| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1929 | St. Agnes Preparatory School for Girls founded by Mother Superior Agnes of the Weeping Veil. Seventeen girls enrolled. All smiled in the photographs. All of them. |
| 1934 | FIRST MISSING: Elise Marchand, 11. Last seen walking to chapel for morning prayers. Her sheet was still warm in the dormitory. Her shoes were by the door. She was not in them. |
| 1944 | Chapel constructed over the old well. The well was "capped." No priest from outside has ever been permitted to inspect it. |
| 1954 | Sister Agatha takes her final vows. She requests Room 7 — alone. She is given it. |
| 1956 | Sister Agatha dies (officially) of "consumption." She is buried in the courtyard. The grave is not in any parish record. The roses planted on it bloomed in December. The nuns said it was a miracle. I say it was a warning. |
| 1958 | The cellar is sealed by the Bishop's confidential order. Reason: "moisture." The Bishop's letter, later obtained, reads: "Do not enter. Do not unseal. Do not answer the hymn." |
| 1971 | A new wing added. Fourth dormitory. The fourth floor has 13 rooms. The numbers on the doors read 701 through 713. No one is ever assigned to 707. |
| 1983 | The bell rings at 3:33 AM for the first recorded time. It has rung every night since. It cannot be un-rung. (They tried cutting the bell rope. It rang anyway.) |
| 1996 | The Mother Superior dissolves the boarding program "for budget reasons." The diocese sealed the records. Three former students (names withheld) were found naked in the woods behind the cemetery, smiling. They do not remember the past ten years. |
| 1998 | I start this site. 🕯️ |
St. Agnes is a gray stone manor house with ivy that grows even in winter. Two floors of classrooms and dormitories, plus the chapel, plus the cellar (sealed), plus the old well beneath the altar. There are 47 students at peak enrollment. Now there are 23. The Mother Superior says the others "went home."
The school mascot is the White Rose. The girls wear it on their lapel. In photographs, the lapel rose is always slightly too large, as if it is growing, as if it has roots.
"St. Agnes is a place of peace, prayer, and growth. Nothing dead grows here."
— Mother Superior Bernadette, school newsletter, September 1998 (three weeks before the bell rang during Mass)