yALe univeRSity LiBRARy
che gARVAn collection
Of
books on iReLAnd
estABLished in 1931 By
f RAncis p. gARvAn, yALe 1897
in honoR of his pARents
pAtRiCK gARVAn
mARy carroLL gARVAn

NANO NAGLE:

Ux f if*, \tx W Rbavtxz, aitir fytit Jf raits.

BY

WILLIAM HUTCH, D.D,,
PROFESSOR IN ST. COLMAN'S COLLEGE, FERMOY.

" Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen ... to
the poor the Gospel is preached " (St. Luke, vii. 22).
" They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firma
ment : and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity"
<Dan. xii. 3). ^^
Ouri rj yvExrig aviv iriartuiQ, oBr 'rj vhr.ie avev yvwatii>£.
St. Clement of Alexandria, Strom, v. 1.

DUBLIN :
MCGLASHAN & GILL, 50, UPPER SACKVILLE-ST.
1875-

DUBLIN J PWNTJ5D BY H*GLAflHAX AS1> GILL, 50, UPPER BACKVJLLE-STRKET^

PREFACE.

T is the writer's purpose to record in the following
pages the life and labours of Nano Nagle, and
the fruits of both as witnessed, principally, in the
results accomplished by the two Religious Orders which
she established in Ireland one hundred years ago.
It is really astonishing how very little is " known of
Nano Nagle, even by those who glory in being called her
children. We are sufficiently conversant with the names
and fame of even third-rate soldiers, and statesmen,
and philosophers, and philanthropists. Ponderous vo
lumes record their deeds, and sculptured marbles pro
claim their real or fancied virtues, while the name of one
of the best and greatest women of modern times is buried
in comparative obscurity. And yet the name of Nano
Nagle is — " One of the few, the immortal names,
That were not born to die."
The story of her life is stamped in bold and indelible
characters on the pages of her country's history, and the
fruit of her labours may be seen to-day wherever the Eng-

vi Preface.
lish tongue is spoken. Her children may be met with in
almost every town in Ireland ; and amid the ceaseless hum1
and busy twirl of the spinning wheels of Manchester ; and
beyond the Atlantic, where the "Empire city"- witnesses the
union of the Hudson with the sea; and by the golden gate
of San Francisco ; and in the islands of the southern seas ;
and where the orange groves perfume the air of Australia ;
and where a tropical sun burns up the soil of India, as well
as in the far north, where a mantle of almost perpetual snow
covers the hills and forests of Newfoundland. The Sisters
of the Ursuline and Presentation Orders, established in
Cork a century ago by Nano Nagle, have already influ
enced, for time and for eternity, the lives of many millions
of their fellow-creatures ; and if we take into account all
that they are sure to effect in the future for the propagation
of Catholicity both in America and in the British colonies,
we need not hesitate to affirm that the Church has gained
more largely by the life and labours of Nano Nagle than by
the exertions of any one of her children since the days of
Ignatius of Loyola. This assertion is startling, and seems
rash ; but it is made with deliberation, and will be sup-
- .ported by some considerations put forward in the last
chapter of this work.
Up to the present only two notices of Nano Nagle have
been before the public. The first is merely a panegyric,
extending over some thirty pages, which was preached by
the late Dr. Coppinger, Bishop of Cloyne, before a chari
table society in Cork. The other is from the pen of the

Preface. vii
late lamented Dean of Cork, the Very Rev. Dominick
Murphy. Dean Murphy's work is masterly in point of
¦execution, and invaluable because of the important docu
ments connected with Miss Nagle's first efforts, which he
was fortunate enough to rescue from obscurity if not from
¦destruction. It is, however, matter for regret, that his fail
ing health did not permit this laborious scholar to give us
¦a full history of the Presentation Order. His memoirs of
Nano Nagle contain no account of the extension of this,
her greatest work, and even his brief notice of the Ursulines
is confined^ to the early years of their existence in Ireland.
It is, moreover, to be regretted that Dean Murphy's work
is extremely rare ; so much so that it was only after re
peated failures that the present writer was enabled to pro
cure the loan of a copy through the kindness of a friend.
These circumstances will, we trust, relieve us from any
suspicions of presumption in placing the present work be
fore the public. In its pages we have traced the history of
the Ursuline and Presentation Orders, year by year, from
the date of their establishment in Ireland, by Nano Nagle,
nip to the present hour ; and this we have done so minutely,
that we fear we shall incur thereby the' displeasure of some
•of our readers. They must, however, remember that this
work is intended not alone for the general public, but in
a large degree for the daughters of Nano Nagle, and that
matters which are of light, value to others will possess a
deep interest for them.
This volume, however faulty in many respects, can claim

viii Preface.
at least one merit — it is perfectly trustworthy. The infor
mation contained in it has, in every instance, been procured
from the Ursuline and Presentation Nuns themselves, and
its accuracy may be, therefore, relied upon.
Living, as the author does, at a considerable distance
from the place of publication, it has been, of course, im
possible to avoid all errors while the work was passing
through the press. These, however, are few, and, for the
most part, such as the reader may easily detect.
The writer gladly avails himself of this opportunity to re
turn his most sincere thanks to the Ursuline and Presenta
tion Nuns, for the generous and invaluable aid which they
have given him in the compilation of this work. He trusts
they will accept the result of his labours as a humble tri
bute to the memory of their great Foundress, in antici-^
pation of the coming celebration of her centenary ; and
in return he asks of them but one favour — the charity of
their prayers.
St. Colman's College, Fermoy,
Feast of St. Patrick, March, ijth, 1875.

ERRATUM.

At page 1 18, line 4 from bottom, before the word " except " react
"Miss Mullaly was the counterpart of Miss Nagle."

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
PAGE;
Miss Nagle's ancestry — Parentage — Birth — And Early Education, I
CHAPTER II.
Miss Nagle arrives in Paris.— Society in the French capital when
Louis Quinze was lung. — Meditation after a Ball. — A tribute
from an American Poet. — Miss Nagle returns to Ireland, . 8-
CHAPTER III.
Ireland in the middle of the last century. — The Penal Laws and
their baneful effects. — Miss Nagle despairs of doing any good
for the poor Catholics, and resolves to leave Ireland for ever,
and join a religious community in France,  15.
CHAPTER IV.
Interior trials. — " The voice of the Irish." — Miss Nagle doubts her
vocation, and seeks spiritual counsel. — Her doubts are at length
set at rest, and she returns to Ireland. — Anecdote concerning
a silk dress,  _  22
CHAPTER V.
The social and moral condition of Cork one hundred years ago. —
How the. citizens by the Lee used to keep the Sabbath. —
Weekly faction fights. — Trade riots. — "The Forty-five" Club.
—The Cork "Breeches Market." — Letter of Miss Nagle de-
scribing"her first efforts towards the reformation and education
of the people,  27

x Contents.
PAGE
CHAPTER VI.
The diffusiveness of Miss Nagle's charity.— The physical dangers
which she had to encounter in carrying out her designs. — She
finds it necessary to establish a collection for the support of
her schools, and undertakes the entire labour of it herself. —
Miss Nagle's qualification for begging. — Miss Nagle ( as an
Oculist. — She determines to hand over her schools to a reli
gious community. — Selects the Ursulines for that purpose. —
Brief sketch of the Ursuline Order,  2,6
CHAPTER VII.
Miss Nagle experiences some difficulty in obtaining subjects for
the new foundation. — Four young ladies agree to join her. —
Interesting letter from Miss Nagle to Miss Fitzsimons. — Miss
Nagle's anxiety that her novices should be thoroughly trained
in secular knowledge. — Another letter from Miss Nagle. —
She goes to Bath, and informs her relatives of her designs. —
Opposition from an unexpected quarter. — John Butler, Lord
Dunboyne,  ,  48
CHAPTER VIII.
.Not content with her labours at home, Miss Nagle interests her
self in behalf of the young' negroes in the West Indies. — The
Abbe Moylan goes to Paris for the purpose of escorting the
novices to Cork. — Difficulty of procuring a professed nun to
accompany them. — Mrs. Kelly, of Dieppe, consents to do so,
and the new colony arrives in Cork. — Cork Harbour as it was
in 1 771, and as it is in 1875  The Ursulines enter their new
convent, and open their schools. — Female education, ... 59
CHAPTER IX.
Bigotry of the Cork, Corporation  They endeavour to suppress
Miss Nagle's convent. — Alderman Francis Carleton quiets
the fears of the " Ascendancy " party, and the nuns are tole
rated. — The Ursulines are bold enough to assume the religious
habit. — Miss Nagle's opinion of Dr. Moylan's influence en the
atmosphere. — Clement XIV. dispenses with half the usual

Contents. xi
PAGE
term of probation, and seven Ursuline Sisters are professed.—
Mrs. Kelly returns to France  Dr. Moylan is appointed Bi
shop of Kerry . — Miss'Nagle is dissatisfied with the working of
the Ursulines, and determines to establish the Presentation
Order. — She meets with opposition from an unexpected
quarter, but perseveres and succeeds. — She is joined by three
companions. — Their style of dress. — Letter from Miss Nagle
to Miss Mullaly, describing the rule they followed. — They
pronounce their simple vows. — A singular vocation, ... 68
CHAPTER X.
Miss Nagle's last illness and death. — Interesting letter from Miss
Fitz'simous to Miss Mullaly, of Dublin. — Miss Nagle's tomb.
— Her character  89
CHAPTER XI.
The Presentation Sisters continue their labours after Miss Nagle's
dgath. — Several Bishops are anxious to secure their services. —
Bishop Moylan applies to the Pope for the confirmation of
the institute. — Brief of Pope Pius VI.,  102
CHAPTER XII.
Rapid extension of the Presentation Institute. — Dr.Moylan estab
lishes a branch at Killarney. — Letter from Miss Nagle to Miss
Mullaly. — Establishment of a branch at Georgia Hill, Dublin.
— Miss Maria Teresa Mullaly. — Present state of the convent at
George's Hill. — The Presentation Institute in Waterford. — A
relic of the Penal days. — Anecdote illustrative of Protestant
intolerance in Waterford some seventy years ago. — The estab
lishment of the Christian Brothers in Ireland partly due to the
Waterford Presentation Nuns. — Foundation of the North
Presentation Convent, Cork. — Mrs. O'Connell.— Early strug
gles. — Dr. John Barry's restricted notions concerning candi
dates for the kingdom of heaven. — Another relic of the Penal
times. — The Sheriff of Cork means mischief, but his designs
are providentially frustrated. — The Presentation Order in Kil
kenny  107

xii Contents.
PAGE
CHAPTER XIII.
Dr. Moylan is anxious that the Presentation Institute should be
raised to the rank of a Religious Order. — Difficulties and
Delays. — Two Letters of Father Laurence Callanan to MiSs
Mullaly. — Brief of Pope Pius VII. confirming the New Rules
of the Presentation Nuns, and elevating their Institute to the
dignity of a Religious Order,  138
. , CHAPTER XIV.
Some Rules of the Presentation Order  The Nature and Spirit
of the Institute. — Rules for the Guidance of the Nuns in
the Management of their Schools. — Rules regulating the
Admission of Postulants, their Reception and Profession 
Form of Government established in the Order, and Method
followed in electing the Superioress,  148
Chapter xv.
History of the Presentation Order in the first twenty years of the
nineteenth century. — Political and religious difficulties, which
militated against the extension of the institute. — Establish
ment of Presentation Convents in Dublin, Tralee, Dungar-
¦van, Carlow, Drogheda, Carrick, Clohmel, Galway, Rahan,
Thurles, and Doneraile. — Mofhei Mary Magdalen Gould. —
The Children of Nano Nagle in Wexfbrd,  l6«
CHAPTER XVI.
Success of the Ursulines in Cork. — Death makes ravages among
the first members of the community. — Several French Nuns,
banished from France during the Great Revolution, find a
home in Douglas-street Convent. — The Sisters change their
residence from Cork to Blackrock. — Splendid success of the
Ursuline Schools at Blackrock. — Establishment of the Ursu
line Order at Thurles. — Mothers M. Ursula Young and M.
Charles Molony. — Early struggles, and ultimate success of the
Ursulines at Thurles. — Mother M. Teresa Joseph Greene. —
Three sisters from Cork proceed to found a branch of the

Contents. xiii
: PAGE
Order in New York.^Perils of the journey, and failure of the
mission. — The Ursulines in Waterford — Mother de Sale?
Cooke and the devotions of the month of May.— ^Present con
dition of the Ursulines in Waterford,  200
CHAPTER XVII.
Views of J. K. L. on the subject of education. — He establishes a
branch of the Presentation Order at Maryborough, and sets
forth his ideas concerning the qualifications for the religious
state in a parting address to the missionaries destined for the
new foundation. — Further extension of the Presentation Order.
, — Establishment of houses of the institute at Maynooth and
Mullingar.-^A. foundation opened, in historic Kildare, beside
the ruins of the old Abbey of St. Bridget. — Missionaries from
Kildare establish the Presentation Order in Wagga-Wagga. —
Generosity of the Exiles of Erin in Australia. — The Presen
tation Nuns in Castlecomer. — How, the daughters of Nano
Nagle planted her banner on the battlements of the good old
Orange borough of Bandon Bridge. — The Presentation Order
in Enniscorthy. — Establishment of a foundation in Dingle. —
Ravages of the great Irish famine in 1846-47, and how the
Presentation Nuns of Dingle performed "Martha's work "
during that eventful period. — The Order of Presentation Sisters
in Mouncoin  220
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Ursuline Convent, St. Joseph's, Sligo.-7-lts schools, and the
course of instruction pursued in them. — Eight of its members
accompany Most Rev. Dr. Hynes to British Guiana, and found
there a. branch of the Ursuline Order. — Success of that mis
sion. — The Ursuline Convent at Charlestown, Mass. — What
Father Thayer, of Boston, told the Misses Ryan, of Limerick,
and what the Misses Ryan did in consequence. — Foundation
and prosperity of the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown. — How
the nuns made the acquaintance of Miss Rebecca Teresa
Reed, and what came of it. — How the descendants of the Pil
grim Fathers passed the night of August nth, 1834. — Disper
sion of the Ursuline Community of Charlestown. — The scene

xiv Contents. PAGE:
changes from Charlestown, Mass., to Charleston, South Caro
lina. — How Bishop England found the diocese of Charleston,
and what he made it.— Visits Ireland, and returns with Mother
M. Charles Molony and a colony of Ursulines. — Splendid
testimony borne by Bishop England to the merits of the new
community. — Disturbances are apprehended, and the Bishop,
accordingly, advises the Irish Catholics to be vigilant, and,
above all, " to keep their powder dry." — The storm blows over,
and the Ursulines are unmolested. — "Hard Times." — Mother
Charles revisits Ireland, and returns with two subjects for
the Charleston House. — Success of the establishment. — Death
of Mother Charles. — Bishop England's last words to the
Ursulines. — Further Vicissitudes. — Retrospect, '  254
CHAPTER XIX.
The Presentation Order enters on the Second Half-Century of its
existence. — Establishment of a branch at Cashel. — St. Fran
cis's Industrial School, Cashel. — Reports of Government
Inspectors on its efficiency . — Present condition of the Cashel
Convent. — The Presentation Order in Newfoundland. — Most
Rev. Michael Anthony Fleming, O.S.Fv Vicar-Apostolic
of Newfoundland. — Interesting sketch of the religious con
dition of the Island at the time of his Appointment. — Re
solves to introduce the Presentation Nuns into his Vicariate;
and visits Ireland for that purpose. — Correspondence. — Suc
ceeds in his mission, and returns to America with Four
Sisters from the Presentation Convent, Galway. — The Sisters
open their first School at St. John's, near their temporary
convent, at " the sign of the Rising Sun." — Testimony
borne by Bishop Fleming to the usefulness of their labours. —
Dr. Fleming applies to Galway for more missionaries, and
his appeal is responded to by two nuns. — The new Presen
tation Convent at St. John's burned to the ground, and the
nuns left houseless. — Noble generosity and sympathy of the
Islanders. — The Convent rebuilt on *. grander scale. — Extra- '
ordinary success of the Presentation Order in Newfoundland.
— List of the Twelve Houses of the Order now existing on
the Island, with the date of foundation and the names of the
Foundresses. — The Presentation Order in Youghal.  Mother

Contents. xv
PAGE.
M. Magdalen Gould again. — Gerald Griffin's sister enters
the Youghal convent. — Death of Mother Gould. — Her Con
ventual Life. — New Schools and Convent, Youghal. — Success
of the Schools,  285.
CHAPTER XX.
Establishment of a Presentation Convent at Midleton, County
Cork. — Sisters from Midleton open a house of their Order
in San Francisco. — Early struggles and ultimate success of
that mission. — The Presentation Nuns in Tuam. — Four hun
dred poor children fed daily during the famine year. — The
daughters of Nano Nagle in Manchester. — Severe and con
tinued struggles which they have had to endure. — They open
an orphanage. — They attempt a foundation in Salford, but are
unsuccessful. — High praise awarded by Government Inspec
tors to the Manchester Presentation Schools. — The Presenta
tion Order in Lismore. — Kindness shown to the nuns by the
Abbot and Monks of Mount Melleray. — Present condition of
the community at Lismore.— The daughters of Nano Nagle in
Limerick. — Miss Maria Catherine King. — The Limerick Sisters
send out a mission to Melbourne. — Excellence of the Presen
tation Schools in Limerick. — Establishment of the Presenta
tion Order at Milltown, County Kerry, and at BagnaUtown, 326-
CHAPTER XXI.
Fermoy, past and present. — Most Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of
Cloyne. — The Presentation Order in Fermoy. — Establishment
of a Presentation Convent in Clane, County Kildare. — Further
extension of the Order in the diocese of Kerry. — Houses
opened at Millstreet and at Cahirciveen. — The daughters of
Nano Nagle in India. — A branch of the Order established in
Listowel. — Labours of the nuns in Listowel during the famine
years. — " I'm a spectre, ma'am ! " — How a nun meets death.
— " Sister Humility " of the Listowel Convent. — Prolonged
controversy between the nuns and the Commissioners of
Education on the subject of a Cross. — Mother Teresa Kelly.
 Her death. — Present condition of the Listowel Presenta
tion Convent. — Nano Nagle's institute in Castleisland, . . 360.

xvi Contents. PAGE
CHAPTER XXII.
The History of the Presentation Order during the last quarter
of a century. — Establishment of the Order in Stradbally,
Queen's County, Mitchelstown, Mduntmellick, Portarlington,
Clondalkin, Oranmore, and Fethard. — The voyage of the
"Empress.", — Missionaries from Fermoy unfurl the banner
of Nano Nagle in Tasmania. — Splendid success of that
mission. — Further extension of the Presentation Order.—
Establishment of branches in Lucan, Ballingarry, Granard,
and Baltinglass. — The Presentation Nuns in Australia. —
What a zealous Irish priest can do with the aid of a generous
Irish flock in Victoria. — Establishment and success of the
Presentation Convent at St. Kilda, Melbourne. — A second
colony of Presentation Nuns for Australia. — Establishment
of a convent at Wagga- Wagga, diocese of Goulbourne. —
Princely munificence of Messrs. Cox and Donnelly. — " West
ward ho !" — The daughters of Nano Nagle in New York, —
"Wonderful success and brilliant prospects of the Presentation
Order in the " Empire City,"  410
CHAPTER XXIII.
The special Providence of God shown forth in the origin, estab
lishment, and extension of the Presentation Order. — Primate
Boulter's work contrasted with the work of Nano Nagle. —
The destiny of the Irish race, and the part which the daughters
of Nano Nagle take in its accomplishment. — The lesson
which the advocates of " godless " education in Ireland may
learn from the extension of the Presentation Order. — Con
clusion,  475

Appendix 1  493
Appendix II  . 500
Appendix III  504
Appendix IV.  rt0
Appendix V.  516

NANO NAGLE

HER LIFE, HER LABOURS, AND THEIR FRUITS.

CHAPTER I.
Miss Nagle's Ancestry — Parentage — Birth — And Early Education.
HOSE who have achieved most for the benefit of
mankind have not, invariably, been remarkable
for ancient lineage or distinguished birth. On the
contrary, even a passing glance at history will suffice to
show that those who have laboured most effectually for
the moral, social, and intellectual improvement of their
felloW-creatures were, as a(rule, drawn from the ranks of
the people, and were supported in the execution of their
benevolent designs not so much by the material resources
at their command, as by their own indomitable energy and
perseverance, sustained by the helping hand of God. To'
this rule, however, the subject of the present memoir was,
in some respects, an exception, as she was descended from
the ancient family of the Nagles, who held extensive landed
property (part of which still remains with them) at Ana-
kissy, near Mallow, in the county of .Cork.
Of this family, Sir Bernard Burke, in his "Landed Gen
try" says that it is " one of the most ancient Anglo-Norman
families in Ireland;" and justly so, for when Strongbow

2 Nano Nagle-:
entered Ireland, in 1169, no more trusty knights rode be
side him than Gilbert de Angulo and his two sons Jocelyn
and Hostilio. The father received as his reward the terri
tory of Marrigallen, with other possessions in the county
of Meath ; while Jocelyn, the eldest son, became pos
sessed of Navari and the territories of Ardbraccan, which
gave to his successors in after-times the title of Baron of
Navan. The descendants of Gilbert altered the name
from " De Angulo" to Nangle ; and the branch of the
family which settled near Mallow further changed the
name to Nagle, as it is now written. There is in Trinity
College, Dublin, a MSS. Register (F. 3, 27) which gives
the lineage of the Cork Nagles for nine generations in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and in King James's
new charters to the Irish Corporations we find members
of the family holding high official positions in Cork, Mal
low, Dungarvan, Youghal, and Charleville.
The most distinguished member of the family in the
17th-century was Sir Richard Nagle, who filled several high
offices in the reign of the second James. He was Speaker
of the Irish House of Commons in 1689 ; and, on the re
signation of Lord Melfort in the same year was appointed,
through the influence of the Duke of Tyrconnell, Secre
tary of State to the King. It is scarcely necessary to say
that Sir Richard was an ardent Royalist and Catholic  and
this to such a degree, that his zeal seems to have occa
sionally betrayed him into acts of cruelty and oppression
towards his -Protestant fellow-subjects.* That he was a
very able man is attested on all sides. Lord Macaulay
calls him "an acute and well-read lawyer;" and Claren-
* These assertions come entirely from Protestant sources, and as it
was Sir Richard who drew up the Acts restoring some of the forfeited
estates to the rightful Catholic owners, historians of the opposite party
have not been slow to judge his character very harshly.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 3
don, writing to Ormond (September 28th, 1686) bears tes
timony to his ability, though he styles him elsewhere
(Diary, January 31st, i68|-) "a covetous, ambitious man."
When the cause of the Stuarts was lost at the Boyne, Sir
Richard Nagle. was one of those from whom the wretched
James sought counsel in Dublin. The advisers of the King
saw, no doubt, the hopeless condition of his affairs ; and,
conscious of his utter inability to remedy them, " were all
unanimously of opinion that he should lose no time in
going to France, otherwise he would run a great risk
of being taken by the enemy, who they believed would be
there next morning."* Sir Richard determined to share
the fortunes of his Sovereign, and accompanying him into
exile, continued to fill the office of Secretary of State for
Ireland at the Court of St. Germains. He paid a heavy
penalty for his loyalty, as he thereby forfeited nearly
5,000 acres in the baronies of Fermoy and Duhallow, be
sides considerable estates in Waterford.
Another member of the Nagle family who figures pro
minently in the history of the same period is Pierce Nagle
(brother to Sir Richard), who was High Sheriff of Cork in
1668, being the last Catholic who held that office until
after the passing of the Act of Emancipation in 1829.
Unlike his brother, Pierce Nagle seems to have been in
favour with the Protestants ; for, after the fall and flight
of James II;, he was in nowise molested, but was so far
privileged as to be allowed to carry arms — a permission
most strictly denied to Catholics after the accession of
William the Third.
The Nagle family has also the honour of having pro
duced, in the maternal line, the greatest political philoso
pher of modern times — Edmund Burke — who was first
* Vide Clarke's " James IL," p. 401.
B 2

