TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO

As the pupils and staff of St Patrick's Convent Schools left the building in June of 1999, they witnessed not only the closing of the school.  They witnessed the close of an era.  For over one hundred years St Patrick's Convent Schools had held such an important  place in the Parish of St Patrick's as well as in the whole community of Riverhead, i.e. St John's West.  With the locking of the doors on that June Day in 1999, St Patrick's Convent Schools ceased to exist, save in the hearts and memories of its former pupils.  To commemorate our School, I am going to post pictures that I have received over the years .  I will post several times each month from now until the end of June.  If you have any that you would like included please send them to me at mcallistersmith@gmail.com and I will add them to our collection.  Here is the first batch.  Happy browsing.

The First School

An early picture of Sisters and pupils of St Patrick's Convent School

Mother M Bernard Kirwan PBVM, Foundress of
the Presentation Foundation in Newfoundland

The old St Patrick's Convent

Mother M DeSales Walsh, Born Tralee, Ireland 1866, died Presentation Motherhouse 1968.
 Former teacher at St Patrick's Convent and twice Mother General of the Presentation
Sisters in Newfoundland.

From an Irish Stamp depicting Nano Nagle, Foundress of the Sisters of the Presentation, PBVMs

HAPPY PRESENTATION DAY

It is 21 November, Presentation Day. Once again my thoughts spin back through the years (many, many years now 😏)!  My thoughts go back to our school days at St Patrick's Convent Schools and our days spent with Nano Nagle's Presentation Sisters, PBVMs.  To the stories of Nano and her little group who ministered to and cared for the poor. Stories of the establishment of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and how, in 1833, four brave and selfless Irish Nuns set out from their Convent in Galway.  After a stormy Atlantic Crossing they landed at St John's, Newfoundland, and there they established the very first Presentation Convent outside of Ireland.   

I imagine, like me, you remember all or most of the stories but if you would like to refresh your memory, you will find quite a few posts to  help.  Just go to that little search box on the top left side of the blog and enter either 'Nano Nagle' or 'Presentation Day'.  You will find enough to keep you reading for a little while.

Nano Nagle

Happy Presentation Day to Presentation Sisters, pupils and former pupils everywhere.  A very special Happy Presentation Day to all St Patrick's girls, wherever you may be.

COVE LANE, CORK, 1775

It began in a cottage in Cove Lane, Cork. Here, on Christmas Eve 1775, Nano Nagle founded the Sisters of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (After Nano’s death,  the name was changed to the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)  Nano was joined by three companions; Mary Hoey, Elizabeth Burke and Mary Ann Collins.  On 29^th June 1776, they received the habit and Nano took the name of Sr Mary of St John of God.  

Nano spent her time ministering to the poor of the City.  She taught in her schools by day and went out at night to visit and comfort the sick and suffering in their hovels.  Because of her night-time visits, she became known as ‘the Lady with the Lantern’.  The Lantern is now one of the symbols of the Presentation Sisters worldwide.

Nano Nagle instructing the children

Worn out by long days and nights of ministry, Nano collapsed in Cross Street on her way home from one of her schools. She died on Monday, 26^th April 1784. She was 65 years old.   In 1994 Pope John Paul II declared Nano Nagle ‘Servant of God’, the first of four steps to canonisation.  The next step came in 2013 when Pope Francis bestowed the title ‘Venerable’ on Nano Nagle.

In 1769 Nano wrote to a friend “If I could be of service in saving souls in any part of the globe I would be willing to do all in my power”.   True to the vision of their foundress, Nano’s Presentations spread throughout Ireland and, indeed, to all parts of the globe.  In 1833, thanks to Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming, the very first Presentation Convent outside Ireland was established here in St John’s, Newfoundland.

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, painted

by a Presentation Sister, Cathedral Square

Today, 21st November is the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or as we called it, “Presentation Day”.  As former pupils of St Patrick’s Convent Schools, let’s take a minute to remember Venerable Nano Nagle and all who have followed in her footsteps over the years.  

HAPPY PRESENTATION DAY!

Nano Nagle - Our Foundress

THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE VIDEO ABOUT NANO NAGLE. HAVE A LISTEN BECAUSE THIS SISTER PRESENTS THE HISTORY IN A WAY THAT IS STRAIGHT FORWARD AND SO IT MAKES EASY LISTENING. I THINK YOU WILL ENJOY IT.

ANNIVERSARY OF NANO NAGLE'S DEATH

PBVM Symbol

Worn out by long days and nights of ministry, Nano Nagle collapsed in Cross Street, Cork, on her way to one of her schools. The Foundress of the Presentation Sisters died on Monday, 26^th April 1784.  She was 65 years old.   In 1994 Pope John Paul II declared Nano Nagle a ‘Servant of God’, the first of four steps to canonisation.  The next step came in 2013 when Pope Francis bestowed the title ‘Venerable’ on Nano Nagle.

  

Venerable Nano Nagle

A PRESENTATION FACT

On Christmas Eve, 1775, in a cottage in Cove Lane, Cork, Nano Nagle founded the Sisters of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Later, the name was changed to the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM).

