Faith and Mission

Faith and Mission 

Nano Nagle

This week, our Homeroom and Mentor groups will learn a little more about Nano Nagle and why she is a patron founder of the Presentation Sisters. 

Born to a wealthy family in Ireland in 1718, Nano Nagle’s parents sent her to France to be educated since strict penal laws barred Catholic children from attending school in Ireland. She returned to Ireland after her father’s death in 1746; her mother died soon after. Prayer and reflection led Nano back to France to become a sister. Even as she began her new life as a sister, Nano’s thoughts often returned to the children of the poor families back in Ireland.

At age 32, she left the convent in France and returned to Ireland, where she secretly gathered the children of the poor and taught them catechism, reading, writing and mathematics. As Nano spent her days with the children, they would tell her of their sick friends or family members. Nano began to visit the sick and the elderly after school, bringing them food, medicine and comfort.

She often made visits late into the night, carrying her lamp among the alleyways. Before long, Nano became known as the Lady of the Lantern.

Nano decided to open a convent where women could share the mission of Jesus through prayer, teaching and caring for the sick and needy. Nano and three companions opened the first Presentation Convent in Cork, Ireland, on Christmas Day in 1775. In 1784, at age 65, Nano died.

She left her compelling vision of service to a growing community of Presentation Sisters. Her final words are emblematic of her timeless legacy, and they remain a guiding principle for the Sisters:

“Love one another as you have hitherto done.”

Presentation Sisters in Australia

Nano’s Presentation Sisters established schools and transformative, inclusive communities across Ireland and around the world. The first Presentation Sisters in Australia arrived at Richmond, Tasmania in 1866.

Another group of Presentation Sisters arrived in Victoria in 1883, having first travelled from Kildare, Ireland to Wagga Wagga NSW in 1874. 

The Presentation Sisters soon established and supported primary and secondary schools across Melbourne and country Victoria, responding to needs as they emerged. Later, they moved into the wider community continually finding new ways of empowering people to live more fully, and to find happiness and hope midst the challenges of everyday life.

Today, as members of the Australian Society of Presentation Sisters, Victorian Presentation Sisters are called:

…to encounter God in the heart of the world and to continue the mission of Jesus in the spirit of our founder Nano Nagle. Like Nano we are called to keep our hearts open to the cry of Earth and the cry of those living in poverty, voices which challenge us to conversion and action both personally and communally.

References: 

Kildare Ministries Victoria. kildareministries.org.au

Sisters of the Presentation of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Aberdeen, South Dakota. USA

Image: Nano Nagle. Sisters of the Presentation of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Dubuque, Iowa. USA