4 Nano Nagle:
cousin to the subject of this memoir, his father, Richard
Burke, having married Mary, daughter of Patrick Nagle, of
Shanballyduff. Lewis, in his " Topographical Dictionary
of Ireland" article Monanimy, writes : " The celebrated
Edmund Burke passed his early childhood at Ballyduff in
this parish, the seat of his maternal grandfather, where he
remained about five years, and received the first rudi
ments of his education at the ruined Castle of Monanimy,
in which a sort of hedge-school was then held. He always
retained a great partiality for these places, which he often
revisited in subsequent years." The Cork Nagles can also
boast of an alliance with one of England's greatest poets,
Spenser ; for while the bard resided at Kilcolman Castle,
near Doneraile, his eldest son, Sylvanus, saw, and wooed,
and won Ellen Nagle, eldest daughter of David Nagle of
Monanimy, and had issue two sons, Edmund and William
Spenser. In the maternal line, too, Miss Nagle was of distin
guished lineage, being descended from the Matthews of
Thomastown — a name which will ever be remembered in
connexion with the illustrious apostle of temperance,
Theobald Mathew.*
From what has been written it will be seen that Miss
Nagle had, indeed, the bluest of blue blood in her veins ;
but she did not pride herself on the fact, for her motto
was : — " Howe'er it be, it seems to me
'Tis only noble to be good ;
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood. "f
* For a more detailed account of the Matthew family see Maguire's
" Life of Father Mathew," chap. I. ; "Walter Cox's Magazine" for June,
1 8 10 ; and "Ireland before the Union," by William J. Fitzpatrick, J. P.,
pp. 156, etseqq.
t Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 5
The subject of this memoir was born at Ballygriffin,
near Mallow, in the county of Cork, in the year 1728, her
father being Garret Nagle, Esq., of that place, and her
mother, Miss Matthew, of Thomastown, County Tipperary ;
"both of them," writes Most Rev. Dr. Coppinger, "legs
distinguished by their genteel extraction, than by the
general edification of their good example."
As circumstances did not seem to indicate that Nano
Nagle would ever play a prominent part in -the history
of her country, very few anecdotes of her early years have
been preserved. We are told, however, that the future
nun displayed an unusual amount of vivacity and animal
spirits. This troubled her good mother very much. She
feared that Nano, as she grew older, would become a wild
and wayward girl ; and, consequently, with more of mater
nal anxiety than good sense, she endeavoured to moderate
the child's natural buoyancy of temperament by denying
her those little indulgences which she freely lavished
on her other children. On all such occasions her
father used to plead for Nano, and, in excusing her little
freaks, would say, in words almost prophetic, that his
" poor Nano would be a saint yet.'* We must not con
clude from this that there was anything morally wrong in
these youthful sallies ; for, considering her tender years,
she must have been at the time in possession of her bap
tismal innocence. Indeed, some of the greatest saints
have in their youth manifested similar tendencies ; and,
amongst many examples which might be cited, it will be
sufficient to instance St. Teresa and blessed Mary Marga
ret Alacoque. Nor is it difficult to account for this un
usual flow of animal spirits, if we consider the glorious
scenery that surrounded the cradle of a child born with a
naturally sanguine temperament. The beautiful tange of
" Nagle's Mountains " broke upon her view as she awoke

6 Nano Nagle:
each morning — peering along, as Spenser writes, the
valley of
" Swift Anniduff, which, of the Englishman,
Is call'd Blackwater ...
And Mulla mine whose waves I, whilom, taught to weep."
From her window she could see the venerable oaks wav
ing around Carrigacunna Castle ; and the sacred ruins of
Monanimy still peopled in her fancy with the weird old
legends and traditions of the Knights Templars. Such
associations and such scenery might well excite a nature
less enthusiastic and less impressionable than that of Nano
Nagle. Miss Nagle received from her parents the rudiments of
her religious and literary education. From the pious
dispositions of both parents it is quite certain that the
former was scrupulously attended to, while their own at
tainments, which were of no mean order, do not permit
us to doubt that they imparted to their child such liberal
secular training as was suited to her years. However, the
time soon came when it was desirable that Nano should re
ceive in some public seminary such an education as would
fit her to occupy, at a future period, that position in society
to which, by her birth and rank, she was entitled. This
was a problem not so easy of solution in the last century
as in our own days, when first-class schools for young
ladies are to be met with everywhere throughout the land.
At the period of which we write there was no Catholic
seminary to be found within the British seas, and Catholic
parents were forced to sacrifice the faith of their children,
or send them abroad to enjoy the blessings of an educa
tion which was denied to them at home.
Miss Nagle's parents were too sincere and steadfast in
their religious convictions to imperil the faith of their

Her Life, her Labours, and-their Fruits. 7
child by keeping her^at home ; and so it was agreed that,
for the purpose of completing her studies, she should
proceed to Paris, where some of her relatives were then
living in the suite of the exiled King James. One fine
morning in early spring Nano Nagle, with tearful eye and
aching heart, cast a long, sorrowing look at Ballygriffin,
and the scenery [which was familiar to her from her child
hood, and> accompanied by°an uncle, set out for the
brilliant capital of " La Belle France."

_ Nano Nagle :

CHAPTER II.
Miss Nagle anives in Paris. — Society in the French Capital when
Louis Quinze was King  Meditation after a Ball. — A Tribute
from an American Poet  Miss Nagle returns to Ireland.
On her arrival in Paris Miss Nagle was .placed in a con
vent to receive an education suitable to the high.ppsition
which her birth entitled her to fill in after-life. It is unfortu
nate that we have no reliable accounts of the success which
attended her studies in the French metropolis ; but Most
Rev. Dr. Coppinger, who preached her panegyric not many
years after her death, and whose relative was, as we shall
see later on, one of the first associates of Miss Nagle,
assures us that " being gifted with superior talents, she
fulfilled in every particular the expectations of her friends —
uniting with an agreeable person the most engaging man
ners, and the most lasting attractions of a cultivated
mind.''* Having finished her studies she resolved to remain some
what longer in the capital; in order to acquire that polish
and refinement for which Paris was then, as now, remark
able. Miss Nagle experienced no difficulty in obtaining
admission into the very best ranks of Parisian society.
Many of her own relatives, who had followed in the suite
of the exiled James, were constant guests at the gay " re
unions" of Louis XV. Moreover, there were in the
French capital, occupying" high positions in the army and
the senate, many Irish nobles and gentlemen of the best
blood — the descendants of the men who had fought and
*Dr. Coppinger's "Life of Nano Nagle," p. 8. Cork (Mnlcahy), 1843.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 9
died for. France at Cremona, Spire* Luzzacca, Blenheim,
Cassano, Ramelies, Almanza, Alcira, Majplaquet and'De-
nain ; and to these the very proudest of the " haute no
blesse " threw open their " salons " with a cordial welcome.
Society in every capital is generally fashioned after the
model of the Court. At the period of which we write Louis
XV. was king ; and the Court at Versailles was not only
' brilliant and gay, it was corrupt and profligate in the ex
treme. This state of affairs was partially brought about
by the Regency of the Duke of Orleans, but was mainly
attributable to the influence which the debauched Duke
de Richelieu (nephew to the celebrated Cardinal of that
name) and the infamous courtesans, Pompadour and Du
Barry, exercised over the mind of a weak and sensual
monarch. We can form some idea of the extent to which
these women had enslaved the wretched king, when we
learn from recent official investigations that Madame de
Pompadour, during the years she was in favour, spent in
extravagant luxury a sum of 36,000,000 livres, equivalent
in English currency to ^1,427,438 sterling. Madame du
Barry was even more reckless still ; and it has been as
certained from official sources that ^"20,000,000 of the
National Debt of France owes" its origin to the excesses
and the profligacy of the Court of Versailles during the
reign of Louis XV.*
* Maria Leczinska, the Queen of Louis XV., was a woman of rare
piety and unblemished character. Until 1730 the king obeyed her
counsels, and the Court was unsullied by the vices with which it was
afterwards disgraced. But about this time the courtiers and courtesans
who were hanging about Versailles determined to destroy the king's
virtue. Three persons were deputed to undertake this task — the Duke
de Richelieu and Mesdames de Tencin (mother of D'Alembert), and
Charolais, Princess of Condk These three succeeded in making the
king, first a gambler, next a drunkard, and, finally, an adulterer and a
profligate.— See Sismondi, " Histoire des Franqais," vol. 28, cap. 48,

io Nano Nagle-:
In their private lives the nobles were quite as -'bad as
the Sovereign ; and though their public meetings were
regulated by a certain degree of propriety, the laws of de
corum were much relaxed. The French people, at the
time, were impoverished, but virtuous ; the French nobles
wallowed in wealth and sin ; they worshipped but one
god — Pleasure.
Such was the society to which Nano Nagle was intro
duced in Paris]; and the greatest encomium ithat can be
passed on her is, that where all was defilement she was
pure and unsullied. To the unreflecting this may seem no
very difficult task ; but experienced minds will perceive that
it must have demanded no ordinary amount of God's grace,
allied with natural virtue. It is h&t difficult to .fancy the
dangerous impressions which might be produced "in: a
young, guileless heart, by the gorgeous, seductive scenes
in which she was constantly moving. We can picture
without an effort the excitement of the imaginative, impul
sive, somewhat romantic Irish girl, as she saw herself sur
rounded, in the bloom of her youth and beauty, by gay and
gallant cavaliers, who whispered to her words of insidious
flattery, and would poison her soiil with the world's
maxims. How poor simple Nano must*have felt as
she contrasted her present life of pleasure with the dull,
quiet days in.her old home at Ballygriffin, where her. ex
istence was barely tolerated by the Government of the day !
She did. feel the change intensely, and entered, with all the
enthusiasm of her youth and natural disposition, into the
gay circle of pleasures which surrounded her. Balls, routs,
masquerades, theatres, dress, engaged all Miss Nagle's
attention. T° use her own words, as recorded in the
annals of the South Presentation Convent, Cork, she was
at this time " a lover of the world, of dress, arid vanity."
But her heart, though somewhat tainted by the poison of

Her Life, hey Labours, and their Fruits. 1 1
the society in Which she moved, remained still incor
rupt ; for God had chosen her to do a great work, and
He kept His shielding hand over her that she might not
be lost to Him.
The time when she should withdraw from the service of
the world was at hand, and God effected the change in
her heart through an apparently trivial circumstance. One
beautiful spring morning, while most of the Parisians were
asleep, and 6uch' as were not hastened to enjoy the needful
repose after the gaieties and dissipation of the preceding
night, Nano Nagle found herself in a well-appointed
carriage which rumbled along the pavements of the " Fau
bourg St. Germain." She was returning from a ball ;
the voluptuous music of the preceding night still sounded
. in her ears, the gay throng of pleasure's votaries still kept
flitting across her brain ; and the recollection of the soft
flatteries she had listened to made her breast heave, and
her heart beat more quickly, as she hastened home to rest
her weary limbs, and prepare, it may be, for a similar round
of pleasures on the morrow. In passing a church which
lay along her " route," she glanced out of the carriage
window, and saw congregated on the church steps a num
ber of poo* working people, who had assembled there at
that early hour that they might avail themselves of the
opportunity of assisting at the first Mass, and asking God's
blessing on their daily toil.
That sight was as an arrow of grace shot through the
heart of Nano Nagle. She contrasted the position of these
poor work-people with her own, as they stood relatively
in the sight of God, They seeking the one thing necessary,
she a slave to the perishable world ; they fervent in their
piety, she tepid, and all but cold ; they devoting the early
morning to the worship of their Creator, preparatory to a
day of useful labour, she devoting the same hours to in-

12 . Nano Nagle:
dolent repose, t'o be succeeded by an afternoon of pur
poseless, ifnot sinful frivolities. The contrast was too
striking; and in her own heart was she forced to confess
that the poor labourers were walking in the right path, and
that she, the " belle " of the " salons " of Paris, was tread
ing in the ways that lead to perdition. Grace nurtured the
seed that it had sown in the breast of Nano Nagle, and
she at once resolved to bid adieu to the world and its
pleasures, and devote the remainder of her life to the ser
vice of God. The history of this conversion has been so
ably expressed by a gifted lady who has for some time
been writing in the San Francisco Monitor under the " nom
de plume " of " Marie," that we will offer no excuse for
introducing the poem here : —
THE LESSON HEEDED.
The sonnds of festal music rose within a stately hall,
And garlands shone, and banners waved upon its gilded wall j
A gay and goodly company were brightly gathered there —
The youthful and the nobly born, the valiant and the fair.
Unheeded fled the smiling night amid the tumult sweet,
The strains of witching melody, the tread of dancing feet ;
Nor faintest note of graver thought could sound its warning knells,
Where rang the tones of Pleasure's lute, the clang of Folly's bells.
And 'mid the proud and jewelled throngYhat graced that festal scene,
One peerless star serenely shone, a fondly worshipped queen ;
O'er all the gleaming galaxy of brightest beauty there,
That high-born maid of Erin reigned, the fairest of the fair.
A murmur of the coming mom dissolved the spell of night,
And through the shadows dimly peered .the herald beams of light;
And as the day its throne upreared within the golden east,
An eager throng thus early came to share the nuptial feast.
A grand'and goodly company had fondly gathered there,
Yet not in silken raiment clad, nor decked with jewels rare —
In mean and tattered drapery they braved the wintry cold,
And oft the thin and pallid cheek its dismal stoiy told.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 13 •
Yet grand were they, those hens of Heaven, those children of the
King,
And goodly was the company o'erwatched by angel wing ;
Nor proud heraldic blazonry, nor wreathed and gilded wall,
Could match that Monarch's matin feast, that Bridegroom's banquet
hall.
And while they humbly knelt beside the yet unopened door,
The worldly revel hushed its strain, the^stately dance was o'er —
And now, from worship false and vain, from gods of .frailest clay,
The star of courtly splendour, turned in weariness away ;
And as she sought her regal home, a strange, unwonted scene
Met, on her way, the startled gaze of Pleasure's petted queen :
She saw the lowly band that knelt beside the Temple's gate-
She saw " the meek and humble ones " their matin feast await ;
And lo ! the Master seemed amid His chosen flock to stand !
With dust upon His battered robe, and blood-drops on His hand ;
" Behold," He cried, " the picture pure, the lesson traced for thee ! "
Thus only seek thou Wisdom's gate, thus early wait for Me !"
They gathered in a simple room that knew no carving rare,
No b'anner with its proud device, no festal garland fair ; .
And none among that childish band could boast a lordly name —
They were the children of the poor, unknown to rank or fame.
They gathered, fondly, lovingly, around a gentle nun,
And sweetly for the Master's sake, she gave each little one
Pure lessons of the precious lore that once on earth He taught —
Glad knowledge of the wondrous work their hidden Saviour wrought.
Thus was the warning heeded well, for lo ! that gentle guide
Was she who reigned a royal rose within the realms of Pride —
Was she who shone with brightest ray amid the gleaming train,
That glided through the stately hall to music's witching strain.
Her voice of softest, sweetest tone, hath breathed the solemn vow,
The sable veil replaceth now the gems that decked her brow ;
The dress of coarsest serge enshrouds the form of queenly grace
That lately wore the costly "robe, the scarf of dainty lace.
But Pleasure's votary never knew, amid the pomp of Pride,
The peace divine that fills the heart of Heaven's holy bride ;
For she hath watched at Wisdom's gate, hath heard the summons
blest—
Hath cast the worldly burden down, and found the promised rest.

14 Nano Nagle:
Sweet is the Master's sacred yoke, His service maketh glad,
And rare the feast she shareth now, in " wedding garment " clad;
And oft she sees in visions fair, the shining jasper walls,
The aramanthine garlands twined o'er. Heaven's banquet halls ;
And sweetly falleth on her ear the welcome of her Lord,
"Well done, thou pure and faithful one ; behold thy rich reward."
Nano Nagle was converted. The first portion of her
life's history — the period spent in pleasure, and vanity, and
dress — was a thing she would never glance back upon
again, or think of, except in sorrow. The future was be
fore her. What that future would be was but very vaguely
mapped out in her own mind ; her leading idea was to
save her own soul, and, as far as possible, the. souls of
others ; and she felt that this holy inspiration would, un
der the directing hand of God, assume, in due time, a
more definite and practical shape. For the immediate
present there was clearly but one thing to be done— to
quit Paris with its seductive pleasures, and return with
out delay to her old home by the Blackwater, there to
seek in solitude the knowledge of God's will. Miss
Nagle did so.

Her Life; her Labours, and their Fruits. 15

CHAPTER III.
Ireland in the Middle of the last Century. — The Penal Laws, and
their banefuT-Effects. — Miss Nagle despairs of doing any Good
for the poor Catholics, and resolves to leave Ireland for ever and
join a Religious Community in France.
A stranger held the land and tower
Of many a noble fugitive ;
No Popish lord had lordly power, .
The peasant scarce had leave to live ; ,
Above his head
A ruined shed ;
No tenure .but a tyrant's will.
Forbid to plead,
Forbid to read,
Disarmed, disfranchised, imbecile.
What wonder if our step betrays
The freed man born in penal days ?
Thomas Davis.
Miss Nagle returned to Ireland about the year 1750. The
change from the gay metropolis of France to her quiet
country home must have been very marked ; but she was
resolved to persevere in her good resolutions, and dividing
her time between devotional exercises and works of charity,
she did not find it pass wearily after all. " She was now
called home," says her panegyrist, Most Rev. Dr. Coppin-
ger, " where her attention was soon engaged by very dif
ferent objects — the ignorance of the lower classes here,
their consequent immorality, and the ruin of their souls!
For, being invited to a friend's house in her father's neigh-
- bourhood, and passing some time there, she was struck

1 6 Nano Nagle:
with the sentiments of his poor tenants, with whom her
affable disposition led her occasionally to converse. The
favourite subject was ' the business of salvation, bur duty
to God, and the great mysteries of religion.* But how was
she afflicted to perceive that these poor creatures were
almost absolute strangers to everything she questioned
them about ! Under a misconception of their obligations
they substituted error in the place of truth ; while they
kept up an attachment to certain exterior observances,
they were totally devoid of the spirit of religion ; their
fervour was superstitious, their faith was erroneous, their
hope was presumptuous, and they had no charity. Licen
tiousness, while it -could bless itself and tell the beads,-
could live without remorse and die without repentance ;
sacraments and sacrileges went hand in hand, and con
science was at rest upon its own stings."
In order to understand this deplorable state of affairs
it is necessary to glance at the penal laws then in force
affecting the religious freedom and education of Catholics.
If the English had respected the provisions of the Treaty
of Limerick, the Irish Catholics would have been placed
in a position of perfect equality with their Protestant
fellow-countrymen. The free exercise of their religion
had been granted to them without the slightest reser
vation ;* security of property was also guaranteed; f an
article was inserted which provided amply for their per
sonal security by decreeing " a general pardon of all
attainders; outlawries, treasons, misprisions of treason,
premunires, felonies, trespasses, and other crimes and
misdemeanors whatsoever, by them, or any of them,
committed since the beginning of the reign of King
* Treaty of Limerick, Art. I.
t Ibid., Art. II.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 7
James II."* They were allowed the use of arms ;f and it
was provided that the Irish Catholics " of what profession,
trade, or calling soever they be, shall and may use, ex
ercise, and practise their several and respective pro
fessions, trades, and callings, as freely as they did use,
exercise, and enjoy the same in the reign of King
Charles II."J
It will thus be seen that had the Treaty of Limerick,
which Smollet very justly styles "the great charter of the
civil and religious liberty of the Catholics," been loyally
carried out on the side of the English, the Irish Catholics,
instead of being ignorant and debased, as Miss Nagle
found them on her return from France, would have been
as enlightened and as well-to-do as the professors of the
more favoured creed.
But, alas ! for British faith. King William summoned
a Parliament to meet on April 29th, 1695, and this Par
liament set itself to revoke all the concessions granted
to the Catholics by the Articles solemnly signed at
Limerick. §
Their first measure was to pass an Act depriving Catho
lics of the means of educating their children at home, by
prohibiting Papists to teach school, either publicly or
privately, under a penalty pi £zo fine, and three months'
imprisonment. || Not content with this, they adopted a
still more severe course by forbidding Catholics to send
* Treaty of Limerick, Art. V. ,
t ibid., Art. II. % Ibid., Art. VII.
§ King William must be held responsible for these acts of his Par
liament ; for, instead of urging them to confirm the Articles of Lime
rick, as he had promised to do, he told them, through his Lord Deputy,
that he was intent upon the firm settlement of Ireland in the Protes
tant interest (Comm. Journal, 2, 279).
|| Seventh William III., c. 4. C

1 8 Nano Nagle:
their children abroad to be educated * under the penalty
of forfeiting all right to sue in the law courts, deprivation
of all goods and lands for life, and inability to be guar
dian, executor or administrator, or to take a legacy or re
ceive a deed of gift.f The Parliament next passed an
Act for disarming the Catholics ;% and another banishing
priests from the kingdom under penalty of being hanged
should they attempt to return. §
Tyrannical as were these measures, enactments were
made in the next reign which far surpassed them in
cruelty, and which are justly designatedby Burkeas "thefero-
cious Acts of Anne." In the second of these Acts|| passed
in the year 1709, the twelfth clause provides that "All
converts in public employments, members of Parliament,
barristers, attornies, or officers of any courts of law, shall
educate their children Protestants." The sixteenth clause
of the same Act provides that a Papist "teaching school
publicly, or in a private house, or as usher to a Protestant,
shall be deemed and prosecuted as a Popish regular con
vict ;" and in the twentieth clause a reward of £ 10 is
offered for the discovery of each Popish schoolmaster or
* Seventh William III., c. 4, s. 1.
f Of these fiendish enactments, the celebrated Edmund Burke (Miss
Nagle's cousin) writes: "While this restraint upon foreign and do
mestic education was part of a horrible and impious system of servi
tude, the members were well fitted to the body. To render nien patient
under a deprivation of all the rights of human nature, everything which
could give them a knowledge or feeling of those rights was rationally
forbidden. To render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that it ,
should be degraded. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of
the means of improving our rational nature to be the worst species of
tyranny that the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to
exercise." — Letter to a Peer in Ireland.
% 7th William III., u. 5. § 9th William III, c. 1.
U 8th Anne, c. 3.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. - 19
usher. Further, to restrict Catholic education, any magis
trate acting under the provisions of the twenty-first clause
might summon before him any Papist of eighteen years, and
if he refused to disclose the residence of a Popish priest
or schoolmaster, commit him to prison for twelve months,
without the option of bail, or subject him to a fine o{£io.
In fact, so stringent were these bloody enactments of
Queen Anne's reign, that by a legal fiction the laws did
not recognise even the existence of Catholics in the realm ;
and in 1759 we find the Irish Chancellor authoritatively
pronouncing from the bench that " the laws did not pre
sume a Papist to exist in the kingdom, nor could they
breathe without the connivance of Government."
These are a few of the provisions of the dreadful penal
code — a code of which Edmund Burke, writing to Sir H.
Langrishe* says :' " You abhorred it as I did for its vicious
perfection ; for I must do it justice, it was a complete
system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested
and well composed in all its parts. It was a machine of
wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the
oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people,
and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as
ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man."f
Need we, then, be surprised at Miss Nagle finding the
Irish Catholics in that state of ignorance and degradation
* Apropos of Sir Hercules Langrishe, John Mitchell recounts two
witticisms of his which are still remembered, "as being," in .fact,
" short essays on the politics of Ireland." Riding in the park with the
Lord Lieutenant, his Excellency complained of his predecessors having
left it so damp and marshy. Sir Hercules observed, " They were too
much engaged in draining the rest of the kingdom." Being asked
where was the best and truest history of Ireland to be found, he an
swered: "In the continuation of Rapin." — Mitchell, " History of Ire
land," vol. I., c. xiv., ad finem.
f The severity of the Penal Laws began to be diminished in the
C 2

20 Nano Nagle:
which Most Rev. Dr. Coppinger has so graphically de
scribed ? In truth, the wonder is not that they were so
debased, -but that they retained an article of their faith, or
the semblance of humanity, considering the terrible en
actments which were in force at the time, and which were
so well calculated to destroy both. ,
But we must return to Miss Nagle. Her position was,
indeed, a trying one. She saw clearly how pressing were
the educational wants of the poor Catholics, and she was
most anxious to supply them ; but difficulties almost in
superable stood in her way. First^if all, would she not run
a fearful risk in attempting to establish a Catholic school,
at a time when the laws of William and Anne, which set a
price on the head of the teacher, were still in full force ?
Secondly, even if the law did permit the establishment of
such a school, whence was she to procure funds sufficient
for its support ? for as yet she had not come into the pos-
viceroyalty of Philip Dormer, the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, who
was Lord Lieutenant from August 3 ist, 1745, to September 13th, 1747.
Whatever concessions were granted were partially extorted through
fear, as Prince Charles was just then leading his gallant Highlanders
into Edinburgh, and it was deemed expedient that the Irish should be
conciliated. Accordingly, permission was granted to them to open
their chapels and have public worship. This permission, however, did
not come until after a dreadful tragedy had occurred in. Dublin. For in
October, 1745, while a clergyman named Fitzgerald was celebrating Mass
in a hay-loft in Cook-street, the floor of the rotten old edifice gave way :
the clergyman and nine members of his congregation were instantly
killed, while most of the others suffered grievous injuries. It was this
accident which impelled Lord Chesterfield to concede to the Catholics
the Right of Public Worship. The concession was merely an act of,
toleration, for 'no Penal Enactment was thereby repealed. The laws
against education continued as stringent as ever, and it was only in
1782 that there was passed " An Act to allow Persons Professing the
Popish Religion to Teach School in this Kingdom, and for Regulating
the Education of Papists," &c, 21st and 22nd George III., c. 62.