Venerable Nano Nagle,
Foundress of the Presentation Sisters

We wish all Presentation Sisters, pupils and former pupils, a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2017. (Special Christmas greetings to former St Patrick's teachers and pupils.) 

MEMORIAL DAY IN NEWFOUNDLAND



THE FIGHTING NEWFOUNDLANDER

At Beaumont Hamel on 1^st July 1916 the Newfoundland Regiment was all but annihilated as they bravely went over the top only to be cut down in a hail of German fire.  General de Lisle, 29^th British Army Division said, “It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can advance no further.”   It was two weeks before the tragic news reached St John’s.  Not a family on the Island was untouched by the news for everyone had lost a relative, a friend or a neighbour.   Not a family on the Island would ever forget!

Since 1917, 1^st July has been observed as Memorial Day in Newfoundland.  As a sign of remembrance, Newfoundlanders wore a spray of blue Forget-me-nots on Memorial Day.

These days, 1^st July is celebrated as Canada Day and Newfoundland observes both Canada Day and Memorial Day.  So on this Canada Day weekend, I wish all St Patrick’s girls a very happy Canada Day.  I also wish you a thoughtful and very proud Memorial Day!

It is fitting today to remember Thomas Nangle, who has a connection with Memorial Day and with  St Patrick’s Parish.  There is even a tenuous link  with Nano Nagle, the foundress of the Presentation Sisters. 

The name “Nangle” is a variant spelling of the name “Nagle”.   “Nagle” is of Norman Irish origin and, after the Norman invasion of Ireland, the Nagles were granted large tracts of land in Cork and in north Connacht.  The Cork branch of the family used the “Nagle” spelling and the Connacht branch the “Nangle” spelling.  (I did warn you that the link was tenuous!)  

PADRE THOMAS NANGLE

Thomas Nangle was born in St John’s on 5^th September 1889.  He was educated at St Bonaventure’s College and, in 1909, young Tom went to Ireland to  commence studies for the priesthood.  On 29^th June 1913, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Tom Nangle was ordained in St John’s by Archbishop Howley.  Father Nangle served in various parishes at Bell Island, Topsail and St John’s.  From 1914 to 1916 the people of St Patrick’s Parish enjoyed the ministrations of Fr Nangle.  St Patrick’s was his last parish for shortly after the debacle of Beaumont Hamel, Fr Nangle was off to join his fellow Newfoundlanders as the Catholic Chaplain to the Newfoundland Regiment.

Chaplains don’t carry arms but Padre Nangle was side by side with the men, tending to the wounded, burying the dead, and encouraging the battle weary.  The Padre’s commitment to the men of every religious persuasion made him a popular figure and he was chosen to do some recruiting while on leave in Newfoundland.  Fr Nangle served bravely and unstintingly throughout the remainder of the War.  After the War, Padre Nangle was involved with the identification and re-interment of the bodies of the Newfoundlanders who had died in battle.  He was also the driving force behind the erection of the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel.

This proud, patriotic and brave Newfoundlander, Thomas Nangle, died in Rhodesia on 4^th January 1972.  Padre Thomas Nangle and the men of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment are worthy of remembrance every day, but especially today, 1^st July, Memorial Day in Newfoundland.

Some Memorial Day/Canada Day reading:

 

HAPPY PRESENTATION DAY

Nano Nagle, Foundress of the
Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Well, friends, as you will all be aware, today, 21st November, is the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or as we knew it, PRESENTATION DAY.  I guess we all have our memories of past Presentation Days at St Patrick's but perhaps what we remember most is that we always got a holiday on Presentation Day!  After all, we were children and children LOVE a holiday from school!  However, now that we are older and wiser (well older anyway) we are certain to have a more mature attitude to Presentation Day.  Aren't we?   Let's get serious now.

We owe a lot to Nano Nagle and her Presentation Sisters.  I know that I feel nothing but respect, gratitude and love for the Presentations who educated me.  That in itself makes them deserving of heaven!  As a little tribute to all  Presentation Sisters, I post this lovely little story of one Nun's kindness.  The story comes from Karen (Nelson) Brown.

Once upon a time at St Patrick’s, and probably at other Catholic Schools, too, the First Friday of every month saw us all at Mass and Communion.  After Mass we scrambled home for breakfast then got back to school as soon as possible.

Karen Nelson came to St Patrick’s in Grade Four and her teacher was Mother John.  Many of us will remember Mother John.  Karen lived on Kenmount Road and, at that distance, going home for breakfast definitely was not an option!  What was she to do then?  Remember Ronayne’s Store at the top of Hutchings Street?  So does Karen!  Karen said, “Mother John did not feel the chocolate milk and cinnamon bun that I would get for 25¢ at Ronayne’s Store the top of Hutchings Street was an adequate breakfast.”

I guess it wasn’t, but was there a better alternative?  Mother John thought there was!  Karen continued her story; “She would insist that I came into the convent for my breakfast on the First Fridays of the month.  I totally remember those breakfasts.  I’d be alone in one of the sitting rooms near the front door and dine on eggs, toast, jam and a whole pot of hot chocolate.  All served to me on a big tray by Mother John herself – mmmm!”

