Anecdotes from the Archives

Connecting with our Presentation heritage

Recently, each of the Year 7 classes has visited Fermoy Cottage as part of their Life and Faith studies of Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters. Usually, we revisit our foundation story, that heroic and courageous choice made in 1866, exactly 100 years ago, by nine Presentation women, to take the dangerous three-month sea voyage from Ireland to Hobart. The students are reminded that four of the women were quite young, aged between 17 and 22. What a huge life choice to make at such a young age!

These four young novices were the first Presentation women to be received into the Presentation Order in Australia. This occurred at St John’s Church, Richmond, in a colourful and celebratory Mass on 27 February 1867. Bishop Daniel Murphy was joined by 11 priests from all over the colony, and the little church was filled with local well-wishers.

As was tradition, the novices entered the church dressed in exquisite clothing; after being presented to the Bishop and formally accepted by Mother F X Murphy, the postulants left the church to return dressed in their black habits and white veils. This was a ceremony which, back home in Ireland, would have been proudly attended by their families, so no doubt there were some sad and homesick tears shed privately on that day.

In 1869, after the Sisters took possession of their new school, Mount St Mary’s, the four young women took their final vows in St Mary’s Cathedral on 18 May. The ceremony on that day began at 9.00am and lasted three hours. Bishop Daniel Murphy was joined in this ceremony by 13 priests and a number of other bishops from all over Australia. One person present reported that this was one of the most interesting and imposing ceremonies ever seen in Hobart Town.

The four young women were never to return to Ireland, as they had been told before they left Fermoy in July 1866. They lived out their lives as Presentation Sisters all over the Island, and all are laid to rest in Tasmanian soil.