Her Life, her Ldbdurs, and their Fruits. 21
session of her dowry. Finally, would not her pronounced
attitude in favour of the education of her poor co-religion
ists draw down upon her relatives the odium of the Eng
lish rulers in Ireland, and entail, perhaps, the confiscation
of those broad lands which they had inherited from their
ancestors ? STay, more, was it not quite possible, that in
the existing state of things, any attempt to open Catholic
schools in one of the leading cities of the empire might
be followed by a general persecution of the proscribed
Papists ? These were serious difficulties, indeed, for Miss
Nagle to encounter; and she failed to see' how she might
meet them. She thought over them again and again ; they
formed the subject of her dreams at night, and of her
waking thoughts at early morning. At last, heart-broken
at her inability to discover a solution of the problem, she
determined to quit for ever a land she could not serve ;
and, failing to benefit her countrymen, she resolved to
seek in a foreign cloister the salvation of her own soul,
and that tranquillity of heart and mind which was impos
sible of attainment at home.
She lost no time in executing the design which she had
formed, and once more bidding adieu to the home of her
fathers, she sailed for the sunny land of France, never, as
she thought, to return. But God's providence had already
marked out a far different destiny for Miss Nagle.

22 Nano Nagle :

CHAPTER IV.
Interior Trials. — The Voice of the Irish. — Miss Nagle doubts her Voca
tion, and seeks Spiritual Counsel. — Her Doubts are at length set
at rest, and she returns to Ireland. — Anecdote concerning a Silk
Dress.
As the Elect are the principal sharers in God's choicest
favours, so there are few others more severely tried by
Him in the furnace of affliction. In the inscrutable ways
of the Almighty the road to glory must be sought through
the thorny path of suffering and tribulation. It was on
Calvary that He redeemed the world ; and it was His
divine will that His true followers should tread in His
footsteps, in order to reap the fruit of the Redemption
which He had wrought.
To this rule Miss Nagle was no exception. Though
she had left home with the" fixed determination of entering
a convent, she had no sooner set foot on French soil than
she was assailed with perplexing doubts and scruples cori-
cerning her real vocation; When she thought of the
wretched condition of the poor children she had left be
hind her in Ireland, and the terrible vices she- had wit
nessed amongst them during her brief sojourn there, her
conscience reproached her with pusillanimity in having
deserted them, and selfishness in seeking her own peace
and quiet rather than struggle for their instruction and
reformation. As St Patrick is reported to have once seen in a vision.
the Irish babes stretching out their tiny hands towards
him while imploring him in earnest accents to return and
become the Apostle of their Isle, so Miss Nagle seemed

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits,. 23
ever to hear the voices of the poor benighted children of
her native land beseeching her to return and rescue them
from the state of vice and ignorance in which they
lived. This Idea haunted her day and night ; and yet
she felt how utterly powerless she was to effect any real
good in Ireland. The penal laws were in full force, and
might, at any time, ruin both herself and her entire family
should she attempt the instruction of the poor. She had
no fortune of her own wherewith to carry out the desired
object ; and, moreover, taught by former experience, she
feared to expose herself again to the perils of contact with
the world. This terrible state of anxious doubt and severe
mental trial had lasted for a considerable time, and had
actually begun to affect her health, when she determined to
seek relief in the counsel of a pious and enlightened spiri
tual director. With this intent she placed herself in the
hands of a Jesuit father remarkable for his prudence and
skill in the direction of souls. She laid open to him,
without the slightest reserve, all her doubts and anxieties,
begging him to interpret for her the divine will in her re
gard. His decision, which we may lawfully presume Was
inspired from on High, was that God willed her to return
to Ireland and labour for the instruction and sanctification
of the poor. This advice gave her some comfort ; but she
was not yet perfectly satisfied. She consulted others, and
they were of the same opinion as her first director. " When
she had laid down herload of uneasiness," writes Most
Rev. Dr. Coppinger, " and given full vent to her conflict,
far from being encouraged by them to embrace the reli
gious state, they unanimously declared that to instruct
poor children in Ireland was doubtless the 'object of her
vocation ; that her profound humility, her solid judgment,
the steadiness of her virtue, aided by divine grace, would be
ample protection against the dangers of the world ; that,

24 Nano Nagle :
though her fortune was not then extensive, her opulent
connexions may one day possibly augment it ; that to co
operate with Christ in saving many souls was certainly
more glorious than to confine her efforts to the saving of
her own ; that so generous an example must have its share
of influence ; that ' though the laws might prevent her from
doing as much as she wished, they could not prevent her
from doing what lay in her power. She replied — she
argued — she remonstrated ; but to no purpose : their de
cision was not to be changed. So, having no resource,
she at length yields ; she sacrifices inclination to duty ;
she returns again to Ireland to fertilize this vineyard — a
salutary cloud ! exhaled here by the Sun of Justice, borne
by divine grace to a religious atmosphere, impregnated
with the purest virtue, wafted back by charity to her native
soil to diffuse an odour of sanctity, and dissolve in showers
of beneficence " ("Memoir,'' p. 14).
In obedience to the command of her directors, Miss
Nagle lost no time in returning to Ireland ; but the step
involved a considerable sacrifice of her own will, as is
evident from the following sentence in a letter which she
addressed to her friend Miss Fitzsimons (July 17th, 1769) :
" Nothing would have made me come home but the deci
sion of the clergymen that I should run a great risk of
salvation if I did not follow the inspiration."
When she arrived at home, her father, to whom she was
passionately attached, being dead, she proceeded to join
her mother and sister who had taken up their residence in
Dublin. She had not as yet formed any definite plan for
carrying out her intentions with regard to the instruction
of the poor ;* nor, indeed, had she even yet entirely di-
• There is some difference of opinion as to whether Miss Nagle com
menced her labours among the poor in Dublin or in Cork. Most Rev.
Dr. Coppinger states that she opened her first school in Dublin, where

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 25
vested herself of the worldly ideas of her earlier years, as
may be gleaned from the following anecdote extracted
from the annals of the Parent House in Cork: — "When
living with her mother and sister in Dublin {her father
having died before she quitted Paris), she one day re
quested of her pious sister to get made up a splendid silk
dress, the materials for which she had purchased in Paris.
she got together thirty poor children. This testimony is Of no slight
weight if we consider (i) That Dr. Coppinger was, to a certain ex
tent, the contemporary of Miss Nagle ; (2) That this statement was
made at a meeting of the Amicable Society, in presence of Most Rev.
Dr. Moylan, who from the very first was Miss Nagle's trusted friend
and confidential adviser. These are, no doubt, pretty strong argu
ments in favour of the Dublin theory ; but the evidence which would
give to Cork the honour of Miss Nagle's first school is overwhelming,
and rests mainly on her own written testimony, which shall be pro
duced later on. In her letter to Miss Fitzsimons (July 17th, 1769),
there are statements which are simply unintelligible in any other hy
pothesis than that Miss Nagle opened . her first school in Cork. Add
to this that the tradition of the Presentation Order (and all know how
.religiously such communities preserve and hand down their traditions')
is that Miss Nagle's first efforts towards the religious education of the
poor had their origin in the city by the Lee. The Very Rev. Dean
Murphy, in his Memoirs of Nano Nagle, has suggested an explanation
which, to my mind, seems entirely to meet the difficulties of the case.
"There was a school in Dublin," writes the Very Rev. Dean, "con
ducted by some charitable ladies. Her acquaintance with these and
their useful labours, may have given rise to the report of her having her
self established one" (Murphy, chap. 4). I presume the school re
ferred to by the Very Rev. Author, is the one which was established in
Mary's-lane, Dublin, about this time, by Miss Maria Teresa Mullaly,
and in the management of which she was assisted by Miss Anne Cor-
ballis, Miss Judith Clinch, and other pious ladies. That Miss Nagle
was intimately acquainted with Miss Mullaly, is proved by the fact
that letters are still extant which passed between both ladies, and
which shall be given to the public later on in this work. We think
his fact sufficiently explains Dr. Coppinger's assertion regarding Miss
Nagle's connexion with a school in Dublin.

26 Nano Nagle :
She often said she was never so edified or astonished as
when her sister disclosed to her in confidence that she had
disposed of the silk for the purpose of relieving a distressed
family. This circumstance, together with the death of
this sister soon afterwards, wrought so powerfully on the
heart of Miss Nagle as perfectly to disengage it from the
fashionable world, which she tasted so much of, and en
joyed until then. She has often said to her sisters in re
ligion that ' it was this trifling occurrence which fixed her
determination to devote the remainder of her life to God
in the service of the poor ' " (Annals, S. P. Convent, Cork,
note, pp. 3, 4, 5).
She had not spent much time in Dublin when her mother
and sister died, the death of the one following closely on
that of the other. These were, in a mere human point of
view, severe trials for Miss Nagle ; but, regarded in a spirit
of faith, they were only chastening afflictions sent by God, ¦
who in thus lessening the ties which bound her to' the
world, would unite her the more closely to Himself.
Having discharged the last sad offices of filial piety to her '
mother, Miss Nagle immediately left Dublin, and went to
take up her residence with her brother in Cork.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 27

CHAPTER V.
The social and moral condition of Cork one hundred years ago. — How
the citizens by the Lee used keep the Sabbath. — Weekly Faction
Fights  Trade Riots.— "The Forty-five" Club.— The Cork
"Breeches Market." — Letter of Miss Nagle describing her first
efforts towards the Reformation and Education of, the People.
Is no waking'Veserved for our sleep of despair ? —
Oh, see ! there's a shooting of light in the gloom,
And the spirit of Nagle replies from the tomb.
Hail, star of the lowly ! Apostle of light,
In the glow of whose fervour the' cottage grew bright !
Sweet violet of sanctity, lurking concealed,
v'Till the wind wafts the leaf, and the blocm is revealed.
By the light of that glory which burst on thy youth,
In its day-dreams of pleasure, and woke it to truth,
By the tears thou hast shed, by. the toil thou hast borne,
Oh ! say shall our night know a breaking of mom ?
Gerald Griffin.
Miss Nagle, on her return to Cork, lost no time in set
tling down to the great work she had proposed to herself —
the education and reformation of the poor. What she had
to do, and how she' did it, shall be told later on in Miss
Nagle's own quiet, unpretending, yet singularly graphic
words. But to appreciate her work at its true value, it is
absolutely necessary that we should first form some con
ception of what the social and moral aspect of Cork was
like one hundred years ago when Miss Nagle cast her lot
among the citizens of the " faire citie." Fortunately it is
unnecessary to call in the aid of imagination on this topic,
for well-attested records have been handed down to us
describing the state of the southern capital at the period

28 Nano Nagle :
of which we write ; and so revolting are the scenes of law
lessness and crime which they chronicle, that Nano Nagle
must have had a brave heart, indeed, when she proposed
to herself the reformation of such a community. It is not
our purpose to cite many authorities ; we shall give merely
a few passages illustrative of the times, and culled, for the
greater part, from a work now very rare, " Tuckey's Cork
Remembrancer" The following entries will, we trust, prove
interesting, instructive, and, occasionally, amusing.
April i$th, 1764. — "A great number of fellows were at
this time in the habit of assembling in Hammond's Field,
near Blarney, every Sunday evening, many of them armed
with swords, in open contempt of the magistracy, where
they divided themselves into two parties, in order of battle,
and generally maintained a running fight for several
hours, in which some of both parties seldom failed getting
broken heads ; from thence some of their leaders, after their
evenings, used to remove the scene of action to the city,
and continue rioting the remainder of the night. Before
the beginning of the previous war — when knocking down,
street robberies, and sometimes murders were so frequent
here, that the inhabitants were afraid to stir outside their
doors after nightfall — it was in those same fields that the
ruffians assembled."*
October 18th, 1765. — "A mob consisting of several hun
dreds, of butchers and weavers armed with hatchets,
cleavers, long knives and sticks, went through the city,
and visited several of the merchants' cellars in search of
meat and other provisions, which it had been reported
were cellared up for exportation. They found little beside
some empty hampers, of which they made a bonfire on
Mall Isle,"t supposing they were designed for transporting
* Tuckey's " Cork Remembrancer," p. 140.
f Now known as Morrisson's Island.

Her Life, htr Labours, and their Fruits. 29
provisions in. They were put down by the military, headed
by the. city sheriffs, who apprehended seven of the mos.t
forward of them, and committed them» to the city gaol,
but soon after liberated them."*
October 20th, 1765. — " Several linen and cotton gowns
were burnt on the backs of the wearers, by being sprinkled
with aqua fortis."-\
April 28th, 1768. — "For some weeks past a great num
ber of idle vagabonds had annoyed the city by assembling
in different parts of the suburbs on the Sabbath day, for
the purpose of cutting and hacking,- not only one another,
but any of the inhabitants, who might fall in their way
Several pitched battles were appointed to be fought by
these gentry about the May-pole.' '%
December 3 ist, 1769. — " Rioting had become so common
in this city that it was not safe for any person to stand at
his door without some weapon of defence."§
February \th, 1770. — "This day, to the disgrace of
Christianity, and breach of the Lord's day, a number of
grown fellows assembled in different parts of the city to
partake of the cruel amusement of throwing at cocks,
which it was expected would- continue till Shrove-tide."
The Cork men of those days seem not to have confined
their polite attentions to the unfortunate cocks, for we
find under date funei 1 th, 1770, the following.— " Some
inhuman savages forcibly took a bull in the north suburbs,
and, after having driven him through the city with dogs,
had him baited in the south suburbs for some hours, when
the tormented creature ran from their carnage back into
the city, which obliged the inhabitants to shut up their
shops, and put an end to all business ; the bull, being un
able to proceed further than Broad Lane, was there, and
near the Exchange, baited by dogs and their brother
* Tuckey, page 143. t &&• X ^id. § Hid.

30 Nano Nagle : '
brutes, armed with sticks, for near five hours ; and, after,
having frightened four pregnant women into fits, tossed a
horse nearly as high as a sign-pole, threw a decrepit beg
gar and a standing of stockings into the kennel, gave up
the remains of his tortured life in a narrow lane, much tQ
the disappointment of his savage persecutors, and to the
loss of his owner."
April 5th, 1772. — " The- Fair-lane and Blarney-lane
combatants met at Parkmore, according to weekly custom,
and, after an engagement of some hours, one Reilly re
ceived a stab from a tomahawk, by which he was instantly
killed. Many on both sides were wounded."
At a period when hard drinking was the rule in Ireland
it is by no means to be presumed that Cork was particur
larly remarkable for the sober habits of its citizens. Philip
Luckombe, writing in 1778, says, in reference to sedan-
chairs : " These vehicles are extremely convenient for
the followers of Bacchus, who has a great many votaries in
this city." This special " cultus '' of the jolly god on the
part of the citizens by the Lee may be traced to many '
causes, foremost among them being the cheapness of
intoxicating liquors at the time. The very best brandy
could be purchased at is. i\d. per quart; while claret of
the first brand might be procured at prices varying from
nine to twelve shillings peJ dozen. Then there were
scattered through the city many political" clubs and meet
ing-houses ; and it is a well-authenticated matter of his
tory that at the period of which we write Irish clubs were
much more devoted to the promotion of conviviality than
to the development of social science. Nor was the habit
confined exclusively to the upper classes, for a trustworthy
historian tells us that " a regular drinking club was estab
lished by tradesmen in the city, the number of letters in
whose Christian names amounted to forty-five, They met

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 31
at a public-house, where they spent forty-five pence each,
and each drank exactly forty-five glasses . of punch, which
, produced forty-five toasts and sentiments, including the
' Glorious Memory,' and a prayer against despotic rulers."*
How Father Mathew would have stared and wept had he
lived in Cork in those days !
From what we have already seen of Cork society in the
middle of the last century we will not be quite unprepared
to learn that the lower order of citizens held rather lax
views concerning the established rules of propriety and
decorum. One instance will suffice. In October, 1772,^
a letter was addressed to the city sheriffs to this effect : —
" Several of the inhabitants who live near the Exchange,!
present their respectful compliments to the new sheriffs,
to remove a most flagrant nuisance from before their doors,
that of a Breeches Market, held there every Wednesday and
Saturday, to the great annoyance of, passengers, and highly
indiscreet; as overgrown fellows are frequently fitted with
small clothes in view of the females who pass by."J
Such, then, was the community which Miss Nagle pro
posed to reform by the combined action of religion and
education. , They were lawless, ignorant, and, in their
tastes and habits, almost savage. But, far from frighten
ing her, this very state of affairs was a most powerful reason
why she should apply a remedy, and apply it at once. We
shall allow herself to tell in her own simple words the
story of the commencement of her schools ; of the method
which she pursued in conducting them ; of the trying diffi
culties which surrounded her at every step ; and of the
* Gibson, "History of Cork," vol. IL, p. 214.
f The Exchange was built in 1708-10. It was situated in Castle-
street, and its site is now occupied by the spacious halls of that most
useful Association, the Cork " Young Men's Society."
X Gibson, " History of Cork," vol. II., p. 207.

32 Nano Nagle :
glorious success which crowned her labours. No language
of ours could convey to readers as much information;
on the subject as the following simple — and the more
beautiful because simple — account written by Miss Nagle
to her dear friend Miss Fitz'simons in a letter bearing date
July 17th, 1769:!
" Dear Miss Fitzsimons, — I am sorry Miss Coppinger
cannot see the schools, as I think no one can have an
idea of their use unless an eye-witness. As you wish to
have a particular account of them, I will tell you how I
began. I think I mentioned to you before that it was an
undertaking I thought I should never have the happiness
of accomplishing. Nothing would have made me come
home but the decision of the clergymen that I should run
a great risk of salvation if I did not follow the inspiration.
This made me accept of a very kind invitation of my sister?
in-law to live with her. When I arrived I kept mydesign
a profound secret, as I knew, if itjwere spoken of, I should
meet with opposition on every side, particularly from my
own immediate family, as, to all appearances, they would
suffer from it.
" My confessor was the only person I told of it, and as
I could not appear in the affair, I sent my maid to get a
good mistress and to take in thirty poor girls. When the
little school was settled I used to steal there in the morning.
My brother thought I was at the chapel. This passed on
very well until one day a poor man came to him, to beg of
him to speak to me to take his child into my school, on
which he came into his wife and rrie, laughing at the con
ceit of a man who was mad, and thought I was in the
* For this and some of the following letters of Miss Nagle I am in
debted to the admirable " Memoirs of Miss Nano Nagle," published
by Very Rev. Dominick Murphy, Cork, 1845.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 33
situation of a schoolmistress. Then I owned that I had
set up a school, on which he fell into a violent passion,
and said a vast deal on the bad consequences that may
follow. His wife is very zealous and so is he, but worldly
interest blinded him at first. He was soon reconciled to
it. He was not the. person I most dreaded would be
brought into trouble about it ; it was my uncle Nagle, who
is, I think, the most disliked by the Protestants of any
Catholic in the kingdom. I expected a great deal from
him. The best part of the fortune I have I received from
him. When he heard it he was not at all angry at it, and
in a little time they were so good as to contribute largely
to support it, and I took in children by degrees, not to
make any noise about it in the beginning. In about nine
months I had about 200 children. When the Catholics
saw what service it did, they begged that for the con
venience of the children I would set up schools at the
other end of the town from where I was, to be under my
c.are and direction, and they promised to contribute to the
support of them. With this request I readily complied,
and the same number of children that I had weretaken in,
and at the death of my uncle I supported them all at my
own expense. I did not intend to take boys', but my sister-
in-law made it a point, and said she would not permit any
of my family to contribute to the schools unless I did so ;
on which I got a master, and took in only forty boys.
They are in a house by themselves, and have no commu
nication with the others. At present, however, I have
two schools for boys and five for girls. The former learn
to read, and when they have the Douay' Catechism by heart
they learn to write and cypher. There are three schools
where the girls learn to read ; and when they have the
catechism by heart they learn to work. They all hear
-Mass every day, say their morning and night prayers, say
D

34 Nano Nagle :
their catechism in each school by question and answer all
together. Every Saturday they all say the beads, the grown
girls every evening. They go to confession every month,
and to communion when the confessor thinks proper.
The schools are opened at eight ; at twelve the children
'go to dinner ; at five they leave school. The workers do
not begin their night prayers until six, after their beads.
I prepare a set for first communion twice a year, and I
may truly say it is the only thing that gives me any trouble.
In the first place I think myself very incapable, and in the
beginning, being obliged to speak for upwards of four
hours, and my chest not being so strong &s it had been, I
spat blood, which I took care to conceal for fear of being
prevented from instructing the poor. It has not the least
bad effect now. When I have done preparing them at
each end of the town, I feel myself like an idler that has
nothing to do, though I speak almost as much as when I
prepare them for their first communion. I find not the
least difficulty in it. I explain the catechism as well as I
can in one school or the other every day, and if every one
thought as little of labour as I. do they would have little
merit. I often think my schools will never bring me to
heaven, as I only take delight and pleasure in them. You
see it has pleased the Almighty to make me succeed,
when I had everything, as I may say, to fight against. I
assure you I did not expect a farthing from any mortal
towards the support of my schools, and I thought I should
not have more than fifty or sixty girls until I got a fortune ;
nor did I think I should have a school in Cork. I began
in a poor, humble manner ; and though it pleased the Di- '
vine will to give me severe trials in this foundation, yet it
is to show that it is His work, and has not been effected
by human means. I can assure you my schools are be-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits 35
ginning to be of service to a great many parts of the world.
This is a place of great trade.* They are heard of, and
my views are not for one object alone. If I could be of
any service in saving souls in any part of the globe, I
would willingly do all in my power."
This letter is a perfect key to Miss Nagle's character.
We see in it the indomitable energy of the woman, facing
difficulties from . which most others would shrink ; her
humility in mistrusting her own powers, and attributing
her success solely to God ; her singular disinterestedness
in devoting her entire fortune to the service of the poor ;
and her sound, practical common sense in so blending re
ligious with secular instruction as to make her pupils not
only models of saintly womanhood, but competent to dis
charge, as the mothers of the coming generation, woman's
duties in the social sphere.
* Dr. Smith, in his History of Cork (vol. I., p. 405), informs us lhat
over 1 00,000 head of horned cattle were at this time annually slaughtered
in Cork, principally to supply the wants of the Royal Navy. And Dr.
Campbell ("Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland," pp. 176,
177), writing in 1775, says— "Here is the -busy bustle of prosperous
trade, and all its concomitant blessings ; here is a most magnificent
temple erected to Plenty in the midst of a marsh. Except in the
article of linen, its exports are more considerable than those of Dublin,
the trade of which chiefly consists in the importation of luxuries ;
whereas Cork deals almost entirely in exporting the necessaries of
life — beef, pork, butter, hides, tallow, &c."

