The 19th-century Irish immigrant founded the first Catholic order for women religious in the Lone Star State and braved racial bigotry to open Texas’ first Catholic school for Black Americans.
SAN ANTONIO — When Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio addressed his fellow bishops during their annual assembly in November to back the advancement of the cause for beatification and canonization of Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy, he hoped to spark interest in her legacy as the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate, a religious order of women that began educating…