St. Matthew Cathedral School — and the Second Floor’s High School

School dedicated October 13, 1929 — Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton — Central Catholic High School overhead, 1934–1951 — Sisters of St. Francis teaching today

The school: St. Matthew’s parish, on the southeast side, built its school before its cathedral: construction began May 15, 1929, and Bishop Noll dedicated the building on October 13, 1929, at a cost of 167,000 dollars. Six Sisters of St. Joseph arrived from Tipton to teach the first five grades, and the first enrollment was 150 children; a grade was added each year, and the first class graduated on June 1, 1933 — all from the parish’s own published history. The Tipton congregation is printed here in full because the web holds two distinct Sisters of St. Joseph: the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton who taught at St. Matthew’s, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis, the Polish Franciscan congregation of Stevens Point, who taught at St. Jude’s and St. Adalbert’s and whose motherhouse stood for a time at Elm Court on Greenlawn Avenue. The record keeps them separate, and so does this history.

The high school overhead: In September 1934 the Brothers of Holy Cross opened Central Catholic High School on the second floor of St. Matthew’s school, with eighteen students and two brothers — the grade school below and the boys’ high school above sharing one building, the web at its most literal. The high school’s course is told in the high schools entry below; its place in this entry is the building: for seventeen years a South Bend boy could pass from a Tipton sister’s classroom downstairs to a Holy Cross brother’s classroom upstairs without leaving the parish grounds.

The Victory Noll sisters: A third congregation worked in the parish without staffing its school, and the distinction is the record’s own. From 1942 to 1958 the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Victory — the Victory Noll sisters — served St. Matthew’s parish: eleven catechists living at 1009 East Dayton Street, taking the parish census and teaching religion to children who were not in the school. The parish history carries their service at parish size, and it is printed here at that strength: catechists of the parish, not teachers of the school.

The school today: St. Matthew Cathedral School stands in the present web at about 350 students, in Today’s Catholic’s August 2022 account, and its staffing carries the web’s oldest pattern into the present: Sister Gianna Marie Webber, O.S.F., serves as its principal, and four Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration teach in the school — the Mishawaka motherhouse’s sisters in a South Bend classroom, as they have been documented in this city for more than a decade.

Sources:

1. St. Matthew Cathedral parish, the parish’s own published history, stmatthewcathedral.org — the 1929 school building and dedication, its 167,000-dollar cost, the six Sisters of St. Joseph from Tipton, the first enrollment of 150, the first graduation of June 1, 1933, Central Catholic’s opening on the school’s second floor in September 1934, and the Victory Noll sisters’ parish service of 1942–1958.
2. Today’s Catholic, August 2022, the St. Matthew centennial coverage — about 350 students, Sister Gianna Marie Webber, O.S.F., as principal, and four Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration teaching at the school.