D 2

36 Nano Nagle.

CHAPTER VI.
The diffusiveness of Miss Nagle's charity. — The physical dangers
which she had to encounter in carrying out her designs. — She finds.
it neces'sary to establish a collection for the support of her Schools,.
and undertakes the entire labour of it herself.— Miss Nagle's quali
fications for begging. — Miss Nagle as an oculist. — She determines,
on handing over her Schools to a Religious Community. — Selects.
the Ursulines for that purpose. — Brief sketch of the Ursuline
Order.
It would be an error to suppose that Miss Nagle's ex
ertions in the cause of the poor were confined to the duties
enumerated in the letter which we have given in the pre
ceding chapter. She had not only to educate them, but
in very many instances to supply them with food and
clothes. She visited, moreover, the most miserable haunts
in the city, in order to discover those who needed the ad
vantages which her schools could confer, but who from
some reason or another were slow to avail of them. "How
often," says her panegyrist, Most Rev. Dr. Coppinger,
" have we seen her passing with steady composure through
the rigours of every season to tend her little flock ? How
often have we seen her after a well- spent day returning
through the darkness of the night, dripping with rain,
mingled in the bustling crowd, moving thoughtfully along
by the faint glimmering of a wretched lantern, with
holding from herself in this manner the necessaries of
life to administer the comforts of it to others." These
nightly excursions of Miss Nagle were undertaken at con
siderable personal risk, for bad as was the social con1
dition of Cork at the period, its material aspect was, if
possible, still worse. Thus, in the Hibernian Chro;

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 37
of November 22nd, 1770, we find the following paragraph :
"¦A correspondent observes,- that since the lamps have
been set aside in this city, a number of people have been
drowned, who in all probability might have been saved, if
that useful and well-appointed mode of lighting the streets
had been continued." We can form a still better idea of
what the city must' have been like in Miss Nagle's time,
by learning, as we do, from the Cork Mercantile Chronicle,
April 3rd, r8o5, how unsafe life was even then — "Our total
indifference in this city" — says the authority just quoted —
¦" to everything which concerns our public accommodation
and credit, has become a subject of wonder ; . . .' the
day traveller runs the risk of being blinded from the
screening of lime ; he is often intercepted in his way by
the lagoons of water which the obstruction of the public
sewers retain in the streets ; and if he be not rode over by
the gallopers who charge along the streets, or run over by
the cars which are whirled along with no less rapidity,
he may felicitate himself, on his return home, upon the
cheap terms of such injury as he may receive, in tumbling
over a few of the many heaps of rubbish which principally
occupy our public ways.
" If the traveller by night escapes drowning he has no
reason to complain, for what with the darkness of the
lamps, and the naked and unfenced state of the quays, lo
survive a night walk is to become a matter of family thanks
giving. Every stranger who approaches this, the third
city in His Majesty's dominions, does it at the peril of his
life ; and one of the least dangerous of the highways into town
is now through a sort of. canal of mud, and has been so for
a long time." , t >
Special seasons of the year brought with' them special
labours for indefatigable Nano Nagle. Thus, it was her
custom during Lent to explain the Christian doctrine in

38 Nano Nagle :
her different schools for five consecutive hours each day -
and in Holy Week, she regularly read in each school,
and commented on the Gospel narrative of the Redeemer's
passion. Then, there were scattered throughout the city
several adult girls whose days were spent at work to secure
themselves a livelihood, but who stood sadly in need of
religious instruction and counsel to protect them from the
many dangers which threatened their faith as Catholics, and
their virtue as women. These poor girls were an especial
object of Miss Nagle's anxious care; and, as we shall see
later on, she contemplated as a very particular trust of her
Orderthepreservation of these girlsfrom sin, and their refor
mation, if, unhappily, any of them should stray from the path?
of virtue. Nor was her large-hearted benevolence limited
to the young — the aged and1 infirm were equally sharers in
her charity. She visited them regularly ; she tried to
smooth their pathway of sorrow by whispering to them
some of those consolatory maxims by means of which reli
gion makes affliction sweet ; and rarely did she depart
from the abode of aged poverty without leaving behind
her some practical memento to testify that she loved God's
poor, not merely in word, but in heart and deed. To this
day there stands in Douglas-street, Cork, an asylum for
aged females,' built and endowed by Miss Nagle, which is
in itself an enduring monument of the zeal with which she
sought the spiritual and temporal welfare of this helpless
and much-neglected class.
But charity, however generous in intent, cannot work
without funds. Miss Nagle, it is true, was possessed of
an ample fortune ; her relatives and friends were gene
rous ; the Catholics of Cork, then as now, were able and
willing to help on the good work ; but a large expenditure
necessarily demands a corresponding income, and Miss
Nagle resolved to exact from such of her pupils as could

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 39
afford it some pecuniary assistance towards the support of
her schools. This was, in more senses than one, a move in
the right direction. ' It helped to increase her powers of
doing good by bringing to her exchequer an accession,
however trifling, of material wealth. But far above and
beyond this it served to create among the poor a higher
appreciation of the blessings she was dispensing ; for in
this matter-of-fact world of ours it is, unfortunately, too'
true, that we do not estimate properly anything for which
we do not pay.
In making this collection ,for her schools, as in every
thing else, Miss Nagle was guided by her usual good sense.
She undertook the entire labour of the collection herself,
visiting each house systematically, at the same hour on
the same day in each month ; and, to avoid the slightest
suspicion of avarice or personal motives, refused to accept -
from the subscribers more than one shilling, British, per
month. In a mere financial point of view this course o
action Was commendable, as experience has amply proved
fhat the wondrous results which the Catholic Church has
accomplished in Ireland have been achieved, not by the
large donations of the few, but by the small, yet steady,
contributions of the many.
Begging is to all persons an irksome and humiliating
avocation; it- must have been doubly so to Miss Nagle.
But when she undertook to play that role for the advance
ment of God's glory and the relief of her fellow-creatures,
the gentle Nano Nagle could be the most persistent, un
compromising, and unblushing mendicant, as the follow
ing anecdote will prove.* " It is related by those who
* Copied from MS. "Life of Miss Nagle," by the late Mother de
Pazzi, South Presentation Convent, Cork.

40 Nano Nagle :
knew her that, having arrived one morning at a certain
shop, the owner of which was one of those from whom she
experienced the greatest generosity and kindness, she was
most contemptuously repulsed by his shopman, /who very
rudely ordered her several times to quit the place. She
received with great mildness his insolent behaviour,
merely replying that she was satisfied to wait until she
could see his master. From seven o'clock untii nine she
waited with untiring patience, sitting behind the shop
door upon a bundle of skins ! When the gentleman was
up, and had appeared. at the breakfast-table, a formal
complaint was made to him of an old mendicant who had
taken her place in the shop, and who could not be prevailed
upon to leave until she had seen him. He drew a curtain,
looked into the shop, and, to his great horror and conster
nation, whom did he see in this humble position, but that
woman whom of all others in this world he venerated most.
He exclaimed, ' Oh ! that is Miss Nagle.' Covered with,
shame and confusion he went to meet her, loaded her with
apologies and kindness ; and, no doubt, he doubled the
donation which she came to ask, and which he would in
any case have given her. This person could never after
wards relate this circumstance without being penetrated
with admiration at the patience, meekness, and humility
of this servant of the Lord, and without the most heartfelt
regret that in his house she could have been treated with
so much contumely and disrespect. What was to him,
however, so great a source of suffering and displeasure,
only created in her sentiments of her own lowliness, and
of gratitude to God who had managed for her this occa
sion of humiliation and of merit. Many instances could be
produced to show how she suffered and how she laboured
for God's greater glory when occupied in calling for and

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 41
receiving these dearly- earned contributions in support of
her schools. One circumstance, which was discovered
only after her death, will throw new light upon this her
last act of fortitude. Such prominent and such angry
excrescences were then observed on the soles of her feet
as to make it a matter of surprise how she could by any
possible exertion even stand upon them, much less walk
as she did, so much and so constantly, during the last three
years of her life."
From what has been said it will be seen that Miss Nagle
had her hands well full of work. She has told us herself that
she was at this very time suffering from a spitting of blood,
and the wonder is how her strength was able to bear
up against the many and trying labours which she had
imposed upon her. She was also suffering severely from
soreness of the eyes. The remedy which she applied was
a novel one, and we fancy few oculists would recommend
its adoption by their patients. Writing to Miss Mulally,
of Dublin (July 29th, 1780), she, says: — "As you were
so good as to desire to know how my eyes are that were
so many, months very sore, I thank God I got the better
of them, and I must tell you how I was cured, though I
believe few will try this receipt which had such a wonder
ful effect on me. On one of the coldest days last winter,
and a most sharp, piercing wind (and I found nothing af
fected them so much as the wind), though I thought I
might on account of them plead some excuse, yet at the
same time it was not giving good example not to go down
as much as others, I walked out to the school at North
Gate ; and, so far from any bad effect on them, I did not
find them worse, but, I may say with truth, vastly better ;
and ever since, thank God, they have continued so. I
think any little labours I have the Almighty has given me

42 Nano Nagle:
health to go through them ; and if I did not make use of
it in His service, He may soon deprive me of it;"*
However, Miss Nagle's usual good sense pointed out to
her that this state of affairs could not possibly last for any
lengthened period. Sooner or later she would have to
give up her schools if their existence were to depend
solely on her own individual exertions : and the thought
that the good work which God had placed in her hands
should perish, was an idea which Miss Nagle would not
entertain for a single instant. There was but one means
of averting such a Calamity — it was to associate with her
self some ladies who would share her pious desires, and
would continue to follow in her footsteps after it should
have pleased the Master to summon her to her reward.
Her wish was to place her schools under the charge of a
religious community if it were possible ; but such a course
did not seem feasible at a period when not only religious
communities were proscribed by penal enactments, but
even the secular clergy were exposed to banishment or
imprisonment. f ¦ Thus, doubtful how to act, she judge
it prudent to seek the advice of some experienced per-
* Copied from the original in the archives of the Presentation Con
vent, George's Hill, Dublin.
f There were at this time a few convents in Ireland, but the inmates
existed only by stealth, and were in hourly peril of imprisonment, or
exile, or some heavier punishment still. Thus, on the expulsion of the
Dominican nuns from Galwsy, in 1697, Sister Catherine Plunkett
supceeded in establishing them, in 1722, ,in Drogheda in the present
Sienna convent, where is still preserved the head of her martyred
relative, Archbishop Plunkett, of Armagh. The Poor Clares had
settled in Ship-street, Dublin', in 1625, but they were hunted through
the country like wild beasts, for, in 1627 we find them in Athlone ; in
Galway, in 1633 ; in Drogheda, in 1641 ; thence back again to Galway,
until they finally settled down in 1 712, at Harold's-cross, Dublin. The

Her Life, Her Labours, and their Fruits^ 43
sons ; and for this purpose she consulted Father Doran
of the Society of Jesus, and his nephew, the Rev. Francis
Moylan, who was subsequently appointed Bishop of Kerry, •
and was at a later period translated to the see of Cork.*
She explained to them the nature of the project which
had for so long a time engrossed her attention, and the
serious difficulties which stood in the way of its accom
plishment. They thought the matter over ; and, after
mature deliberation, and much earnest prayer to God for
light, they finally advised Miss Nagle to attempt the es
tablishment in Cork of an Ursuline community, who, hav
ing for their main object the education of female youth,
would most effectively promote the cause in which she
was so deeply interested.
We must here make a slight digression to note the
rise and -progress of the Order which Miss Nagle was
instrumental in introducing among us, and which, for
over a century, has been fruitful of priceless blessings to
our Isle.
Saint Angela Merici, or, as she is sometimes called, St.
Angela, of Brescia, the foundress of the Ursulines, was
born in the beginning of-the sixteenth century at Desen-
zano, a hamlet on the borders of Lake Garda. Some
^ authors, assert that she was of noble birth, while others

Dominican nuns at Cabra, near Dublin, had to change residence seve
ral times between the years 1717 and 1756, before they became fixed in
their present retreat. The Carmelites had also a convent in Dublin,
but had to fly to , the more sequestered region of Tallaght. It will,
therefore, be seen what a dangerous experiment it was gn Miss Nagle's
part' to think of introducing a religious community into a flourishing
and populous city like Cork.
* For some account of Bishop Moylan, whose name is so closely
interwoven with the history of the Ursuline and Presentation Orders,
see Appendix at the end of this volume.

44 ' Nano Nagle:
maintain that she was the child of poor but respectable
artizans, and the weight of evidence seems to favour the
latter supposition. Whatever may have been their rank,
all agree in stating that they educated their children in
sentiments of the most exalted piety. Having lost both
her parents, Angela, still a mere child, and her eldest
sister, were placed under the protection of an uncle, who
loved them as if they had been his own offspring. *They
spent their days in the practice of piety and in mortifica
tions beyond their years and strength, when Angela re
ceived a severe stroke of affliction in the death of her
beloved sister, and the wound was but closed to bleed
afresh, when the demise of her kind uncle took place soon
after. Having no longer any tie to bind her to the world
she redoubled her prayers and austerities, and, with the
intention of evermore devoting herself without reserve to
the service of God, joined the third Order of St. Francis.
After some time spent in pilgrimages to the Holy Land
and to the tomb of the Apostles at Rome, she fixed her
residence at Brescia. Here many pious women, attracted
by the lustre of her virtues, begged permission to live with
her in community ; but Angela persuaded them to remain
in the world,' to edify it by their virtues, to instruct the
poor and the ignorant, to visit the hospitals and the
prisons, and to discharge the other offices of Christian
charity by every means which lay in their power. They
acted on her advice, and formed themselves _into a kind
of lay confraternity, making no vows, but a mere promise
to observe, for a limited period', the general rules of the
society.* This rule was drawn up by Angela herself,
* It may be as well to explain here, once for all, the meaning in
Catholic phraseology of the words Society, Congregation, Order, which
we shall have occasion to use frequently in the course of this work.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 45
assisted by some experienced ecclesiastics ; and fore
seeing that the ever-changing state of society might
at some future period render modifications of this code^
desirable, if not absolutely necessary, she prudently in
serted an express clause to the effect that, from time to
time, such changes should be made as circumstances
. might render expedient. Her pious associates unani
mously elected her to "the office of Superioress, a charge
which she accepted with no inconsiderable reluctance ;
and, fearing in her humility lest the association should
ever be connected with her name, she placed it under the
protection of St. Ursula, from which fact the daughters
of Angela Merici have since been styled Ursulines. In a
short time the Ursulines had effected such an amount of
good in Brescia and its vicinity, that the people called
their association " la divina compagnia" the divine com
pany ;' but it was not until after the death of their holy-
¦ foundress* that the Ursulines were raised to the rank of
a religious order. Pope Paul V. obliged them to observe
"When a number of persons associate under the guidance of a religious
rule, sanctioned by proper ecclesiastical authority, for the purpose of
working out their own salvation, or labouring for the good of their
fellow-creatures, such association is called a religious Society. If this
society exist with the sanction and approval of the bishop of the dio
cese, or of the Pope, and the members be bound to the observance of
the rule by simple vows only, it is termed a religious Congregation. If
the congregation receive the approval of' the supreme head of the
Church, and the members are authorised to make solemn vows, then
the congregation is styled a religious Order. Thus, as we shall see later
on, the Presentation nuns were in the beginning merely a society ;
the approval of then- institute by Pius VI. made them a congregation ;
and by the bull of Pius VII. they were elevated to the rank of a reli
gious order.
* Saint Angela Merici died on the 27 th January, 1540. The great
archbishop of Milan, St. Charles Borromeo, was very active in pro
moting the cause of her canonization, though, unhappily, he did not

46. Nano Nagle:
enclosure, and permitted them to make perpetual vows.
From that period the order has undergone no change in
its constitutions, and has not only spread itself through
every country of Europe but has even found a home in
the new world beyond the Atlantic waves.
The illustrious Archbishop of Milan, S.t. Charles Bor
romeo, was from the very first a zealous and firm .supporter
of the Ursuline Order, and is regarded by them as the
patron of their schools. While the association was still
in its infancy he procured a colony of twelve sisters for
his own diocese, where they performed deeds of heroic
charity in the hospitals during the visitation of the ter
rible plague which had literally made Milan a Necropolis.
This little colony extended itself so rapidly that before
the holy prelate's death the Ursulines could count 400
members of their order in that diocese alone ; while
other bishops in Italy, Switzerland, and the Low Coun
tries, anxiously sought for their flocks the blessings dis
pensed so liberally and effectively by the children of St.
Angela. The order was established in France, in 1596,
the first convent being opened at Lisle, in the county of
Venaissain, with a community of twenty-five nuns and
their superioress, Frances de Bermond, a lady of good
birth, much natural ability, accomplishments of a rare
order, and piety as unostentatious as it was solid and
sincere. This good lady had hardly seen the young in
stitute well established at Lisle when applications came
pouring in upon her to found houses in other parts of
France. She complied so far as her limited resources
would permit, and by the year 1604, Aix, Marseilles,
Lyons,, and Paris saw communities of these holy ladies
live to seethe accomplishment of his wishes. She was beatified by.
Pope Clement XIIL, 30th of April, 1768 and solemnly canonized by
Pius VII. 24th May, 1807.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 47
laboring in their midst. The last-mentioned house owes
its origin to the piety of Madamoiselle Acarie, seconded
by the munificent liberality of Madame St. Beuve, ayoung,
rich, and beautiful widow of only twenty-two years of age,
who, though she never actually joined the order; lived as
if she had been one of them, and with her great wealth
purchased and endowed for theni the hotel de St. Andre
in the Faubourg St. Jacques — an establishment which
must ever have an interest for the children of Ireland, as
the mother house of the Irish branch of the Ursulines.* m
Such is a brief and necessarily very imperfect sketch of
the order which Miss Nagle determined to introduce into
Cork to conduct the schools which she had established.
Independently altogether of the counsel of the abbes
Doran and Moylan, it is not impossible that the similarity
of circumstances attending the early labours both of Angela
Merici and Nano Nagle in the cause of Christian educa
tion, may have influenced the latter in selecting the Ursu
lines for the work which she contemplated in Cork. It is
evident, however, as the sequel will show, that in taking
this step she was not thoroughly acquainted with the
nature of the Ursuline rule ; for. whereas Miss Nagle
wished to provide exclusively for the poor, the Ursulines
have for their immediate and more distinctive object the
education of the upper and middle classes — the poor only
forming matter for secondary consideration. But though
man may propose, God disposes everything for the best ;
and in the present instance Miss Nagle was, as we shall
see, His unwitting instrument for effecting the introduc
tion into Ireland of two religious orders instead of one
as she had originally intended.
* The further extension of the Ursuline Order, so far as English-
speaking countries are concerned, shall be mentioned later on. in its
proper place.

48 Nano Nagle

CHAPTER VII.
Miss Nagle experiences some difficulty in obtaining subjects for the
new foundation. — Four young ladies agree to join her. — Interesting,
letter from Miss Nagle to Miss Fitzsimons. — Miss Nagle's anxiety
that her novices should be thoroughly trained in secular know
ledge. — Another letter from Miss Nagle  She goes to Bath and
informs her relatives of her designs: — Opposition from an unex
pected quarter  John Butler, Lord Dunboyne.
Among the many serious obstacles which Miss Nagle had
to encounter at the very outset of her undertaking, not the
least was the' difficulty of obtaining suitable subjects for the
contemplated foundation. The members of religious com
munities on the Continent did not appear over anxious to
come as missionaries to Ireland ; principally because they
feared the harsh and cruel penalties which might be en
forced under the then existing penal laws ; and in the next
place because of that natural antipathy which they felt
to leave the country of their birth, and the convent, in
which they had been professed — to both of which they
were bound by so many sacred ties, and by remembrances
hallowed at once by Nature and by Religion. However,
God never fails to raise up workers for the execution of
His designs, and in the present instance He inspired four
youngladies to place themselves unreservedly at the disposal
of Nano Nagle as the germ of the future foundation of Ur
sulines in Ireland. These were : Miss Fitzsimons (mother
Angela) ; Margaret Nagle (mother Joseph), cousin of the
foundress ; Miss Coppinger, a member of the Barryscourt
family, and cousin to the then Duchess of Norfolk ; and
Nano Kavanagh, who was closely allied to the noble house
of Ormonde.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 49
The late venerable Mother De Pazzi of Cork thus tersely
records the entrance into religion of these four pioneers of*
conventual life in modern Ireland ; and brief though it be,
we hope the notice will not prove altogether uninteresting
to our readers.
" Miss Fitzsimons," writes Mother De Pazzi, " was a
young person of respectable family, and remarkable for
her solid piety and great talents. Dr. Moylan became ac
quainted with her on his, visit to Paris. He informed her
of Miss Nagle's intentions, represented to her the immense
advantage likely to. result to religion in Ireland from the
projected foundation ; and succeeded so well in commu
nicating a share in his own ardent zeal for God's greater
glory, and- his tender compassion for the miseries of his
distressed country, that Miss Fitzsimons relinquished her
intentions of embracing the Order of the Visitation, fully
acquiesced in the proposal of his Lordship, and on the 1 9th
of November, 1767, was presented by him to the Superioress
of the Ursulines, Rue St. Jacques, where she shortly after
took the religious habit, and the name of Saint Angela.
" Miss Coppinger, who was uniformly distinguished for
her piety and her attachment to the faith, was a native of
the County Cork. She was induced by Miss N. Nagle to
concur in her pious undertaking, and accordingly joined
Miss Fitzsimons at St. Jacques on the 5th of September,
1769, and in taking the white veil she received the name of
Mary foseph.
" Miss Kavanagh was of the noble family of Ormonde.
She happened- to be in Paris at the time Miss Coppinger
arrived there. They were closely,related. Miss Kavanagh
had previously determined to embrace the religious life,
and was easily induced to join these young ladies destined
for the Cork mission who were then at St. Jacques. She
entered that convent on the 4th of September, 1770, and
E

50 Na?w Nagle :
merited by her fervor the great privilege of receiving the
religious habit, and the name of Saint Ursula, before the
ordinary time of giving it to postulants. She was received
on the ioth of February, in the year 1771. These young
ladies reserved the .ceremony of their profession until they
had arrived in their own convent in Cork."*
In securing four novices for the new foundation, Miss
Nagle had overcome one great difficulty ; but it was only
to find fresh, and perhaps greater ones staring her in
the face. As we shall learn further on, from a letter
written by her in Bath, she was afraid to disclose her
designs to her relatives ; she feared the possible defection
of some of those who had promised to join her ; and even
though all were to return eager and willing for the good
work, it was not so very easy, under the circumstances of
the time, to provide a residence suitable for their reception
and for the requirements of conventual life. These trials
she details in her own peculiar, simple style, in a letter
dated July 17th, 1769, which is addressed to her bosom
friend and " confidante," Miss Fitzsimons. " As it is
always a real pleasure to me to hear from you, I am
much obliged to you for both your kind favors. In the
first there was enclosed your note. I can't help saying
that if I could be jealous at anything you did in my regard,
it would be by your not writing in a more friendly manner,
as be assured you can command anything in my power. I
cannot express how much I suffered on your account, as I
was sure your uneasiness must be great at not hearing of
the arrival of the young ladies I mentioned. . They were
to depart in the first vessel that sailed to Havre. When I
wrote I thought everything was settled, but it has pleased
* Copied from MS. life of Nano Nagle, by the late Mother M. de
Pazzi, South Presentation Convent, Cork.