That was a truly kind and generous act and I am thinking that Nano Nagle herself must have been proud of Mother John.  I am also thinking that Karen must have hated it when her year in Mother John’s Class was over!

Thank you Karen for sharing this lovely story.  A very Happy Presentation Day to Presentation Sisters and St Patrick's Girls everywhere.  

Um, Karen, did you say eggs, toast, jam and hot chocolate?  Every First Friday for the whole year?  Wow!  Wish I had lived at a distance!

OF INTEREST TO THE PHILATELISTS AMONG YOU

Are any of you St Patrick’s girls into philately?  If you are, these first day of issue stamps will be of interest to you. The two stamps were issued in Ireland in 1975 to mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Presentation Sisters in 1775. Nano Nagle could not have imagined that she would be so honoured hundreds of years after she began her work among Ireland’s poor.

Stamps Honouring Nano Nagle
(Click on picture to enlarge it)

THE LADY WITH THE LANTERN

Honora Nagle (known as Nano) was born in 1718 in Ballygriffin, near Mallow, County Cork. She was descended from a Norman Baron who founded an Irish Augustinian priory. Her father, Garret, was a wealthy landowner. Her mother, Ann, was from a prominent Tipperary family and a relative of the famous parliamentarian, Edmund Burke. In Ireland at that time, Penal Laws, designed to keep Catholics poor, uneducated, and oppressed, made it unlawful to open a Catholic School or to travel abroad for an education. Despite the Penal Laws, the Nagles had managed to keep most of their wealth and, through family connections, were able to send, discretely, Nano and her sister Ann to Paris. Here they received a thorough Catholic education. They also enjoyed the gaiety of life in Parisian Society! Early one morning Nano and Ann were in a cab, returning from a Ball in that great city. They came upon a group of poor people huddled outside a church door, waiting to attend early Mass before going to their work. Nano compared her own privileged lifestyle to these poor people. The scene so disturbed her that she decided to do something to help the poor.

In 1746, Garret Nagle died and Nano and Ann returned to Ireland to live with their mother in Dublin, where there was widespread poverty. One day Nano was looking for a piece of valuable Parisian silk, which Ann told her she had sold and given the money to the poor. Nano was profoundly touched by this and years later, said that it was this that had decided her vocation. She returned to Paris with the intention of consecrating her life to God in a cloistered order where she could pray for the poor. However, her very perceptive Jesuit Confessor advised her to return to Ireland and work for the poor and deprived in her homeland.

She went back to Cork and lived with her brother, Joseph. In Cork, she rented a mud cabin in Cove Lane and, in secret, set up her first school for the poor. Her aim was to provide these poorest of the poor with a sound religious education as well as an all round education that would help them to make their way in life. Nano had received a substantial inheritance from her Uncle Joseph and she used this to finance her charitable work. When her money ran out, she became a beggar for her beloved poor. Her charitable work did not stop at providing schools for the poor. She went out to them in the hovels and alleyways of Cork bringing them as much help and succour as she could. After her long days in the schoolroom, night would often overtake her as, with her lantern, she made her way home through the dark.

To give her schools more permanency, Nano brought some Irish Ursulines from France to teach in Cork. For various reasons, this was not a success and, though Nano never lost her love for the Ursulines and continued to help them financially, she began to think of setting up her own congregation of religious sisters. This congregation came into being on 24th December 1775. Nano’s preferred title was ‘The Sisters of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus’. After Nano’s death, and with Papal approval, the name was changed to the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (P B V M), by which they are still known today. Although Nano and her little group received the religious habit on 24th June 1776, it was not until 1800 that the Sisters first wore religious dress in public. Nano, the congregation’s first superior, chose the name of Sister Saint John of God but, under prevailing Penal Laws, she was known officially as Miss Nagle.

The Latin words on the Nagle Coat of Arms roughly translated as ‘Deeds Not Words’ and Nano certainly lived by this motto! As well as long hours in prayer, Nano engaged in every work that would alleviate the misery of the poor. However, regarding the work, she told her Sisters “We must prefer the schools to all others”. So it was that Nano Nagle blazed the trail and inspired great educators such as Edmund Ignatius Rice and Catherine McAuley who followed in her footsteps. In 1782, a Relief Bill allowed Catholics, for the first time since 1695, to open their own schools. Of course, this had conditions but it did go some way to realizing Nano’s dream when her secret schools could at last operate openly.

In 1769, Nano had written to a friend, “If I could be of any service in saving souls in any part of the globe, I would willingly do all in my power”. True to her missionary vision, the Presentation Sisters, beginning in 1833, spread to every continent. Nano Nagle died, aged 65, on 26th April 1784. Today, all over the world, her spiritual daughters, the Presentation Sisters, continue the work of their holy foundress. Nor is she forgotten in her native Ireland! In 2005, an Irish newspaper poll voted Nano Nagle the greatest Irish woman of all time. In 2002, in a similar poll, she had been voted greatest Irish person of all time.

Links to this post:  THE FIRST PRESENTATION CONVENT OUTSIDE IRELAND