but she did do something that eventually helped break it down.