Her L ife, her Labours, and their Fruits. 5 1
God to order things otherwise, which in all appearance
has turned out a fortunate occurrence, for by the delay
there are two subjects more, such as one might ambition
in every respect. I shall say nothing of their merit as
that will speak for itself. I am not acquainted, with Miss
Coppinger^; I have seen her, but it is on the amiable
character Mr. Doran gives her I depend, and I am afraid
I shall not have the pleasure of seeing her again before
she goes, as the measles are, like a plague here./ Though
not.always mortal, yet they are dangerous to grown persons,
and Mrs. Coppinger told me it was the only disorder she
dreaded for her daughter. She and the father are greatly
pleased at her choice of life — they are so pious. I wished
Mr. Shea was so well pleased at his daughter's inclination.
He has not yet given his consent. He says it is a sudden
thought. He does not know it long, though she has been
thinking of becoming a religious more than twelve months.
She is a person of incomparable sense and prudence, and
it is not very probable she will change. Miss Coppinger's
parents won't let her go until her aunt Butler approves of
her. resolution, to which (by what you mention of her good
intentions towards this foundation) she will immediately
give her consent. . . . Had I only a proper person to
begin this foundation, I think it has the prospect of sur
prising success. I am charmed with the account you give
me of the ladies you are with ; I hope the same spirit will
be communicated here. I think" religious discipline would
be too strict for this country ; and I own I should not' re
joice to see -it kept up. I must say Miss Moylan's* pre
judice to take on here has made me see things in a clearer
* This lady was half-sister to Bishop Moylan, and afterwards joined
the community on its establishment in Cork. She died in- 1842, in the
90th year of her age, having spent seventy-two years in religion.
E 2

52 , Nano Nagle :
light than I should have done, and makes me accept the
disappointment I have met with as a decree of the. Divine
bounty. All her friends are sorry she went abroad ; and I
must say, laying aside her own merit, this house would
have a great loss in her, as she is of a family deservedly
beloved. They are in hopes she is beginning to change.
I wish it may be so. If she has 'so much zeal, she will
never have such an opportunity of exerting it as here. I
must look on it as one of my crosses that the two ladies
who were so good as to patronise this foundation were re
moved ; but the Almighty is all-sufficient, and will make
up this loss to us. I beg you will present them my com
pliments. Mr. Moylan desires to be affectionately remem
bered to you. As he gave you an account of the building,
I shall say nothing of it, only to excuse myself as to the
house I built, first. I never intended it for ladies. At the
time I was sure I should get the ground at the rear to
build on, and as it gave on the street I was obliged to have
it in the manner it is, in order not to have it noticed as a
convent. I shall refer you for that and many other things
to my next,* which I hope the young ladies will be the
bearer of, and believe me
" Your ever affectionate Friend,
" Nano Nagle."
Meanwhile Miss Nagle was earnestly striving at home
to procure fresh subjects for her novitiate at Saint Jacques,
and her efforts were zealously seconded by the Abbe Moy
lan, who took a very lively interest in the success of the
foundation. The principal qualifications which she sought
for in her novices were virtue and ability ; and she spared ,
no expense in giving them the very best education possible
• It is matter for regret that the letter to which Miss Nagle here
alludes has not been preserved.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 53
in order that they might themselves afterwards prove
efficient instructors of the youth committed to their care.
Thus, in a letter to Miss Fitzsimons, dated 13 th of May,
1770, she says : " It gives me a vast deal of trouble to find
that these two young ladies that want to learn can have
no advantage in that respect. If it would be permitted
there to have anybody to teach them anything you thought
would be hereafter an advantage to the house, don't spare
any expense ; you will be the best judge of that, and of
everything else in their regard." Indeed, so anxious was
she on this point, that in another letter to Miss Fitzsimons,
written in the same year, we find the following passage : —
" I hope you will act in regard to the young ladies as you
think proper, and be- sure I shall always approve of it. I
must say I was desirous they should learn what was proper
to teach young ladies hereafter, as there is a general com
plaint both in this kingdom and in England that the chil
dren are only taught to say their prayers." It will thus be
seen that though Miss Nagle desired above all things the
religious instruction of youth, she at the same time wished
that in the matter of secular education her schools should
keep pace with the progress of the age. In this we have
another instance of her usual prudence and good sense ;
and to the unvarying practice of this system the Ursuline
convent schools owe that wonderful success which has
placed them in the very first rank of female educational
establishments. While her novices were preparing themselves for the
religious life at St. Jacques, Miss Nagle continued to con
duct her schools as before, and was, moreover, busily
engaged in providing a suitable residence for her little
community when they should return from France. In a
letter to Miss Fitzsimons dated " Corke, Sept. 28th, 1770,"

54 Nano Nagle :
we find further particulars of the progress which she was
making with her work :
" I am sorry," she writes, " it was not in my power
sooner to tell you how much I am obliged to you for not
standing on ceremony with me, and being so good as to
write to me so often of late, though I could not answer
your kind favours as punctually as I wished to do. I
believe you'll attribute my silence to the rear cause, which
is want of time. I can't express the joy I had to hear of
Miss Kavanagh's resolution, and that she had joined you.
It was what you ambitioned this long time past. If once
we were fixed, the object in view is so great that I dare
say many would follow your and her example. I had
little reason when I first thought of this- foundation to ex
pect the success it has already met with. I must say, every
disappointment we have had the Almighty has] been
pleased to make it turn out to our advantage ; though my
impatience made me very often not submit to His divine
will as I ought. I believe we are indebted to your worthy
friend for this young lady's determination to come here.
We are happy, I think, in having one of the Sisters. I
am not surprised at what you mentioned to me in regard
of Mr. Kavanagh, for he and his lady, by some conjec
tures of their own, were sure Miss Nano intended coming
here. As for my part, I could not say anything that gave
the least notion that she was so inclined ; nor did I flatter
myself by what the clergyman then told me of her that she
would ; and I must do her brother and sister justice, they
did not seem at all angry with her for it. I dare say she
will be of great service to her by her prayers. I cannot
tell you how eager Mr. Doran is for your coming over soon,
as he foresees they will every day be starting some new
difficulties on account of the French lady, which is already

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 55
the case, and was made an objection when Miss B. got
leave to come. He wrote to his nephew* the many
reasons that made it so necessary to have this establish
ment begun as soon as possible, as he and I are sure, by
the character you give of this lady, that she is one of those
modern religious persons who think every inconvenience
is such a cross that there is no bearing it. She that makes
such a sacrifice for the good of souls will have fortitude
to make light, I hope, of not having everything settled as
comfortably as it ought to be. One could not imagine in
a house so lately built that the walls would be so dry as
they are, nor can one judge of those till they are plas
tered, for when the plaster dries immediately, it's owing to
the walls being so. Had I not seen it had this effect upon it
I could not have believed it. You will find it will be very
habitable this winter, which I did not think it would be ;
and when you are settled there I shall be to blame if I do
not get every necessary that is thought wanting, as there
is nothing in my power I shan't endeavour to do. I hope
you will be so good as to excuse, in the beginning, all,
and consider we are in a country in which we can't do as
we please. By degrees, with the assistance of God, we
may do a great deal. . . "\
Up to this time Miss Nagle had not disclosed to her
own family the fact that she was about to establish a reli
gious community in Cork. The self-same reasons which
from the first induced her to keep secret the opening of
her schools, rendered it doubly imperative to conceal as
much as possible her views in regard of the foundation of
a convent. However, the matter could not much longer
remain undiscovered, and she determined to be herself
the bearer of the intelligence to her friends. For this
* The Abbe Moylan. f The conclusion of this letter is wanting.

56 Nano Nagle:
purpose she proceeded in the summer of 1770 to Bath,
whither her family had removed, and from that city ad
dressed a letter to Miss Fitzsimons, in which we are in
formed of the result of her mission. The letter is dated
July 20th, 1770, and runs thus :
"... You thought I came here for my health. As
you are so good as to interest yourself in my regard, and
I was afraid it might make you uneasy,. I beg to assure
you that, thank God, I never was better, and it was not to
take the waters I came, nor have I tasted them. I came
to see my brothers ; and be assured it was with much ado
I could prevail on myself to pay them this visit. I did
not acquaint you with this tour as I wavered so much with
myself, that I may say till I was in the ship I was not
sure of coming — it was so much against my inclination
to leave my children ; and only to serve the foundation I
never should have prevailed on myself. Our friend, I
have reason to think, spoke with' a prophetic spirit by
what has happened, for my own family would never have
the opinion they have at present, nor ever interest them
selves as they do for its success. You must have been
surprised when you heard that they knew nothing of it. You
heard what was true ; the young lady who told you was
the first, my sister Nagle says, who told herself ; and
though she did so she could hardly believe her. You
don't forget that I wrote to you that when I began my
schools my own immediate family knew nothing of it ; so
the same method I was resolved to take now, as I was
sure they would be the first to oppose me. I never said
one Word to them till I saw things had such a prospect of
succeeding, which I was sure I never could have per
suaded them of if they did not see it. It gives them all
great pleasure that I should be the means of promoting
such a good work, and my sisters-in-law are as eager to

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 57
get good subjects for it as we could be. I hope you will ap
prove of my manner of acting, as thelessnoiseismade about
affairs of this kind in this country the better. Mr. Keating
got a letter from Dr. Butler,* on which he came to speak
to me about his sister, and says as we must be of such
service to the kingdom, if we had the Protestants' consent
for the establishment he would be better pleased she was
among us, as she could do more good there than any
where else ; on which I told him before my brother and
sister, that had I consulted my own family I should not
have had a school in Cork, which they said was true. . . "
* John Butler, twelfth Lord Dunboyne, was consecrated Catholic
bishop of Cork in succession to Most Rev. Dr. Walsh in June, 1763.
The barony of Dunboyne was an old one, dating as far back as the
reign of Henry VIII. On the death of his nephew, Bishop Butler suc
ceeded to the title, and, though he was over seventy years of age, and
had spent twenty-three years in the Episcopacy, he wished to marry,
in order that the direct line of succession might not become extinct.
For this purpose 'he sought a dispensation from Pope Pius VI., but
the Pontiff rejected the application with natural disgust. The aged
bishop tljen threw off the mask, and, taking the law into his own hands,
espoused his cousin (a Protestant), Miss Butler, of Hilford, County
Tipperary. Of course he could no longer pretend to be a Cathplic
bishop; and, therefore, openly avowed his adhesion tq the Protestant
faith. That his change of religion was not the result of conscientious
scruples is evidenced by the fact that he never could be prevailed upon to
officiate in a Protestant Church, and but rarely attended the Anglican
sendee. The celebrated Father Arthur O'Leary, in a letter addressed
to a London journal (June 3th, 1790), correcting a false statement
which had been circulated concerning himself, thus alludes to the
apostacy of Bishop Butler : " I do not consider Lord Dunboyne as a
model after whom I should copy. With his silver locks, and at an
age when persons who had devoted themselves to the service of the
altar in their early days, should, like the Emperor Charles V., rather
think of their coffins than the nuptial couch, that prelate married a
young woman. Whether the glowing love of truth or Hymen's torch
induced him to change the Roman Pontifical for the Book of Common
Prayer, and the psalms he and I often sang together for a bridal hymn,

58 Na?io Nagle:
From the concluding portion of this letter it is evident
that Miss Nagle was meeting with opposition from a quar
ter whence she had least reason to expect it, viz., from the
Bishop of the diocese. One ought naturally expect that the
prelate would have been zealous in promoting a project
likely to prove so beneficial to the flock committed to his
charge. But " Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it i^romises."*
And yet we need hardly be surprised at his opposition
to Miss Nagle's projects ; for though a bishop, Dr. Butler
had little, if any, of the episcopal spirit. An aristocrat by
birth, he was haughty in his manner, worldly in his tastes,
and unaccustomed to control his passions, as subsequent
lamentable events, detailed in the preceding note, fully
prove. Opposition from such a source was in itself a
strong indication that while Miss Nagle's work was favored
of Heaven, it met with the disapproval of the enemy of
souls. ?
his own conscience is the most competent to determine ; certain, how
ever, it is that if the charms of the fair sex can captivate an old bishop
to such a degree as to induce him to renounce his Breviary, similar "
motives and the prospect of aggrandisement may induce a young ecclesi
astic to change iis cassock." Lord Dunboyne had no issue of his
unfortunate marriage, and died in 1800. Before death God's grace
effected a change in the,heart of the erring prelate, who, sending for
the celebrated Augustinian, Father Gahan, was received back into
the Catholic Church, and confessed his sins with every token of sincere
repentance. In his person the ti,tle became extinct, but was revived
by the House of Lords in i860, in the person of Theobald Fitzwalter
Butler. The widow of the ex-bishop, having contracted a second
marriage with J. Hubert Moore, of Banagher, King's County, lived
to the advanced age of ninety-six years, djfing in August, i860. Lord
Dunboyne left most ofhis property to Maynooth College, where he
founded burses, which have since borne his name.
* "All's well that ends well." — Act 2, scene 1.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 59

CHAPTER VIII.
Not content with her labours at home, Miss Nagle interests herself in ,
behalf of the young negroes in the. West Indies. — The Abbe
Moylan goes to Paris for the purpose of escorting the novices to
Cork  Difficulty of procuring a professed nun to accompany
them. — Mrs. Kelly,~of Dieppe, consents to do so, and the new
colony arrives in Cork. — Cork Harbour as it was in 1771, and as it
is in 1874. — The Ursulines enter their new convent and open their
schools. — Female education.
We have, fortunately, still extant another letter of Miss
Nagle, which reveals some further difficulties with which
she had to contend, and discloses the wonderful zeal which
animated this servant of God — a zeal which refused to rest
satisfied with limiting her labours to the wants of the Irish
poor, but would expend itselfv. with the true diffusiveness
of Christian charity, in an endeavour to enlighten the
negro' children in the West Indian Islands. It is not easy
to determine the precise date of this letter as the first
portion of it is wanting, but from internal evidence, Dean
Murphy refers it to the early part of 1770. The following
is the document to which we refer : — " .... I am send
ing boys to the West Indies. Some charitable gentlemen
put themselves to great expense for no other motive.
These boys being well instructed, and the true religion
decaying very much there by reason of those that leave
this country knowing nothing of their religion, made them
lay this scheme, which I hope may have the desired effect.
All my children are brought up to be fond of instructing,
as I think it lies in the power of the poor to be of more

60 Nano Nagle :
service that way than the rich. These children promise
me they will take great pains with the little blacks to in
struct them. Next year I will have picture^ for them to
give the negroes that learn the catechism. I [must beg
you will be so good as to buy me some dozens of the
common pictures of that sort for them. I forgot to speak
to Miss N. to send them to me by the first opportunity.
I am glad she is liked by the ladies where she is. Had
they known all she suffered for this foundation as well as
I do, it would make them pass over many imperfections
they may see in her. I am confident her intention is good.
I run no risk in giving directions about her to a person of
your piety and sense, as you maj? be confident that had I
known the Fille St. Joseph was a Jansenist I should never
have sent her there. I hope you will act in regard to the
young ladies as you think proper, and be sure I shall always
approve of it. I must say I was desirous they should learn
what was proper to teach young ladies hereafter, as there
is such a general complaint both in this kingdom and in
England that the children are only taught to say their
prayers. As for spiritual matters, I am sure the nuns will
take good care of that. I must beg the favour of you to
present my compliments to the Superior, to your mistress,
and to your former one. My best wishes attend them and
the young ladies. Had I the happiness of being looking'
at you, I should imagine you were laughing at me, to think
I fatigue myself in the least. I can assure you T never
thought there was the least trouble in acting in regard of
the schools. Do not be uneasy about my health. Nobody
can enjoy better health than I do, thank God. I must say
I suffered a great deal in mind, which for a time I thought
would have hurt my constitution, but it did not in the least.
I am afraid you will all be tired of me, I may live to be so
old. That is what is-most to be dreaded. I beg you will

j, Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 6\
believe me with the sincerest esteem, your most affectionate
friend, " Nano Nagle."
Miss Nagle had now nearly completed her preparations
for the reception of the new community, and was anxious
that her friend Dr. Moylan should bring them over to
Cork without delay. Domestic afflictions, however, forced
the good Abbe to defer his visit to Paris for a short while.
In the Bath letter (July 20th, 1770) to Miss Fitzsimons,
Miss Nagle writes : " Though- 1 did myself the pleasure of
writing to you lately, yet I do so now again, as a letter I
received from our worthy friend* makes me acquainted with >
thesudden death of his sister-in-law. She wasamostamiable
person, and I am most sincerely sorry for her. He says
he is resolved to leave Cork in about twelve days, if the
ship be ready and the wind fair. I always admired his zeal,
and this is a great instance of it, to leave his afflicted
family and tender father, all whose trouble for the death
of his eldest son this shock revives, for if anybody ever
died of grief his daughter-in-law hass Yet notwithstand
ing Mr. M[oylan]'s fortitude to leave his friends in this
situation, if his father, who ^s old and sickly, should fall
ill, it won't be in his power to depart as soon as he ex
pected ; nor can I imagine it possible he will let him go,
as he can hardly leave him out of his sight in this his
urgent affliction."
As Miss Nagle had anticipated, his father's infirmities
detained the Abbe Moylan in Ireland much longer than
he would have wished, and it was not until the spring of
1771 that he was enabled to proceed to Paris for the pur
pose of escorting to Cork the four young ladies who were
to found the new establishment. They were, by the sound-
* The Abbe Moylan.

62 Nano Nagle :
ness of tneir own education, fully qualified to impart to
secular young ladies instruction of a high order, while
their residence within the walls of St.facques had thoroughly
imbued them with the religious spirit of the order to whose
membership they aspired, and had trained them to the
discharge of those duties which they would be called upon
to undertake at home.
But it seemed destined that difficulties should ever
thwart Miss Nagle's plans. It was only God's quiet way
of trying her patience and zeal ; but to the Human eye such
trials were embarrassing. Of the four young aspirants only
one (Miss Fitzsimons) had as yet received the white veil,
the others being merely postulants ; and according to the
constitutions of the Ursuline Order, no new foundation
could be opened unless there was a professed nun at its
head. What was to be done ? Perhaps some ofthe pro
fessed sisters at St. Jacques would volunteer to accompany
the young novices to Ireland ? No ! not one was willing
to accept the charge. In criticising their motives in thus
refusing, we would find it hard to attribute their unwilling
ness to want of zeal ; for the great French nation has been
in the van of the Church's missionaries for many long
and toilsome centuries. The truth probably is, that those
good religieuses hesitated to join in an undertaking involv
ing most serious issues in its failure, and unlikely, in the
then state of Ireland, to prove a very decided success. It
is but natural, too, to suppose that those nuns clung with a
holy affection to the hallowed cloisters in which they had
pronounced their virgin vows; and were unwilling to revisit,
if only for a brief period, the world which in heart and
spirit they had abandoned for ever.
But God in his own good time finds for his servants an
escape from every difficulty, and never fails to raise up
persons whom, by a liberal largess' of divine grace, He '

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 63
has prepared ,for the accomplishment of His designs.
Not having succeeded in obtaining at St. Jacques a pro
fessed nun to undertake the foundation at Cork, the Abb6
Mdylan remembered, that there were in other Ursuline
convents in France nuns of Irish birth or extraction who
might, if permission were granted them, be not unwilling
to lend a helping hand to Miss Nagle's work in their
native land. There was at this time in the Ursuline" con
vent at Dieppe, in Normandy, a venerable and holy reli
gieuse of Irish birth — Mrs. Kelly. To her, therefore, the
Abbe Moylan addressed himself;- and, though the best
and brightest days of her life had been passed in the land
of her adoption ; though that land bound her to itself by
ties she would not permanently sever, she did not hesitate
a moment in declaring her willingness to accompany the
new colony to Ireland. The Abbe Moylan now lost no
time in leaving Paris with the four novices, and, being
joined by Mrs. Kelly at Rouen, according to appoint
ment, took ship at Havre, and safely smuggled his con
traband freight into the Cove of Cork, on Ascension
Thursday, May 9th,' 1771.
We can easily imagine the joy of the holy exiles when
they found themselves about to tread once more their
native soil ; but they must have felt as well some pangs of
sorrow, for the scene before them bore the impress of the
degradation to which their country and their faith had been
reduced. Cove was then but a cluster of fishermen's mise
rable huts, and there was visible on the Island no symbol of
the old but proscribed creed. How different would Cork
Harbour appear to them to-day. They would find its
waters studded with leviathan vessels from every portion
of the globe : they would see a large, handsome, and
thriving town rising in graceful terraces from the sea ; and,
towering above all, they would behold the vast proportions

64 Nano Nagle:
of a glorious cathedral, announcing to them that their faith
was no longer proscribed, but was permitted to exhibit
itself to the seafarers from far-off lands in all the splen
dour of its majesty.*
Miss Coppinger and Miss Kavanagh proceeded on their
arrival to pay a short visit to their friends- at Barryscourt,
while Mrs. Kelly with the two other novices went on
directly to Cork, where, it is needless to say, jthey were
anxiously expected and most cordially welcomed by Miss
Nagle. The intended convent not being entirely com
pleted they took up their temporary residence in the
neighbourhood, and after some months entered their new
house, on the 18th September, 1771. The act of agree
ment between Miss Nagle and the nuns having been drawn
up and duly signed, as prescribed by the constitution, the
new convent was, by Miss Nagle's express desire, particularly
* St. Colman's Cathedral, now in course of erection at Queenstown,
will, when finished, be one of the most splendid ecclesiastical structures
in the British Isles. It owes its origin, and the progress towards com
pletion which it has made up to the present, to the zeal and indomitable
energy of the late universally-lamented Bishop of Cloyne, Most Rev.
Dr. Keane. The building was begun in 1868, but, for some years be- ,
fore, the parishioners of Queenstown had been working up a local col
lection in aid of the building ' fund, which on the 29th September,
1868, reached the figure of ^13,437 — a truly munificent contribution
from a single parish. The bishop solicited funds from America and
from some of the dioceses of Ireland, but by far the greater part of the
money already expended (about ^45,000) was contributed by the priests
and people of Cloyne. The neW cathedral has a length of 190 feet in
the clear, with a width of seventy feet for nave and aisles, and of nearly
no in the transepts. From the floor level to the roof of the aisles
and nave, the walls, with the exception of buttresses and window
dressings, are faced with granite, and the interior is lined with Bath-
stone. The great prelate to whose zeal it owes its origin is already
sleeping his last sleep within its walls ; but we are confident that from
heaven he will watch over the completion of his work.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 65
dedicated to and placed under the special protection of
the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph.* The Holy
Sacrifice was offered up in the little convent chapel for the
first time on the 22nd September, and Mrs. Kelly was
appointed superioress. They were soon after joined by
two new postulants, Miss Daly and Miss Moylan (half
sister to the Abbe Moylan), and they opened their school!
on the Monday following the Feast of the Most Holy
Name of Jesus.
Thus, by the zealous efforts of one great woman, was the
Ursuline Order introduced into Ireland, and even had it
been, the sole achievement of her life, it would have been
sufficient to entitle her to the everlasting gratitude of all
English-speaking peoples. The main object of the
Ursulines, as has been elsewhere observed, is the educa
tion of the wealthier classes ; and, all-important as is the
education of the poor, it is scarcely saying too much to
maintain that the proper training of the middle and upper
classes is a work of still greater necessity. For, as Most
Rev. Dr. Coppinger very properly observes, " Where piety
in a poor woman edifies her house, piety in a rich woman
edifies the homes of hundreds." And, in truth, a woman
in easy circumstances, who has had the advantages of a
sound Catholic education, is, as our every-day experience
proves, a blessing not alone to her own immediate family
but to the entire community in which she lives. By the
example of her virtues, by her charities, by her zeal for
the instruction of her poorer neighbours, by her exertions
for the suppression of vice, by her attentions to the sick
and suffering who surround her, by useful suggestions
helping towards the promotion of domestic economy ; by
the interest she takes in everything conducive to the pro
motion of religion and morality, and to the comfort of the
* MSS. Life, &c. By the late Mother de Pazzi, of Cork.
F

66 Nano Nagle:
poor man's home — by these, and other countless means,
such a woman can not only effect incalculable good by her
own individual exertions, but can achieve it also indirectly
through the agency of others. It is to the formation Of
this type of Catholic womanhood that the Ursuline nuns
direct their labours. They would above all things make
their pupils perfect women, trained in the practice of every
Christian virtue, and thus prepared to assume in after life
the onerous and terribly responsible duties of wives arid
mothers, should it please God to call them to embrace the
marriage state. But, while thus anxiously solicitous for
the training of the heart, and the formation of the charac
ter, the daughters of St. Angela by no means neglect to de-
velope the mental powers of the pupils confided to their
care. Hence, the " curriculum" of their schools embraces
every branch of knowledge, and every accomplishment
which a lady moving in the very best circles of society is
supposed to possess.*
Within the past few years a mania has sprung up in these
countries, and in America, for the higher education of
females. Indeed, we have before us as we write some
examination papers proposed to the lady pupils of a cer
tain institute in Dublin, and we have serious doubts
* The programme of studies is pretty much the same in all the Ursuline
convents. As a specimen we give the prospectus of the mother house,
Cork, for the present year (1874) : — " The course of education includes"
the English, French, Italian, and German languages ; writing, arith
metic, geography, and the use of the globes ; history, sacred and pro
fane ; astronomy, botany, conchology, mythology, the practical and
popular sciences, architecture, and the elements of geometry ; flower
and landscape painting, and every description of useful and ornamental
work." Add to this such accomplishments as music, vocal and in
strumental (piano, harp, guitar), dancing, painting in oil-colours, Sec,
all of which are taught at the convent, and we think any young lady
has a curriculum to satisfy her ambition.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 67
whether any Fellow of Trinity College would answer two-
thirds of them correctly. We by no means object to the
thorough education of the female mind ; we believe that
woman has just as good a right as man has to cultivate and
improve those mental powers which her Creator has be
stowed on her — not certainly with a view that they should
remain inactive, but that they should be turned to good
account ; but we at the same time think that this right may
be, and is abused ; and we are firmly convinced that the
mental culture of either sex becomes a positive nuisance,
and a danger to society, when the formation of the moral
and religious character is either entirely neglected, or is
regarded, as too frequently happens in the case of purely
secular schools, as a matter of secondary importance.
These ladies may become very learned, but they are sel
dom useful,* and men will be found ungallant enough to
dub them " bluestockings'' They may .become attractive
and accomplished, "plus cequo," but again, men, in their
stupidity, we must charitably suppose, will sometimes pro
nounce them "fast'' They may, for awhile, amuse them
selves at their expense, but they very rarely think of
leading them to the altar, and such as do have not un-
frequently been known to repent the step. Virtue is
woman's first ornament — useful and pleasing knowledge
her second. To promote both in their pupils is the
object of the Ursulines ; and the world has long since pro
nounced its verdict, that, in attaining the prdposed end,
they have been eminently successful.
* That astute, albeit morose philosopher, Dr. Samuel Johnson, once
said of very learned ladies : — "A man is in general better pleased
when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks
Greek." (Sir John Hawkins' Life of Dr. Johnson. Pub. 1787.) This is,
indeed, a very materialistic and somewhat epicurean view of the sub
ject ; but, somehow, even in the enlightened nineteenth century, a great
many gentlemen would be found to endqrse the old Doctor's opinion.
F 2

