University of Santa Clara; A History from the Founding of Santa Clara Mission in 1777 to the Beginning of the University in 1912 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JSanta Clara College, 1851-1912jUniversity of Santa Clara, April 29, 1912 HE BIRTH and progress of Santa Clara College, the story of its struggle for advancement, gives one a good insight into the early development of California with which the College was so closely identified, and with the prosperity of our State with which it has since become so intimately associated. Of the opening of the College this account from the pen of Father Accolti, who visited Santa Clara in 1852, gives a clear impression of the difficulties under which they labored: "Father Nobili immediately took possession of Santa Clara and opened the College with twelve pupils, two secular teachers, an Indian to serve as cook, and a respectable matron to take care of the house, the smaller boys, and I know not what else. There was no other capital to start with than one hundred dollars received as stipends for masses, and fifty more which the Bishop, though himself very poor, gave as an alms accompanied by God's blessing, that he might assist this little bark of a Catholic College thus for the first time launched under the sky of California. In what state Father Nobili found the old establishment, I shall tell a little later; for the present it suffices to state that from the very beginning he had to contend with grave and numerous difficulties demanding constant sacrifice and abnegation. Father Nobili began with Herculean efforts to cleanse this Augean stable and to enlarge its capacity in order to be able to accommodate more students; the number soon reached thirty. Alone, with two parishes to attend to, with things inside and outside the mission in an unsettled state, we can easily admire the character of a man who could unflinchingly grapple with still greater difficulties and trace even in those ...