Theta Phi Alpha was founded on August 30, 1912, at the University of Michigan. However, it celebrates Founders’ Day on April 30, the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena.* St. Catherine is the sorority’s patroness and her motto, “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring, ” is its motto.
In the early 1900s, Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations. Today, just as other organizations have accepted Catholic women, Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all religions. When the organization was founded, the Catholic hierarchy believed that Catholic women should attend Catholic institutions. Giving these women the opportunity to join a Catholic sorority could keep them close to their religious roots at a secular institution.
In 1909, Father Edward D. Kelly, a priest and the pastor of the Michigan’s student chapel organized Omega Upsilon. He believed that the Catholic women at the university should have the opportunity to belong to an organization that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.”
After Father Kelly left campus and became the Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Omega Upsilon was struggling. There were no alumnae to guide the organization. Bishop Kelly’s vision that the Catholic women at Michigan should have a place to call their own was still alive even though he was not on campus. He enlisted the assistance of Amelia McSweeney, a 1898 University of Michigan alumna. Together with seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, plans were made to establish a new organization, Theta Phi Alpha.
In 1919, the Beta Chapter was established at the University of Illinois quickly followed by chapters at Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati.
Theta Phi Alpha’s oldest active chapter is Epsilon at the University of Cincinnati. The chapter celebrated its centennial this year. It began as the Newman Club in April 1917. The nine young women who founded the Club “worked with great constancy and with fervent zeal for the advancement of their organization, and had to overcome many obstacles which presented themselves on all sides.” In the spring of 1919, the Alpha Chapter at the University of Michigan invited the club to become a Theta Phi Alpha chapter. That April, they sent two members to meet with the club. It was a successful visit and on June 12, 1919, Helen Beaumont and Beatrice Rademacker installed the chapter.
That fall, their recruitment activities included three theater parties. All nine bids were accepted and the women were initiated in February 1920. That summer the chapter rented a cottage for three weeks. It was on Buckeye Lake, then the largest artificial lake. It was located near Columbus, Ohio, and there they swam, canoed, and enjoyed their sisterhood.