68 Nano Nagle.

CHAPTER IX.
Bigotry of the Cork Corporation. — They endeavour to suppress Miss
Nagle's Convent. — Alderman Francis Carleton quiets the fears of
the "Ascendancy" party, and the Nuns are tolerated. — The Ur
sulines are bold enough to assume the religious habit. — Miss
Nagle's Opinion of Dr. Moylan's Influence on the Atmosphere. —
Clement XIV. dispenses with half the usual Term of Probation,
and seven Ursuline Sisters are Professed. — Mrs. Kelly returns
to France. — Dr. Moylan is appointed Bishop of Kerry. — Miss
Nagle is dissatisfied with the Working of the Ursulines, and de
termines to establish the Presentation Order. She meets with
Opposition from an unexpected Quarter, but perseveres, and
succeeds. — She is joined by three Companions. — Then- style of
Dress. — Letter from Miss Nagle to Miss Mullaly, describing the
Rule they followed. They pronounce their simple Vows. — A
singular Vocation.
At the period of which we write the Cork Corporation
was by no means a model representative body. The city
fathers, forgetting the duties for the discharge of which
they had been appointed, allowed the town to become, as
we have elsewhere shown, a hotbed of lawless ruffianism.
They availed themselves of their position principally to
advance their own private interests ; and they were pre
eminently distinguished by a most intense hatred of
Catholics. This latter characteristic will not occasion
much surprise if we but remember the general feeling of
Protestants at that time towards their Catholic fellow-
subjects ; but, in addition to this, there were exceptional
reasons of" a local nature to stimulate the' worthy aldermen
of Cork to a display of their bigotry. In the first place,
notwithstanding the disabilities under which they laboured,
the Catholic merchants and traders of Cork, by their in-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 6g
dustry and steady perseverance, were beginning to outdo
in numbers and affluence the favoured and petted Protes
tants. They exhibited more of the " surroundings " of
wealth than their fellow-townsmen of the Established
Church ; while in mere numerical force they far surpassed
them, the population being divided, in 1733, (according to
a return made by the hearth money collectors) into 2569
Protestant, and 5398 Roman Catholic families. Moreover,
while the Protestant sect was rapidly declining in the
southern capital, the old faith was making almost incre
dible progress. As early as 1703 there were four registered
Catholic priests in the city of Cork, and we may readily
assume - the existence of many others who had not
been registered. Daring to raise their heads in public
after long years of ruthless persecution, the Catholics had
erected, in 1729, the north and south chapels; and that
the ecclesiastical structures put up in those days by the
prescribed papists were of no mean order, and were fre
quented by highly respectable congregations, is attested
by Mr. Philip Luckcombe who, writing in 1783, says,
" One Sunday morning I stepped into one of their mass-
houses, and a spacious one it was. The priest had just
finished the celebration of Mass. There were several
elegant carriages standing before the door when I entered,
and a prodigious crowd of people in the street— as motley
an assemblage of human creatures as I have ever seen."
We can, therefore, easily imagine the indignation of
the city magnates when they discovered that the irrepres
sible papists had actually dared to establish a community
of nuns in their very midst, and that those nuns were
busily engaged in poisoning the minds of youth with the
abominable errors of popery. The thing was not to be
borne with for an instant ; and the extensive armoury of
the penal code furnished an abundant supply of weapons

70 Nano Nagle :
wherewith to assail Miss Nagle and her luckless Ursulines.
The statute on which the corporation relied in the present
instance was the 9th Wm. III., chap. 1, sec. 8,' by which
the mayor and magistrates were severally bound to appre
hend and commit the nuns* to prison with a view to their
transportation ; and to suppress their nunnery. Failing
to discharge this duty they were severally liable to a fine
of £100, and were, moreover, disqualified from ever hold
ing the office of justice of the peace. Here was for the
Patres conscripti of Cork a capital peg on which to hang
their bigotry, and so they immediately convoked a full court
oiD'oyer Hundred, as it was styled, to concert measures for
the expulsion of the nuns. History has not preserved the
speeches of the worthy aldermen on this occasion ; but
we may assume that they were as lucid in argument, and as
.finished in point of rhetoric, as aldermen's speeches
usually are. Be this as it may, it is, at all events, be
yond the pale of controversy that the fear engendered
by the £100 fine, and the terror produced by the daily
increasing audacity of the papists, induced the city fathers
to declare, almost with unanimity, that Miss Nagle's con
vent should cease to exist in Cork. Fortunately for the
cause of religion and education there was in that council
of bigots one sane man — Alderman Francis Carleton.
This gentleman endeavoured by a little good-humoured
banter to quiet the alarms of his friends for the safety of
Protestant ascendancy, saying that he was unable to dis-
* The phrase employed in the statute is not " nuns," but " religious
persons." "It is singular enough that the words 'nunnery' and
' monk ' are only used in one Act of Parliament, namely, the Act of
Charles II. In all the other Acts, including 10 George IV., the words
are ' religious persons.'"— Extract from the evidence of Mr. Halting,
solicitor, before the Select Committee on Conventual Institutions,
1870.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 71
cover how the great Protestant Constitution could be
imperilled by the fact that a few piously-disposed ladies
chose to live together " to teach poor children, drink tea,
and say their prayers." He pointed out that the statute
of William, owing to the increase of the Catholics in
numbers, and their improved social condition, was be
coming practically a dead letter, and that by tolerating
these ladies they would confer material benefits on the
city, not only by the education and reformation of the
lower orders, but by keeping at home money which
would, otherwise, be spent on the Continent for educational
purposes. The result of the discussion was that the
members of the corporation were finally convinced of the
folly and the injustice of the course which they had in
contemplation, and that the nuns were left unmolested
to pursue the even " tenor of their way."
Still, notwithstanding this passing victory, Miss Nagle's
community continued to live in constant fear of the penal
laws ; so much so that it was only by stealth, and on the
more solemn festivals, that they ventured to put on the
religious habit, which they did not finally assume until No
vember nth, 1779. Touching this act of the Ursulines,
•the late Mother De Pazzi relates an anecdote, which, though
anticipating somewhat the order of events, we cannot for
bear narrating as characteristic of Miss Nagle : — " On the
nth of November, 1779," she writes, " her Ursuline sisters
put on the holy habit. For eight years after their arrival
in Cork they did not venture to exchange their French night
caps and black dresses for the veil and habit of their order.
Only on certain ceremony days, such as days of a recep
tion or k profession, did they ever deviate from this custom.
On those days the habit was worn by all the religious, as
also on the following day. But even this small privilege
was not obtained without difficulty, or enjoyed without

72 Nano Nagle:
restraint, as Mother Nagle's natural timidity led her on all
occasions to require even more than the precaution which
the temper of that time appeared to render necessary.
However, on this occasion the nuns were all inspired at
once to make a bold attempt at continuing to wear their
habits. Mother Nagle came to expostulate with them on
their rashness ; but they replied, half joke, half earnest,
that ' the weather was exceedingly cold, consequently that
to take off a warm dress would be more imprudent than to
wear it.' She desisted for that time from further argument,
only observing drily that ' Dr. Moylan would be in town
shortly; his presence, she expected,, would soften the atmosphere',
and remove all their fears of taking cold.' On his lordship's
arrival he affected much surprise at the nuns' new costume,
as if he had not heard the whole affair from Mother Nagle.
Still, contrary to her expectation, the bishop did not
proceed farther than to recommend the nuns to reflect
seriously on the step they were taking, on the dangerous
ground on which they were treading, and on the impru
dence of even remotely risking the persecution of their
infant establishment merely for the consolation of wearing
the religious habit. He consented, however, to their
making the trial, trusting in providence, and depending
on Him ' who clothes the lilies of the field,' that He would
not disdain to watch over even the dress of His chosen
servants, and in that hope they were not disappointed.
From that time the Ursulines continued, to wear their habit,
and carry on their religious ceremonies with as much
solemnity as if they had been sanctioned by the laws."*
Up to the year 1773, there was only one professed nun
in the convent, viz. Mrs. Kelly. Wishing to increase the
number of professed religious, Miss Nagle procured from
* MSS. Life of Mother Nagle. By the late Mrs. Da Pazzi, South
Convent, Cork.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 73
Pope Clement XIV. a Bull dispensing with half the usual
term of noviceship in favour of the first twelve novices,
and permitting them to assume the black veil after one
year's probation. Seven of the sisters immediately
availed of this concession ; and to establish the order on
a firm basis a chapter was held on January 31st, 1775, at
which all the details of internal organisation were fully
arranged in accordance with the provisions of the rule.
Mrs. Kelly, having now accomplished the task for which
she had come to Ireland four years previously, resigned
the office of mother superioress, and returned in the Easter^
of the same year to her convent at Dieppe. On her de
parture the sisters elected as her successor Mother Augus
tine Coppinger.*
In this year the new community suffered a temporary
loss in the absence from among them of Dr. Moylan who
had been consecrated Bishop of Kerry. This worthy
ecclesiastic, as we have seen, had been all along Miss
Nagle's main support, and her confidential adviser in the
many difficulties with which she had to contend. His depar
ture from Cork just as the infant institute had been launched
into life, was peculiarly trying ; but it pleased God that
the period, of his absence should be brief, for, on the
apostacy of Dr. Butler, Dr. Moylan was translated from
* The fact of Mrs. Kelly's connexion with the Irish branch of the
Ursulines has led some writers to suppose that it is a filiation of Dieppe
In a letter to the author (August 28th, 1874) the esteemed superioress
of the Ursuline Convent, Blackrock, Cork, writes thus on the subject :—
" A mistake has crept into some published accounts of our origin which
suppose us a filiation of Dieppe. The authors did not know that by a
special rescript our house was made an independent foundation, on the
model, and with all the privileges, of the first Ursuline monastery at
Paris. This fact you may like to know, especially as the other Irish
Ursuline convents are filiations from this.''

74 Nano Nagle :
Kerry to'the episcopal See of Cork, (1787,) and in his new
position as bishop of the diocese was, of course, able to
assist the nuns much more effectively than he' had ever
done before.
We have elsewhere expressed our opinion that when
introducing the Ursulines into Ireland Miss Nagle did not
fully understand the precise scope and nature of their in
stitute. Her great object was to make provision for the
education of the poor, whereas the Ursulines labour, prin
cipally, for the instruction of the rich, and though there is
a poor school attached to all their convents, it claims but
a secondary place in their attention. It is not unreasonable
to suppose that in consulting Dr. Moylan on the establish
ment of an Ursuline community in Cork, Miss Nagle
neglected to explain to him all the duties which she ex
pected them to perform ; for, had she done'so, he would '
most assuredly, have pointed out to her that the Ursuline
rule would render that order unsuited for the work which
she had in contemplation. Or, perhaps, she did under
stand the nature of the rule, but thought it might be
modified in consideration of the peculiar circumstances of
Ireland. This second hypothesis, though plausible, can
scarcely be maintained. For if she had any doubt at all
on the subject she would, unquestionably, have submitted
it to her " good friend," whose zeal and prudence she is
soconstantly praising ; and in that case Dr. Moylan would
not have failed in explaining to her that though the Ur
sulines might consent to a slight modification of their rule,
in the face of very exceptional circumstances, they could
not accommodate themselves to all Miss Nagle's views
without at once abandoning the primary and distinctive
object of their order.
From whatever cause the error proceeded, it is certain,
at all events, that not long after the introduction of the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 75
Ursulines, Miss Nagle felt dissatisfied — dissatisfied, but
not disheartened. She determined to establish another
community, fashioned more after her own heart, and having
for its special object the care and instruction of the poor.
This was the origin of the great Presentation Order of nuns,
and we shall allow the graphic pen of a gifted member of
that order to describe its first start into existence.
" After Miss Nagle had overcome all difficulties, as she
thought," writes Mother M. De Pazzi, " how trying toher
feelings to have found that her new institute was by no
means adapted to the end she proposed. She expected
her poor school would have flourished under the superin
tendence of such accomplished assistants, and that persons
so highly qualified, and so well disposed, would bring it
to the greatest perfection ; but God was pleased to direct
matters otherwise. Miss Nagle's heart was centred in the
poor ; her whole aim was to reform them ; and though her
efforts did not flow into that channel to which all her
solicitude was directed, still they were thrown into one of
very great importance, too. Though this professed friend
of the orphan and the destitute saw the work of her zeal
fructify in the prosperity of the Ursuline establishment,
which in a few years had acquired such stability — though
she beheld its members multiplying, their exertions crowned
with success, and their schools opening a source of instruc
tion to children of all descriptions, yet her views were
greatly disappointed, so far from being fulfilled, when she
found that the Ursulines were bound by their constitutions
to enclosure and to the instruction of the higher classes in
society. Consequently they could not, as she wished and
intended, visit the sick and poor abroad, nor devote them
selves to the instruction of the poor at home. This was
her q\>\qc±, her most ardent and earnest desire ; so that the
establishment of the Ursulines in Cork was more the ac-

76 Nano Nagle:
complishment of God's designs than of Miss Nagle's.
She was, however, the docile instrument of God's mercy
towards thousands in the city ;¦ and though she discovered
the institute not to be altogether according to her own heart,
this did not cool her zeal for its interests.
" When the convent had been completed, and the nuns
had become its inmates, Miss Nagle still continued to reside
' in that small house in Douglas-street, already mentioned,
which had served the sisters as a temporary abode ; nor
could all the entreaties which these good religious used
ever prevail on her to dwell in their new and commodious
habitation — never would she consent to join them in their
Ursuline vocation. In her absence, when engaged, as she
daily was, in the duties of her poor schools, these good
sisters not unfrequently had her bed removed into an
apartment prepared for her in the convent, thinking them
selves happy could, they be only lodged under the same
roof with so distinguished and so saintly a servant of the
great and good God. But the efforts they used to ac
complish their most wished for desire were always fruitless ;
she caused to be undone what they had done — leaving
them no hope that their views with regard to her in this
matter could ever be realized. From their refectory she
was daily sent her frugal dinner repast, consisting of a
slight portion (similarly arranged to those of the nuns) of
whatever was served them at table, without show, without
the least peculiarity, often, perhaps, without comfort or
order. Although she never could be prevailed on to dine
with the religious, or to spend the night beneath the roof
of their new convent, still she frequently visited them, and
sometimes enjoyed greatly the recreation hours with them.
She was also accustomed to give one hour's religious in
struction to their young ladies (the boarders) on each
successive Saturday evening.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 77
"Towards the close of the year 1775, Miss Nagle laid
the foundation of the Presentation Order, by assembling
together under her direction a few persons who were very
pious, and who wished to devote their time, their labour,
and themselves to the immediate exclusive service of God.
To these she communicated a share of her ardent zeal for
the instruction of the poor.
" After vast expense in erecting a convent for the Ur
sulines, Miss Nagle had still as much money left as might
endow a second establishment. It was in this year (1775)
that she commenced to build a new convent, and she did
so the more generously and with the greater pleasure, as' it
was in pursuance of her favourite desire, and was best
calculated to benefit the poor ; for no matter what her dis
appointment might have been at seeing shortly before her
favourite plan frustrated, she still never abandoned it, nor
could any passing event cause her to relax in her heavenly
pursuit. " The site on which she commenced to build her new
monastery was quite close to the convent she had erected
for the Ursulines. The circumstance, therefore, became
a source of annoyance to these good religious, who sup
posed themselves not to be as yet permanently established,
and feared that a division in Miss Nagle's solicitude
(which was until then all their own) might prove most pre
judicial to their interests and future welfare. They accord
ingly remonstrated with the Bishop (Dr. Moylan) against
the unreasonableness of erecting another convent so im
mediately in their vicinity. He warmly entered into their
views, and thus occasioned to the patient, humble, self-
subdued Miss Nagle, many hours of deep and disappointed
feeling ; but they were only fresh opportunities of proving
by her patience that she never forgot that she was the
servant of a crucified God. His lordship expostulated with

78 Nano Nagle :
her, but all in vain. Her thoughts, her wishes, her labours,
were all directed to that one object which she ever had in
view ; nor were her designs to be frustrated by any argu
ments, any painted difficulties, or by any apprehension of
drawing upon herself the displeasure of the creature, she
having never acted but to give pleasure to her loved
Creator. In the meantime her new convent was com
menced and the building was advancing rapidly. When
Dr. Moylan saw that her courage was undaunted, and that
she spiritedly pursued the will of God in humble defiance
of his efforts to prevent its accomplishment, he appeared
on the spot himself to express openly his disappro
bation of the whole proceeding. She meekly met him
there, and respectfully listened to every word he uttered.
He finally threatened to have demolished what had been
built of the convent, and ordered her to commence her
work at the other end of the city, where she and her fol
lowers would be quite separated from his favourite Ursu
lines. She mildly bowed beneath the pressure of his dis
pleasure, only saying that ' if his lordship was pleased to
banish her from that cherished spot, she would never try
to pursue her intended object in Cork, but would retire to
some other part of Ireland where she would meet with no
opposition, but more encouragement to effect her purposes
on behalf of those whom she always carried in her heart — the
poor.' Not willing to lose the service of one who, he said, was*
conducted by the Spirit of God, or perhaps in the fear of
being obliged to hand over to another diocese a treasure
which was so much wanted in his own, he remained ever
after silent on the subject, and permitted her to follow
on the good work which she had so unselfishly com
menced. She did, persevere in it, and with God's all-
powerful aid at length succeeded.*
' Some expressions in this paragraph if not explained might lead to

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. '79
" Miss Nagle now thought it time to make some effort
to form her intended useful congregation by choosing from
her pious associates in the glorious work of instructing the
poor, two young ladies whom she considered peculiarly
adapted to live in community, according, to the true un
selfish spirit of religion, and to assist her in those laborious
functions to which she had resolved to devote herself for
ever. " Miss Fouhy and Miss Elizabeth Burke were the two
first she made choice of to join her in the great, the ar
duous undertaking which she was about to commence for
God, and for God alone. They were both natives of the
city of Cork, remarkable for their talent, and for being
singularly gifted with the most genuine piety. Miss Nagle
spent money unsparingly in their mental improvement.
She had them made perfect in the art of painting, and in
such branches of polite and useful education as were
essential to them in after life to promote the glory of God,
and to make them worthy ornaments of the religious state.
On the 23th of January, in the year 1775, they happily
broke their engagements with the world, and joyfully re
tired from its delusive shortlived pleasures and vanities to
enter Miss Nagle's lowly, comfortless abode in Doiiglas-
a confusion of dates. It was not in his capacity of bishop that Dr.
Moylan endeavoured to prevent Miss Nagle from erecting her new
convent, for he was not a bishop at all at the time, though he was pro
moted to the see of Kerry later on in the same year. It was as pastor
of St. Finbar's that Dr. Moylan interfered with the accomplishment oft
Miss Nagle's designs, and this he had an undoubted right to do in the
exercise of his parochial jurisdiction, if he judged the steps she was
taking prejudicial to the interests of leligion. We must, therefore, re
gard the expressions "lordship," "bishop," "diocese," &c, in the
text of Mother De Pazzi's narrative as mere lapsus calami, occasioned
by the close association in her mind of Dr. Moylan's name with the
see of Kerry, and later on with that of Cork.

80 Nano Nagle :
street. (This was the small house into which she received
the Ursulines on their first arrival from France, and in
which they continued to reside until the convent intended
for them was completed.)
" On the 24th of December, in the same year, they were
joined by Miss Mary Anne Collins, also a native of Cork.
This young lady was remarkable for the most sincere piety,
was an accomplished model of 'every virtue, and having
imbibed during her long intimacy with our venerable
mother, Nano Nagle, all her sentiments and all her spirit,
she became in after life a faithful copy of this rare and
admirable woman — this true and faithful servant of God.
Accordingly on this day these four ardent and zealous fol
lowers of the humble and crucified Jesus commenced their
novitiate together, delivering themselves up unreservedly
to the practice of the most severe religious discipline, and
to all the privations and austerities to which their future
poor, laborious, and annihilated life was in every way most
likely to subject them. To this pious, hardworking con
gregation, destined by God to be the medium of conveying
the knowledge of Him to the poor, she gave the title of
' Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.'
" On the 29th of June, 1776, our holy and venerated
foundress, Miss Nano Nagle, received the holy habit of
religion* in her newly associated congregation, and the
name of St. fohn of God, being then in the fifty-fourth year
of her age.f Her three companions had the happiness of
. receiving the religious habit with her, and the names of
saints Joseph, Augustine, and Angela.
* The Presentation nuns did not, ordinarily, wear the religious habit,
except on festival and ceremony days, until the year 1803. Their usual
dress at the time we write of is described in the text.
f This is evidently a clerical error ; Miss Nagle was only in her
foity-eighth year at the time.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 8 i
" From this year may be dated the establishment of the
Presentation Order. Miss Nagle, in her, humble, abject
spirit, never even thought of its receiving any other title
or rising to any other rank than that of a simple congreT
gation. She intended its members to be solely devoted to
works of charity among the poor. Her views were so
humble that it never occurred to her to bind them to en
closure, or by solemn vows — the former engagement (enclo
sure) being absolutely necessary, as a condition to secure
the privilege of being allowed to pronounce the latter.
She merely intended her subjects to become, what it was
admitted she was, the servant of the poor, and to be free to
seek them out in their lowly hovels of wretchedness and
want. Oh ! how she might have wished that they
deserved to have it said of them, as it was of her that
' there was not a single garret in Cork which she did not
know.' This was the humble, mortified, laborious life
traced out by Miss Nagle to be followed by all those who
were to succeed her in her mission among the poor. She
walked in this rough road herself ; her bright example
traced the way for them; and then, faithfully did they
follow it. Her natural disposition was particularly austere.
She never spared herself, and she exacted from her asso
ciates all those practices of self-denial which she so unre
lentingly imposed upon herself. Their meals were poor,
and frugal, and no doubt would have been thought comfort
less by souls less fervent. No sooner were they ended
than the sisters were entreated to go back to the schools,
there to resume their wearisome, and very often most dis
gusting duties ; this was considered by them the most
painful, and at the same time most meritorious practice of
self-denial imposed on them by the saintly Mother Nagle.
" The dress worn at this'time, and for many years after,
by the members of this newlyrestablished congregation,
G

82 Nano Nagle:
consisted of a black gown plainly made, and without any
attempt at fashion. ; over this was worn a black silk hand
kerchief, crossed jn front, and a plain cap, its shape rather
round, fitting the head closely, and made tight by the
addition of a broad black ribbon which was fastened round
the head.* When, going out to attend the schools in dif
ferent parts of the city they were shrouded in long mode
cloaks (a texture in use in those days), the hoods of which
were thrown over the small black bonnets, which, on such
occasions they were accustomed to wear. At this time
there were three schools to be attended by them : one
at the farthest end of the city, in Mallow-lane ; one in
Cross-street, which was in the middle parish ; and one
adjoining their own poor mansion.
"Towards the close of the year 1777, Mother Nagle
had the happiness of seeing the building of her own, her
second convent, completed, after having most courage
ously overcome the countless difficulties, and patiently
borne the many trials which Divine Providence destined
to be her portion during the progress of its erection. It
was opened on the solemn and -appropriate festival of
Christmas Day, in honour of our Infant God, with a most
uncommon act of hospitality. This was admirable in
itself, not dictated by' human prudence, but not the less
acceptable on that account to Him in whose honour our
holy foundress had prepared the entertainment. She in
vited fifty beggars to dinner ; she waited on them at table
* There is in the Ursuline convent, Blackrock, an oil painting repre
senting Miss Nagle in this dress. Woodcuts from it have been pre-.
fixed to some editions of Dr. Coppinger's panegyric of Miss Nagle,
and photographs have been taken, which may be met with in most
Presentation convents. The late Very Rev. Theobald Mathew had a
very truthful likeness of Miss Nagle which, we believe, is in the pos
session of Mr. Mathew of Lehenagh, near Cork.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 83
with inexpressible joy and singular charity ; she helped
them as their menial servant. Faith strongly represented
to her in them the great Patron of the poor. While she
lived she scrupulously observed this same ceremony.
" Edifying as was Miss Nagle's previous life, her de
meanour as a religious was far more striking — the evening
of this great woman's life being the most brilliant portion
of her earthly career. Her humility, her regularity, her
application to prayer, her mortification, her charity (which
was unbounded) were never at any other time so conspi
cuous. One can only do them justice by saying that her
life was the Gospel and the Counsels perfectly reduced to
practice."* The rule which Miss Nagle and her three companions
followed at this time had been drawn up for them by the
cure of St. Sulpice. From the subjoined letter addressed
to Miss Mullaly we can conclude that Miss Nagle was not
quite satisfied with it, and was anxious to discover another
more in conformity with the object which she had in view.
The letter to which we allude is dated :
" Cork, October 30th, 1779.
"It gave me much pleasure," she writes, "to find that
your journey back agreed so well with you. I hope it will
be an encouragement to you not to slip any good oppor
tunity to see your friends here, which would give them so
much pleasure. I am much obliged to you for going to
see my sister Ffrench. She mentions to me that she was
sorry it was not in her power to pay you any compliments
as she was not in lodgings of her own. I am sure she
would have been happy to improve her acquaintance. I
am glad to hear Miss Bellew is so well disposed to do
* MSS. Life of Mother Nagle, by the late Mrs. M. de Pazzi, South
Presentation Convent, Cork. G 2

