The Bell of Saint Mary’s
Dear Saint Mary’s Friends,
There is something distinctive about the sound of a bell.
Unlike the steady ticking of a clock or the abrupt urgency of a wake-up alarm, a bell does not simply tell us that time has passed. It invites us to experience time differently. For centuries, bells have summoned communities to worship, celebrated weddings, mourned loss, marked feast days, and announced moments worthy of our shared attention. They remind us to pause, to gather, and to remember that not all moments are ordinary. In the Catholic tradition, bells hold deep meaning. They are named and blessed, and they call us beyond ourselves. It seems fitting, then, that for the first time in its 101-year history, the Le Mans Hall tower holds a bell.
From the moment we unveiled it as part of the public launch of the Ring Out Ring True campaign during Reunion weekend, many students, alumnae, and friends have asked: “Why wasn't there ever a bell?” The answer, I suspect, is more about what the historical context allowed than about something that was forgotten. When Mother Pauline built Le Mans Hall in 1924-1925, she created the architectural heart of Saint Mary's College. An ambitious undertaking, it came with extraordinary expense, and a bell may well have seemed a nonessential luxury at a time when every available resource was devoted to building the institution itself.
When Sister Madeleva became president less than a decade later, she inherited both a magnificent building and the debt that accompanied it. Those were the darkest years of the Great Depression. As the nation slowly recovered, World War II redirected the country's attention and resources. Metals such as bronze were carefully reserved for the war effort. So if hopes had existed for a bell, those were understandably overtaken by far larger events. By the time the war ended in 1945, there may have been no one thinking about the silent tower.
Over these last few weeks, I’ve been considering how history is shaped not only by what vision makes real but also by what circumstance makes impossible. We celebrate milestones that define an institution's history—the buildings completed, the programs launched, the achievements recognized. Yet institutions worthy of enduring are never truly finished. Every generation inherits both accomplishments and aspirations. Some generations are called to establish foundations. Others preserve these foundations through difficult seasons. Still others expand opportunities that previous generations could never imagine. And sometimes a generation has the privilege of completing something that has waited quietly for decades.
That does not diminish the work of those who came before. It honors it: healthy institutions grow when each generation faithfully carries forward work it knows it may never finish. Perhaps that is why the arrival of this bell has generated such genuine excitement across our community. It represents far more than the completion of an architectural detail. It reminds us that Saint Mary's has always been a shared endeavor, shaped by vision, sacrifice, perseverance, and generosity from countless people whose contributions continue to resound long after they themselves are gone.
There is another detail that makes this story especially meaningful. The bell now hanging in Le Mans Hall was not newly cast for our tower. It was forged in 1865,\ just two decades after Saint Mary's was founded. For more than a century and a half, it called a different community to gather in moments both joyful and solemn. One abiding image from the installation remains with me: a modern crane lifting the 161-year-old bell past the statue of the Blessed Virgin above the building entrance and through the arched opening in the tower. Now beautifully restored and emblazoned with the words “Ring Out Ring True” and the Seal of the College, this bell begins a new chapter in a new home, where it will become a permanent part of the campus soundscape.
I find something profoundly hopeful in that. We often think of tradition as preserving the past. But perhaps tradition is better understood as receiving enduring legacies and allowing them to speak anew in another time and place. Long after each of us has completed our own chapter in the life of Saint Mary's, the bell will continue to ring from the tower of Le Mans Hall. Future students may assume it was always there.
Perhaps that is the finest outcome of all. Because the true measure of stewardship is that what we leave behind becomes so fully woven into the life of the institution that future generations cannot imagine it otherwise. May the bell of Saint Mary’s proudly ring out and ring true for centuries to come—calling us together and marking the occasions that matter most in the life of our community.
Warm regards,
Katie Conboy, Ph.D.
President
June 29, 2026