84 Nano Nagle:
what you desire. I hope the Almighty will direct what
is most to His honour and glory. As to the rule I was so
desirous to get, which was that of the ' Grey Sisters,' I
believe it is not what I have got : they call it Hospitaliers,
and call the rule the third of St. Francis. They make the
three religious vows for life. More than half the year
they fast on one meal, and the rest of the year abstain
from flesh on Mondays and Wednesdays. They have of
late been dispensed with saying the great Office, and only
recite that of our Blessed Lady ; but they have such a ¦
number of other prayers that I should imagine they can
have but little time to attend the sick. This is the rule
they follow at their great monastery at Nancy, in Lorraine,
and where I believe the young woman died who was sent
from Dublin. By what I can judge of it, I am afraid if
it had pleased God to spare her life to come over, she
would not have succeeded in that Order in this kingdom ;
so Divine Providence does everything for the best. They
must be of a robust constitution to be received into it.
Dr. Moylan wrote to the superior of an Order that is called
the Hospitaliers of the Order of the ' Brothers de Ville-
neuve.' She is a particular friend of his, and tells him she
would send him the book of her rule and constitutions
only it is absolutely forbidden by their Superior-General
to show it to anyone ; but she writes in what it consists,
which are the works of mercy, spiritual and corporal.
They have different houses for their charities, which are
most useful. There are some houses where they take
care of the sick ; others where they instruct orphans ;
others where they have boys as well as girls, but sepa
rately ; others where they take care of old men and women ;
others where they receive as pensioners the daughters of
citizens and young ladies of distinction. They have, also,
houses of penitents ; and in some places, she says, they

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 85
are of great service to prisoners. She says she was
honoured in the employment wherein she found most
solid consolation. . . . They make three vows for life,
as other religious do, and there is a fourth they make,
which is to serve the poor until death. In the houses
where they take pensioners they are obliged to have a
school for poor girls on account of inspiring the young
ladies with charitable feelings towards them, and that they
should see their wants. The nuns in these houses in
struct women in their religious duties. The education
they give their young ladies is quite different from that of
other convents. When they know well how to read, write,
and work ; when well grounded in their religion, then
they are employed in going through every duty proper to
manage a house, and are made good housewives. The
young ladies brought up with them are generally very
notable as to worldly affairs. As to their obligations in
other things they are just the same as we have in our
constitutions. We are obliged to most of their charities ;
but we prefer the schools to all others. The cure of St.
Sulpice, who made our rule, was the Superior-General of .
this Order ; and by what I see there is very little differ
ence, only we make no vows ; and my opinion is, it is
that which renders them superior to others, seeing that in
the world it is not known they make vows for life. You
and your director, from what you have told me of him,
-seem to be enlightened from above, and will judge which
is best of the two rules for this kingdom. Until I have
your opinion I shalL say no more on the subject., I am
very busy preparing to fill up our new house, and if it is
the Divine will to send you any good subjects to keep up
your school you may rely there is nothing in my power
that I shall not do if they come here. Though I know
myself so incapable, yet they will see good example from

86 Nano Nagle:
our sisters, and their time will be well employed. They
beg I will assure you of their sincere love, and of mine, to
Miss Corballis, and believe me to be,
" Dear Madam,
" Your most affectionate friend,
"Nano Nagle."*
From the above we may form a pretty accurate idea
of the rule which the first Presentation nuns followed.
Their life was devoted to the works of mercy, spiritual
and corporal, their main object being the instruction of
poor children. In the letter just given Miss Nagle says
that she and her sisters made no vows. It is pretty clear
from the context that she meant solemn vows, such as were
taken by the nuns of whom she is writing ; for, as a matter
of fact, Mother Nagle and her companions, Mary Angela
Collins, Mary Joseph Burke, and Mary Augustine Fouhy,
pronounced their simple vows on the 24th of June, 1777,
in presence of the Right Rev. Dr. Butler, Bishop of Cork ;
and from this period to the year 1793, when the rules of
the Order were approved by Pope Pius VI., the sisters
continued to make only annual vows, and this they did in
private.f Mother Nagle having pronounced her simple
vows was confirmed by the bishop in her office of supe
rioress, and continued to guide her little community in
the ways of perfection, and to urge them, both by
precept and example, to the exercise of the most heroic
charity. Meanwhile the infant establishment was growing
apace ; new foundations were already contemplated by
* Copied from the original in the archives of the Presentation Con
vent, George's-hill, Dublin.
t MSS. Life of Mother Nagle, by Mrs. M. de Pazzi, Cork.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 87
Miss Nagle in Kerry and in Dublin ; and novices were
coming in in fair numbers to recruit the ranks when the
older members should have gone forth to , spread the
blessings of Miss Nagle's institution in other parts of
Ireland. The story of some of these young ladies' voca
tion to the religious state is somewhat remarkable : in
one instance it strikes us as having been singularly so,
and, as the late Mother de Pazzi tells the anecdote admi
rably, we shall present it to our readerein her words.-
"In the year 1782, Mother Nagle received into her
noviciate Miss Hodnett, a young lady whose piety, good
sense, education and talents, gave every reason to hope
that she would become one day not only an useful subject
in religion, but also a bright ornament to that young
establishment, to which, it appeared, the Spirit of God
had conducted her. .She was the daughter of a gentle
man who possessed at the time a large portion of both
the respectability and the wealth of the city. At the age
of twelve years she was brought by her mother to pay a
yisit to our venerated foundress, Nano Nagle, and when
about to depart from the convent, to the great amusement
of those present, she stood across' the door, holding the
posts at either side, and protesting to her mother she
would not allow her to leave until she promised in pre
sence of the nuns that when she was sufficiently grown
she would consent to her becoming a religious in this
same house and order. (The child was struck by the
piety, amiability, and1 cheerfulness of the nuns and by the
calm, peaceful serenity which reigned thrOughbut the
house, but which she particularly noticed in her visit to
the cells.) The mother 'did make this promise to her
interesting little .child, not supposing for a moment there
was the least likelihood she should ever be called upon to
fulfil her engagement. At the age of sixteen our pious
aspirant announced to her beloved parent that it was her

88 Nano Nagle:
fixed determination to leave the world and to enter reli
gion ; reminding her at the same time of the promise she
had formerly made, and of the scene which had once
occurred at the convent. Her wishes were not opposed,
although delayed for a short time. She entered upon her
noviciate at the age of eighteen. Her mother was not put
to th'e torture of parting with her favourite ' child — God
had called her to himself: hope, sweetening by means of
hope, all that could have been painful in this temporal
separation." At this time Miss Nagle saw herself surrounded by six
spiritual children, and it may be safely stated that a
happier family did not exist in Cork, or out of it. Their
lives, it is true, were busy, and most laborious ; their food
was of the very simplest description ; and in the matter of
dress they never exceeded the limits of the most indispen
sable necessaries. Yet, with all this they were ever happy —
always gay ; serving their Master with joyfulness, and
looking for their reward in a world where sorrow is un
known. The sainted foundress often told the infant
community that she never expected to see her little con
gregation elevated to the rank of a religious order. She
was content to see it struggle on in its path of humble
usefulness. In one respect her words were prophetic, for
she was sleeping her last sleep when Pope Pius VI. ap
proved of the Present'ation rules ; but Catholic Ireland
must rejoice that her wishes on this head were disre
garded, and that the mustard seed sown in Douglas-street
has, under the fostering care of the Church, grown to be
a great tree, whose branches extend over four continents.
But before we attempt to chronicle the results' attending
Miss Nagle's work we have a melancholy duty to dis
charge — it is to record the closing scene of a singularly
holy and useful life : to describe Miss Nagle's passage
from her trials to her crown.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 89

CHAPTER X.
Miss Nagle's last Illness and Death. — Interesting Letter from Miss Fitz
simons to Miss Mullaly of Dublin. — Miss Nagle's Tomb. — Her
Character. " Farewell ! thy life hath left surviving love
A wealth of records and sweet ' feelings given,'
From sorrow's heart the faintness to remove,
By whispers breathing ' less of earth than heaven.'
" Thus rests thy spirit, still on those with whom
Thy steps the path of joyous duty trod,
Bidding them make an altar of thy tomb
Where chasten'd thought may offer praise to God."
Miss Nagle, as has been already said, opened the first
house of the Presentation Order on Christmas Day,
1777, and for over six years she toiled incessantly, en
deavouring to help on the good cause which lay nearest
to her heart. She had, altogether, spent well nigh thirty
years in the service of God and His poor; and the preced
ing pages give us some idea of the extent of her labours.
Of a constitution naturally delicate", she was at an early
period of her life afflicted with a spitting of blood. The
fatigue of continual speaking in school, sometimes for
five hours together ; the cold and wet of the street, to
which she was constantly exposed ; the corporal austeri
ties which she practised ; the opposition she encountered
in the execution of her designs, and the severe mental
trials to which she was literally a martyr — all told upon
her constitution, and about the year 1784, it became pain-

90 Nano Nagle:
fully evident to her sisters that their holy foundress was
hastening to her reward. In the early part of that year her
health began to fail more rapidly. The sisters noticed that
she was losing that buoyancy of spirit which had so often
cheered them in the recreation hall "after the labours of the
day. The face, onceatypeof perfect female beauty, was pre
maturely old and wrinkled ; her appetite was not that of a
healthy person ; and a troublesome cough, echoing through
the corridors of the house all night, told but too plainly
that Miss Nagle's chest affection would ere long assert its
supremacy. The spring came, and the trees put forth
their leaves, and the flowers blossomed ; the birds
carolled gaily, and the sun shone brightly, and the fields
had put on Nature's richest robe. For Miss Nagle it was
but earth's parting tribute to a soul which was about to
wing its way to heaven. The curtain was about to fall.
She knew it ; and though death could have few terrors for
one whose blameless — nay, singularly holy — life had been
spent in God's service, she no sooner felt the approach of
the destroyer than she demanded to be fortified with
the last sacraments of the Church. She received them
with marked piety ; and then, calling her little community
around her, she made what may be termed her last will
and testament. She had few earthly goods to leave them,
but she bequeathed to them a treasure which she prized
beyond every other — the poor of Jesus Christ. She bade
them spend themselves for the poor ; and that their efforts
might be crowned with success, she gave them a parting
injunction, which is, indeed, worthy of being written in
golden letters over the door of every Presentation convent —
" Love one another as you have hitherto done /" Simple words
these ; but embodying in a single sentence thespiritof Nano
Nagle, as well as of her Divine Master, and "the disciple
whom Jesus loved." For the discourse of the Redeemer

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 91
at the Last Supper was but a homily of love; and, if tra
dition speaks truly, the apostle of Patmos in the closing
years of his life used to preach but one sermon, and that
very brief : — " My little children, love one another."
Miss Nagle gave the self-same injunction to her spiritual
children, and, having imparted to them her dying bless
ing, she resigned her holy soul into her Maker's hands on
the 20th of April, 1784, being then in the fifty-sixth year
of her age.
The following letter from Miss Fitzsimons to Miss
Mullaly of Dublin,* written just one month after Miss
Nagle's death, is highly interesting, because of the de
tails it gives us of the closing scene of her holy life.
'* Cork, May 21st,. 1 784.
"... I flatter myself, my dear friend is sufficiently
persuaded of the gratification your dear and edifying let
ters are always to me, yet am content to be deprived of
that favourite pleasure as often as I wish, when I consider
the multiplicity of your occupations, and how painful it is
to apply to writing, perhaps with or after violent head
aches, which I often experience, and have been the ex
cuse which prevented me giving you sooner the account
you desired of our dear, respectable, and much-neglected
N. Nagle, whose strength has been visibly declining those
twelve months, particularly this last and severe winter.
Her limbs were so feeble she was obliged to use a stick
in walking, and has been seen to stop frequently in the
streets to get a little strength to proceed in her long and
painful walks ; that you know the extent of better than I,
. as you have seen them. They were, indeed, so many
* C pied verbatim from the original, which is preserved in the
archives of the Presentation Convent, George's-hill, Dublin.

92 Nano Nagle ;
steps on the road to eternal life. She added to her usual
austerities that of fasting every Wednesday and Friday on
bread and water, since she left our convent,* and lived
in her own house. She enjoined secrecy of this matter
during her life to all her religious sisters. She took the
discipline four times each week during the "miserere;"
she made instructions three hours each day during Lent,
fasting, and passed eleven hours last Holy Thursday
night before the Blessed Sacrament, kneeling all that time,
as she. never was seen to sit whenever it was exposed.
Her fervour increased so much towards the end of her
course that I believe she lost all sense of bodily pain or
suffering. She told me last Easter Monday (when I en
quired how she was after the Holy Week) that she never
remembered to have been so strong as the last Easter
Saturday, and that though she had read the Passion of
our Lord three times at different schools the Monday and
Tuesday before, she did not perceive the least fatigue;
' and you know it is pretty long,' she said. She had re
peated, neglected colds during the winter, yet walked
abroad when anyone else would have been in their bed.
On a very wet day she went as usual to all her schools,
and was penetrated with rain, as of late she walked so slow.
The next day, which was a Wednesday, she was taken with
a spitting of blood at a lady's house where she break
fasted, who told me that she requested her to go no
farther that day, but to return home. Nano Nagle answered
' What a coward you are! I have a mind to go to the
schools, and walk it off as I ani used to do ;' but a weak
ness ensued, and the dear woman walked home for the
last time. However, she did not complain to her sisters,
* It must be remembered that Miss Fitzsimons was an Ursuline not
a Presentation nun. This remark will explain other phrases in the
letter.

Her Life, Her Labours, and their Fruits. 93
nor even to the doctor who went to visit one of them, till,
in the evening, they perceived her to change colour and
perspire. We did not hear one word of it till next morn
ing, by chance. I heard that she was not out that morning,
and inferred that she must have been very ill, and imme
diately proposed sending for the doctor ; but first we sent
for Miss Fouhy, who confirmed all our apprehensions,
and prayed us to send for the doctor, as she had positively
forbid them to send for him. He ordered her immediately -
to be let blood ; next day to be blistered ; and the day
following another bleeding, which was again repeated —
but all without success. An inflammation had been long
formed in her lungs ; a violent cough, great oppression,
and total weakness, were the symptoms ; but she never
once complained, not even of the blister, and had hopes
of recovering, till about twenty-four hours before her
death. On seeing her blood quite corrupted and inflamed,
she knew it was impossible; however, she sent money to
three of her favourite children, and desired them to pray
for her recovery, if it was for the glory of God, that she
might have more time to prepare for eternity. The doctors
would not permit her to receive the last sacraments 'till
about seven hours before she died, lest the application
and her extraordinary devotion would exhaust her too
much, as they had still hopes that God would spare her
longer to the poor and distressed, to whom she was a tender
mother. She expired on Monday, 20th April, the sixth
day of her illness, in the fifty- sixth year of her age, as
much regretted on earth as she was welcomed in heaven,
where I hope she is now interceding for us, that we may
follow her great example. I refer you to Sister F- for an
account of her burial. She ordered herself to bo buried
in the poor ground which is near this . . . , and de
sired that all her sisters should be interred there also ; but

94 Nano Nagle :
we would not consent that her venerable remains should
be in such a place, exposed to be disturbed by the multi
tudes that are hourly brought there ; and in order to com
ply with her orders of being interred with her sisters, we
have consented to permit all those who will die [in the
house she instituted to be interred in our burial-place,
where she lies. To prevent this being taken notice of by
the parish minister, &c, we have made a door which opens
into her garden, and is never to be opened but for this
purpose, as Nano Nagle gave positive orders to her sisters
never to have any connexion with this community, for very
prudent reasons, to prevent what happened when you were
here. . . . You will be pleased Miss Nagle has left a
\fery sufficient maintenance for five sisters — £ 2000, and
^2000 more'at the death of her brother Joseph, if he dies
without issue ; all on condition that they comply with, and
observe the rules she has left them, and to be under the
inspection of her sister Ffrench and family, to whom she
has left ^~20oo more. I hope I have complied with my
dear friend's request as well as my memory allows. . . .
Adieu, dearly beloved friend. Pray for me, and believe
me, " Ever yours, most sincerely,
" Sister M.' A. F."
Such was the blessed ending of Nano Nagle's well-
spent life. Her sorrowing sisters laid her lovingly to rest
in the quiet little cemetery in Douglas-street, where pil
grims yet visit her modest tomb. She needed no gorgeous
monument to chronicle her fame, for the Ursuline and
Presentation Convents, scattered not alone throughout the
length and breadth of Ireland, but over England, Australia,
and America will transmit to a grateful posterity the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. ' 95
memory of this truly noble woman. To use the words of
an eloquent writer,* " Dead in the flesh, she lives in the
lives and hearts and hopes of ten millions of Irish Catho
lics dispersed over the globe. She speaks beyond the
Atlantic to the child of the hardy fisher beyond the snows
of Newfoundland. On the shores of the Pacific her voice
is heard, in many a crowded audience among the miners
of California. In Australia, on the banks of the Paramatta,
among the orange groves of Sidney, and across the straits,
in the streets of Tasmania ; under the southern cross, as
on the confines of the Arctic regions, the living influence
of this deceased female outlaw is felt. At home, in every
dell in her native Desmond, her name is uttered with
benediction : millions have dedicated their daughters to
her care ; so that, since the days of St. Brideof Kildare —
the Mary of Ireland, as she was called — no woman has
had her name so interwoven with the Irish race as the
venerable Nano Nagle of Cork, the centenary of whose
mission, now at hand, demands public celebration."
For the present, a modest slab covers the remains of
the sainted Nano Nagle. It bears the following inscrip
tion : — "Here lie, waiting, 'tis hoped, a glorious resurrection,
the remains of Miss Honora Nagle, daughter of Garrett
Nagle, Esquire, of Bally griffin, and venerable Foundress
of this monastery of Saint Ursula, and of the Institute
of the Charitable Instruction : whose life and fortune were
always devoted to the service of God and of the poor : whose
piety, humility, and self-denial made a most salutary
impression on an admiring public ; and whose charity
* See a letter headed " Nano Nagle," and signed " K." in the
Dublin " Freeman's Journal," October loth, 1871.

96 Nano Nagle:
and zeal were most singularly and successfully exercised
for more than thirty years in the instruction of multitudes
of poor children, rearing them true servants of God, and
useful members of society. She departed this life, envied
by many, regretted by all, on the 26th day of April, 1784,
aged 56 years.- R. I. P.
" Moriatur anima mea. "Num. xxiii. 10.''
Our readers will be glad to learn that the sisters of
the South Presentation Convent intend, with the aid of
their friends, to have a more suitable monument erected
over Miss Nagle's grave, when the centenary of the
Order comes round in 1877. Indeed we cannot see why
the citizens of Cork should not undertake the erection
of a public monument to Miss Nagle's memory. At the
entrance to their greatest thoroughfare there stands a
statue of Miss Nagle's cousin, Theobald Mathew. Why
not erect at the end of the same street, on the Parade, a
monument to the sainted nun, whose public services have
been far greater than those of Father Mathew ? The
site would be singularly appropriate, because of its close
proximity to Douglas-street, where Miss Nagle toiled
so assiduously and so long in the service of the poor;
and we are more than confident that the necessary funds
would not be wanting if the project were once fairly
started. It is no very difficult task to sketch Miss Nagle's cha
racter, though it embraces in itself all those distinguishing
traits which mark a great woman and a great saint. The
feature in her life which first arrests our attention is her
singular love of the poor and the afflicted. With Miss
Nagle this was no mere effort of sentimentalism ; it was

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 97
the result of deep religious feeling which recognised in
the 'outcasts of society the image of their Maker, and would
spare no efforts in alleviating the temporal wants, and
helping towards the eternal salvation of fellow-creatures
redeemed by Christ. Nor was her spirit of charity limited
by any consideration of creed or country. It was tolerant,
and though practically limited during her lifetime to
Ireland, it was in purpose and effect cosmopolitan.
Neither was it confined to any particular class, for Miss
Nagle, like the apostle of the Gentiles, would make herself
" all to all " to gain all to Christ. The ragged, uninstructed
children in the streets ; the aged infirm in the hospital ;
the suffering poor in their own homes ; the wretched
Magdalen eking out her miserable life in the dens of
infamy, were equally the objects of her solicitude. For —
" She had a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity."*
With ample fortune" at her disposal, and favoured by her
genteel extraction, she might have enjoyed all the pleasures
of a secular life ; but she elected to expend the one upon
the poor and forego the other that she might be instru
mental in saving souls. It is only by contrast that we fully
realise what all this means. Miss Nagle was, as we have
seen, the petted " belle " of a gay capital, and the very
brightest prospects were opening to her view. At the call
of grace she renounces all to becfjme the slave of the poor.
How many fine ladies of our own day would act similarly ?
We answer, very few ; and these few could only be found
within the pale of the Catholic Church. Protestantism
knows nothing of such sacrifices ; it mocks the spirit which
prompts them ; it may applaud the good results which follow,
* King Henry IV., part 2, act iv., scene ,4.
H

9 8 Nano Nagle:
but it regards as visionaries the agents who were instru
mental in bringing them about.
Another distinguishing feature in Miss Nagle's character
washer singular good sense, combined with a firmness of will
which could not be bent when she felt she was correspond
ing with God's will. The preceding pages afford ample
proof of this. In starting her schools she clearly foresaw
the difficulties she would have to encounter, and she took
every human means to meet them. Her friends opposed
her projects ; the laws of the realm were directly antago
nistic ; the very bishop of the diocese, to whom she ought
principally to have looked for support, did not favour her
views ; and yet, buoyed up by God's sustaining power, and
conscious of the strength of Right, she persevered, and
her efforts were ultimately crowned with unparalleled suc
cess. She was, indeed, the " mulier fortis" mentioned in ¦
Holy Writ ; strong of intellect, firm of will, foreseeing, yet
gentle and unpretending as a babe —
" The reason firm, the temperate will ;
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill.
A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command."*
With all these qualifications she was the humblest of
the humble. We have seen how she used to wait in person
on the poor old beggarwomen whom she sheltered in her
asylum ; and a task which others would shrink from she
performed with delight, as she' recognised her Saviour in the
persons of the poor. We have seen her, lantern in hand,
paying her nightly visits to the most miserable alleys in
Cork, reviled, laughed at, insulted, but she bore it all for
her Master's sake. She was once mistaken for a beggar,
and somebody gave her a small coin in charity, The
* Wordsworth.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 99
daughter of the proud Nagles did not refuse the proffered
alms, but meekly accepted it, and treasured it to her dying
day. Though she was the head and arm of her commu
nity, so little did she value her own powers, and so humbly
did she think of herself, that we find her writing to her
friend* Miss Fitzsimons. "lam afraid you will all be
tired of me, I may live to be so old. That is what is most
to be dreaded." Indeed, every letter of hers that we have
, seen breathes throughout the most perfect spirit of Chris
tian humility.
With her sisters she was gayest of the gay, and the tra
dition of the Order is that the recreation hours never
passed so pleasantly as when Miss Nagle was present
When the day's hard labour was done she very naturally
thought that relaxation was an essential preparation for
the work of the morrow ; and so her merry laugh and spicy
anecdote constantly cheered those who might otherwise
have been tempted to abandon a course of life which
held out to them but few pleasures and many toils. She
was the idol of her community, and her sisters looked up
to her with a feeling of mingled veneration and love.
For— " She was as good as she was fair,
- None — none on earth above her !
As pure in thought as angels are,
To know her was to love her."f
We do not always find the active- life associated with
the contemplative, as the busy bustle of the one is apt to
be an impediment to the holy quiet which is essential to
the existence of the other. With Miss Nagle such was not
the case. Whether in teaching for five hours daily in her
schools, or in visiting the sick, or in seeking out and con-
* Letter to Miss Fitzsimons, 1770.
f Samuel Rogers. "Jacqueline," st. 1.
H 2

ioo Nano Nagle :
soling the afflicted, she was ever occupied, and yet she
found time for prayer ; not merely for a few hurried re
petitions of a well-conned formula, but for earnest, heart
felt, long-continued communications with God. In addition
to some exceptional exercises of devotion which were re
served for special occasions, she spent regularly each day
four hours in prayer and seven in the schoolroom, in the
hospital, and in the busy streets ; her thoughts were ever
fixed on God, so that it might truthfully have been said of
her — . " Her eyes are homes of silent prayer."*
Though Miss Nagle's religious sisters were aware of her
prolonged devotions, it was only after her death that they
fully realised the extent to which they had been carried.
When discharging the last sacred' rites to her body after her
demise, they discovered thather knees were ulcerated. This
was the result of continued long kneeling in prayer ; and
though the holy woman must have suffered for years un-
told-of agonies from this source, she never breathed a
sigh of complaint.
Calumny has ever been the portion of the "just," and
Miss Nagle formed no exception to the rule. She was
called an impostor and a hypocrite. Some accused her of
extravagance in expending her money in the support of
schools ; while others did not hesitate to affirm that these
same schools were to her a source-of gain. Some slan
derers even attacked her moral character, and did not
hesitate to throw a slur upon her name, because in her
anxiety to reclaim them she sought out the poor forlorn
outcasts of society. But the saintly Nano Nagle little
heeded all this. She knew that if the Master was reviled,
His servants need hope no better fortune ; and so she
* Tennyson, "In Memoriam," xxxii.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 101
waited on patiently and lovingly, until time has vindicated
tier character, and assigned her a foremost place among
the best and holiest of womankind. Shakspeare put the
matter well when he said — *
" Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
calumny.' '
Miss Nagle has not escaped calumny, but her spotless
reputation has outlived it ; and while thousands of voices
hymn her praises in every English-speaking country on
earth, we doubt if there be many coronets in heaven
brighter than that which encircles the brow of
Nano Nagle.
* Hamlet, act iii., scene i.

io2 Nanos Nagle

CHAPTER XI.
The Presentation Sisters continue their Labours after Miss Nagle's
Death. — Several Bishops are anxious to secure their Services.—
Bishop Moylan applies to the Pope for the Confirmation of the
Institute.— Brief of Pius VI.
The holy foundress of the Presentation Order was sleep
ing her last sleep in the quiet little cemetery in Douglas-
street, but her spirit still lived, animating her children in the
faithful discharge of those charitable works, which for thirty
years had engaged her own undivided attention. The igno
rant were instructed, the sick were visited, the hungry were
fed, the naked were clothed, the afflicted were comforted,
and the erring were reclaimed, just as when the guiding star
of the congregation was alive. It is true that the good i
sisters missed the priceless advantage of their mother's
example and direction ; but we feel convinced that they
were, more than compensated for this loss by the efficacy
of her pleadings in their behalf before the mercy seat of"
God. Certain it is, that the infant Institution acquired
fresh strength every day, and was establishing itself more
firmly as it advanced in the affectionate regard of the
Catholics, and in the respectful esteem of all. The spirit
of Miss Nagle watched over it from the tomb, and each
succeeding day saw its usefulness more fully attested, and
its spirit of disinterested charity more highly appreciated.
The- city of Cork was becoming too "small a field for the
exercise of the sisters' zeal, and the bishops of neighbour
ing dioceses evinced the greatest anxiety to secure their
services for the benefit of the poor. But before they

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 103
could prudently undertake these fresh labours, it was not
only advisable, but in some measure necessary, that they
should be united by a stronger bond than had hitherto
existed. To effect this, something more than episcopal
sanction was required, and the Most Rev. Dr. Moylan
applied to the Holy See for the formal approbation of the
new institute. Pius VI. was Pontiff at the time, and the
saintly confessor, and all but martyr, tells us, himself, what
joy it gave to his paternal heart to find that in the universal
spread of infidelity and moral depravity which then pre
vailed in continental Europe, the spirit of the saints had
found a refuge and a home in Ireland. The following is
the Pope's reply to the petition of Bishop Moylan : — ¦
" Pope Pius VI.
"Venerable Brother, Health and Apostolical
Benediction. — In our solicitude for all' churches, nothing
can. give us more pleasure than that such opportunities
should occur as may enable us to contribute to the spiri
tual welfare of Christ's faithful servants, and to impart to
them, and more particularly to those who live among
persons not professing the Catholic faith, the graces and
favours of His Holy See, and to direct our whole study,
care, and diligence to instruct and preserve them in the
practice of piety and good morals.
" Hence, Venerable Brother, you will easily conceive
the sentiments with which we received your postulation of
the following tenor, presented to us by our sacred con
gregation de Propaganda Fide, to which you had addressed
it. 'Miss Honora Nagle, of respectable memory, had de
termined to employ the ample fortune she possessed in
founding houses or communities for the admission of
pious virgins, whose principal duty should be to instruct

104 Nano Nagle:
little girls in the rudiments and precepts of the Catholic
faith ; to teach them to work, to visit the sick women in
the public infirmaries, and administer to them spiritual
and temporal assistance,' &c.
"And whereas there is now, as is represented, a house
prepared and fitted for such an establishment, in the city
of Cork, wherein some have already joined this pious in
stitution, and others are disposed to enter the same,
should it receive the approbation of the Apostolic See, in
consequence of which you yourself, Venerable Brother,
sensible of the advantages of so pious an institution, have
supplicated us, through the said congregation to confirm
it — more grateful, indeed, or more seasonable intelligence
we could not receive, especially at the present time, when
the designs and schemes of wicked men tend to no
thing less than ruin and destruction, were such a thing
possible, of the Church of Christ, founded and formed
by His precious blood. We feel and acknowledge it an
effect of the boundless providence of Almighty God; that
while elsewhere the institutions and convents of the re
ligious of both sexes are sacrilegiously plundered and de
stroyed, houses are, by the increase of piety in your diocese,
erected and endowed for the reception of pious virgins;
whereby the Christian education of young girls is happily
secured. Having, therefore, first of all, offered due thanks
to the Divine Mercy, and next, highly approving in the
Lord the aforesaid Honora Nagle's intentions, sincerely
also, and earnestly inclined in favour of your petition,
with the advice of our Venerable Brethren, the Cardinals
of the Holy Roman Catholic Church charged with the
affairs of the sacred congregation de Propaganda Fide, for
the greater glory of God, and the promotion of religion,
we give you, Venerable Brother, in virtue of our Apos
tolical authority, and by these our present letters, in form'

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 10$
of brief, power to erect and to form, not only in the city
of Cork, but also in all other cities, towns, and places of
the kingdom of Ireland (taking care, however, always to
procure the consent of the ordinary, when there is ques1
tion of another diocese), one or more houses for the re
ception of pious virgins, whose duty it shall be to instruct
little girls in the rudiments of Catholic faith and good
morals ; to teach them different works peculiar to their
sex ; to visit sick females in public infirmaries, and help
them in their necessities.
" But, in order that the aforesaid yirgins may perform
these works of piety with the greater fruit for the salva
tion of -souls, we will and command them to- observe the
rules and constitutions to be made and appointed to you,
approaching, as near as possible, to the Institute of St.
Ursula, and conformable to the instructions to be trans
mitted to you by the said congregation ; and also that,
having completed the time of probation, they shall make
simple vows ; that is, the vows of obedience, chastity, and
poverty, and that of persevering in the said holy purpose ;
from which vows they cannot be released or absolved by
any person, but by you and your successors in your diocese,
and by the other ordinaries in their own (to whose juris
diction the aforementioned virgins, wherever established,
must be subject), and this only for just and reasonable
motives, approved of by you or them.
" And that no spiritual help towards the more cheerful
and zealous performance of their duties be wanting to the
aforesaid virgins, we give and grant unto them, through
our Apostolical Benignity, all 'the same indulgences an<T
spiritual graces hitherto granted by us and our prede
cessors to the religious of St. Ursula, to their convents,
and to their churches.
" We beseech our great and good God to give success

106 Nano Nagle:
and increase to this new undertaking ; and, in order to
obtain in its favour His heavenly blessing, we bestow on
it our Apostolical Benediction, which we most affectionately
impart to you also, Venerable Brother, with the most pro
found sentiments of benevolence and esteem.
" Given at Rome, at St. Mary Major's, under the Fish
erman's Ring, the third day of September, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-one, and the seventeenth year
of our Pontificate. "Signed, " Benedict Stay."
Having thus received the apostolical blessing and con
firmation, Miss Nagle's institute began to spread rapidly.
From all parts of Ireland bishops applied to have found
ations established in their dioceses. Of course it was
impossible to gratify all, or even the greater part of the
applicants, for the congregation was as yet too young to
be in a position to furnish -many subjects for new houses.
However, it did furnish a good many — to such an extent,
indeed, that in the short space of nine years from its con
firmation, there existed no less than six houses of the con
gregation. The story of the early struggles of these first
houses is interesting, not alone in itself, but as giving ail
insight into the state of the Catholics in Ireland at the
period. This, however, we must reserve for another and
more lengthened chapter.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 107

CHAPTER XII.
Rapid spread of the Presentation Institute. — Dr. Moylan establishes a
Branch at Killarney. — Letter from Miss Nagle to Miss Mullaly. —
Establishment of a Branch at George' s-hill, Dublin. — Miss Maria
Teresa Mullaly. — Another letter from Miss Nagle to Miss
Mullaly. — Present state of the Convent at George's-hill. — The
Presentation Institute in Waterford. — A relic of the Penal Days. — ¦
Anecdote illustrative of Protestant intolerance in. Waterford some
seventy years ago. — The establishment, of the Christian Brothers
in Ireland partly due to the Waterford Presentation nuns. —
Foundation of the North Presentation Convent, Cork. — Mrs.
O'Connell. — Early struggles. — Dr. John Barry's restricted views
concerning candidates for the Kingdom of Heaven. — Another relic
of the Penal Times. — The Sheriff of Cork means mischief, but his
designs are providentially frustrated. — The Presentation Order in
Kilkenny.
"And thy people shall be all just, they shall inherit the land'for
ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand to glorify me.
"The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most strong
nation : I the Lord will suddenly do this thing in its time." — Isaias,
Ix. 21, 22.
As we observed at the close of the last [chapter, Miss
Nagle's institute began to acquire, daily, fresh strength
and vigour after it had received the approbation, and
apostolical benediction of Christ's vicar. As might be
naturally expected, the first among the Irish prelates to
introduce the new institute into his diocese was Miss
Nagle's true and constant friend, Most Rev. Dr. Moylan.
Indeed, almost from the very commencement of the Pre
sentation Order this good prelate was most anxious to
secure the services of some of its members for the Diocese

108 Nano Nagle :
of Kerry, as we learn from the following letter addressed by
the foundress to Miss Maria Teresa Mullaly of Dublin : —
" Cork, September 2qth, 1778.
"Dear Madam — This is a pleasure I have longed for
this sometime past, which was to acquaint you that, as Dr.
Moylan mentioned to you about two years ago, I had a
desire that some establishment should be made to keep up
the schools for the poor children. Not finding any person
here inclined to undertake such an affair, made me at last
consent to the doctor's request, and last Christmas I took
in three persons to join me in this good work. What
made me defer it all this time was finding myself so im
proper a person to undertake it ; but the Almighty makes
use of the weakest means to bring about His works. I am
about to send two out of the small number we have to Dr.
Moylan, as he is very impatient to have them, and in my
„ opinion uthey are very proper to make a foundation in
Kerry, as they have great zeal and talents, and every virtue
proper for it. ,1 send you the rule which they follow (it is
called of ' the sisters of the Charitable Instruction of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus') by this most respectable clergy
man, Mr. Shortal, who is most zealous for its success, and
will give you a particular account about it. I could wish
that we may unite in this society, and am confident that
the great God will direct you to what is most to His glory,
and beg you will believe me to be with the greatest esteem,
" Madam,
" Your most humble and obedient servant,
" Nano Nagle.*
" To Miss Maria Teresa Mullaly, '
St. Mary's-lane, Dublin."
* Copied from the original in the Archives, Presentation Convent,
<reorge's-hill, Dublin.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 109
Notwithstanding the bishop's anxiety to procure a colony
from Cork, it was only in 1786 that he was able to look for
ward hopefully to the accomplishment of his long-cherished
design. In that year Mothers M. Joseph Curtayne, and
M. Teresa Lane entered the parent house in Douglas-street
.as. subjects for the Kerry foundation, and, having com
pleted the period of probation, returned to Killarney on
the 2nd of October, 1793, where they were joined soon
after by Mother Curtayne' s sister and a Miss Hayes. The
good nuns were before long destined to taste some of
those trials which had been the constant lot of their holy
foundress during her troublous life ; for >soon after their
arrival they were deprived of their convent, owing to
some legal informality in the preparation of the lease, and
it was through the generous bounty of Lord Kenmare, and
of some of the other principal inhabitants that a portion
of their present convent was built, which, they took
possession of in 1803. The community which started into
life under such unfavourable auspices is now ( 1 874) flourish
ing. It numbers eighteen nuns, and has in its four schools
an average attendance for the present year of 294 pupils.
There is, moreover, an industrial school attached to the
convent, where from twenty to thirty young girls are daily
taught plain work, embroidery, point lace, crochet, and
knitting, and are thus enabled to procure for themselves
a respectable livelihood in after years.
The knowledge of the blessings which the Presentation
Order was diffusing in Cork induced some pious persons
to attempt its introduction into the metropolis, where the
want of some such institute was keenly felt by all who
were aware of the ignorance and depravity which pervaded
the lower orders of Catholics. The name of Miss Maria
Teresa Mullaly has already occurred more than once in
the preceding pages, and she it was whom God had

no Nano Nagle :
marked out as His instrument for the establishment in
Dublin of Miss Nagle's congregation. She was the
-daughter of a very humble provision dealer in the city,
and followed herself the trade of dress-maker, in which
avocation, by her industry and thrift, she managed to save
up as much money as enabled her afterwards to assist in
purchasing the site, and erecting the buildings intended
for her poor schools. She commenced her charitable
labours by renting a small house in " Mary's-lane," where,
on Sundays and holidays, and at any other seasonable
time, she instructed such of the poor children as she could
collect around her ; being assisted in this work of zeal
by Miss Anne Corballis (who died in 1793), and Miss
Judith Clinch, who afterwards became a nun, and shall
be mentioned later on. In a short time the children be
came so numerous that Miss Mullaly resolved to seek out
the means to establish a convent, and in this design she
was warmly encouraged by the advice and generous aid of
Rev. Mr. Mulcaile, S. J., as well as of the other clergy
men, and of the parishioners at large, who were de
sirous to co-operate in so great and so good a work.
By a singular coincidence (which was, no doubt, the re
sult of God's providence) it so happened that at this very
time Miss Nagle had formed the idea of establishing her
order in Cork for the charitable instruction of the poor.
On learning Miss Nagle's intentions, Miss Mullaly saw at
a glance that the institution contemplated in the southern
capital was just such a one as she herself wished to have
introduced into the metropolis ; and so, without further
delay, she proceeded to Cork, and had a most satisfactory
interview with Miss Nagle, which was the beginning be
tween these two holy souls of a fast friendship, never once
interrupted. We have no very exact information of the precise date

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits, i i i
of Miss Mullaly's visit to Cork ; but the'following letter,
addressed to her by Miss Nagle after she had returned,
seems to fix the date somewhere in 1778. The month in
which the letter was written is wanting in the original.
" Cork,  21st, 1778.'
" Dear Madam — I could not slip this opportunity
without assuring my dear Mrs. Mullaly* the pleasure it
gave me to hear she arrived safe, and to assure her the
trouble it gave me that I could not have more of her com
pany whilst here, being every day more sensible of the
advantage I should have reaped from it. The hurry I was
in at that time made me neither think of many things
which I should have been glad to have had your opinion
on ; my thoughts were. so much taken up about my nieces
preparing for their voyage, which, thank God, was a lucky
one, as they had a passage of only thirty hours, and if I
did not send them by that ship they would not have gone
this winter, as none of the Bristol traders has sailed since,
and I would not have ventured them in this bad weather
to sea. I had a letter from my sister Ffrench since they
parted, wherein she tells me that Mr. Ffrench had hurt
his leg, which prevents him leaving Spa at the time they
intended ; and as I have not heard from her since, I am
afraid it is worse, and that they won't be at Cambray when
their daughters arrive there. I am sure she will mention
to me what answer the lady you wrote will make ; which,
if pleasing, I shall lose no time in communicating to you,
as I was very much distressed since the young woman that
* Though Miss Mullaly is styled "Mrs." in this and some other
letters, it must be regarded as a mere conventional term, used through
respect towards the heads of religious associations. Miss Mullaly was
never married.

ii2 Nano Nagle:
lived with me since my niece went left this. I have a
gentlewoman that I really was resolved to take this some
time past, when fixed in the new house ; but not till then —
one is so much wanting at present, and the rule orders
us to have them on trial for some months. She attends
the schools ; and I hope I shall have no reason to repent
of the choice I have made, as my first motive was charity,
hearing of the great distress she was in through a lawsuit,
and an extravagant brother who spent part of her fortune.
She has had the best education this kingdom could afford,
and has many useful talents, with great patience and humi
lity in all her misfortunes. She seems at present to rejoice
in all she has suffered as it has placed her in so happy a
state. She takes much delight in teaching poor children.
I hope that some part of what is due to her will be re
covered. All our sisters assure yfou of their most affec
tionate respects. You cannot imagine how melancholy we
were at night after you left us, as our recreation passed
in speaking of you ; and be' assured you were not for
gotten by iis in our prayers. I hope you think of me in
yours, as nobody wants it more than she who is, with the
highest esteem, dear Madam,
"Your affectionate friend and humble servant,
" Nano Nagle.
" We all unite in begging you will be so good as to
present our best compliments to Miss Corballis.
" P. S. — It gave us all a vast deal of trouble to hear
that you have been ill since you went to Dublin'. I hope
it was not owing to any cold you got on the road. I had
a letter from my sister since I wrote this letter. . . .
She does not mention one word about what you wrote to
Miss Bellew, nor what I wrote myself to her, only that she
had received all the letters I wrote to her. As she was
not there near as soon as I expected, she got a good many

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits 1 1 3
from me. It was the day after her daughter's arrival I
heard from her ; and she tells me they all dined at Sir
Patrick's, where there was a great deal of company. It
was from there she wrote to me, by which I can imagine
the hurry she was in, and not having an opportunity to
speak about your affair prevented her from saying any
thing of it to me. In my answer I begged she would use
all her influence with the lady, which I am sure she will.
I hope in her next I shall have some account of what will
be done. Adieu."*
On Miss .Mullaly's return from Cork, after having
obtained a promise of assistance and co-operation from
Miss Nagle and her community, she applied for funds to
some of the leading Catholic families of the kingdom ;
nor was her appeal unsuccessful. All responded gene
rously, but amongst the most generous were Mrs. Coppin
ger, aunt to Sir Patrick Bellew, Mrs. Shea, and Mr. Bray,
agent to the- Butler family. Miss Mullaly, and her cousin,
having by their own industry realised a considerable sum
of money, handed it over for the purposes of the new
Institute, so that in the year 1788 the foundress was able
to conclude the purchase of the ground, and a deed was
signed making her the owner of the property, which had
formerly belonged to Messrs. William Lyster and Peter
Holmes. These gentlemen having become bankrupts,
Miss Mullaly paid in the amount of purchase-money to
Mr. Simpson, her solicitor, on the 20th of August, 1788.
On this occasion a remarkable interposition of Providence
was manifested in favour of Miss Mullaly's charitable de
signs. The gentleman to whom Mr. Simpson gave the
* Copied from the original, in the archives, Presentation Convent,
George'S-hill, Dublin. I

114 Nano Nagle t
money having been summoned on urgent business to the
country could not delay to give a receipt ; but Mr. Simp
son, knowing him to be a highly honourable man, did not
feel the slightest uneasiness, as to the result. On the
evening of the very same day the gentleman to whom the
money had been paid was struck down by an attack of
apoplexy. By the merest accident, Mr. Simpson had heard
of the sad intelligence; and, having posted with all de
spatch to where the gentleman lay ill, arrived just in time
to have the receipt signed by himself before his death. If
Providence had not thus singularly interfered, many long
years would, in all probability, have passed by, before the
poor of Dublin would have enjoyed the blessings conferred
by the Presentation Order. Miss Mullaly lost not a moment
in setting about her great work. The site was at once pre
pared for the new convent, and the first stone was laid on
October 1 5th, the Feast of St. Teresa, by Rev. Joseph Glynn,'
god-son to Miss Mullaly. The building was soon com
pleted, and on August 10th, 1789, Miss Mullaly, Miss
Corballis, and Miss Clinch, came to reside in the new
house, where they were soon after joined by a pious old
lady — Mrs. Toole. Apart from their private devotions,
they here employed their time in the instruction of a
number of poor children, whom they sent to daily, Mass in
the little neighbouring chapel of Mary's-Jane.
Meanwhile, the holy foundress was engaged in, seeking
desirable subjects to commence the foundation, and her
efforts in this direction were blessed by God. The first
to offer herself was Miss Fanny Doyle, Dunshangly Castle,
and her example was immediately followed by a Miss .
Murpby. Both aspirants were accompanied by Miss
Mullaly to Cork, for the purpose of commencing their
noviceship ; but the duties of the institute being too severe
for Miss Murphy's constitution, she returned immediately

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 1 5
and entered Sienna convent, Drogheda, where she died a
professed nun. Miss Doran was then sent on to Cork,
where, together with Miss Doyle, she received the religious
habit on January 3rd, 1793. Both made their profession
on 28th April, 1794 ; but they continued, to reside in Cork
until the following August, when they returned to George's-
hill, to begin their labours for God's poor.
Some letters are still preserved which were written to
Miss Mullaly by Dr. Moylan — by the superioress in Cork,
and by others, which prove the exalted opinion all had
formed of the newly-professed sisters of the Dublin Foun
dation. The following letter from Dr. Moylan will be read with
interest, not only because of the testimony it renders to the
worth of the first members of the convent at George's-
hill, but also because it recounts some of the difficulties
which the Presentation Order experienced in making pro
vision for its first foundations. The letter is addressed to
Miss Mullaly. " Cork, 26th June, 17947
"Dear Madam — I received your favour of the 7th,
and beg leave to assure you of every good wish of my
heart for the success of your new establishment, and that
I shall be always happy to contribute- everything in my
power to forward an object of so much importance to re
ligion. The two sisters who have been lately professed
for it seem blessed with the spirit of the institute, and
will, I trust in the Lord, answer your expectations. It
were, indeed, to be wished that they had a little more
experience ; but, our worthy friend, Mr. Mulcaile's en
lightened direction, with your good advice and example,
will, under God, supply whatever might be deficient.
Whenever you may deem it expedient, they will be pre-
1 2

116 i Nano Nagle:
pared to set off and attend your call. I would, however,
recommend their remaining here until after the annual
retreat in the beginning of August.
" Be assured it would be the highest satisfaction to me
to send with them an experienced sister. I know how advan
tageous it would be at the commencement of this chari
table establishment ; but circumstanced as our house here
is at present, I don't see it possible. Mrs. Tobin, by what
the sisters assure, and, indeed, I feel convinced of it,
cannot be spared from the office she now fills ; besides, the
weakness of her constitution would render her by no means
suited to so arduous a task. Were the strength of her
body equal to the vigour of her mind and to the virtuous
quality of her heart no onewould be better fitted for the
undertaking. Mrs. Lane, now at Killarney, is the person
I had in view to send with the two sisters. She was to
have returned this month ; but as Miss Conway, who was
received for the foundation in Killarney, and was to'replace
her, thought proper to quit the institute before the time
of her profession it will be impossible to remove Mrs^
Lane until we can send another subject in her place. This
we cannot do until next summer, as the person now pre
paring for it will not be professed until then. This is a
disappointment we did not foresee. But God's will be
done! "I shall abridge, according to your wishes, the time of
postulation and probation of the two you purpose sending
down, and by the time they will have finished their course
here, we shall be able to send Mrs. Lane with them, or
some time before if it be deemed necessary. You may
depend on every exertion in my power to promote your
pious views in regard to your infant establishment — it's
the work of God, and He will in His own time consolidate
and perfect it. I shall soon send an account to Rome of

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 1 7
the progress of the Institute, arfd will profit of the occa
sion to supplicate for what you have so much at heart, anjl
to call for the indulgences you wish for on the Feasts of
St. Francis Xavier and St. Teresa.
I request you'll present my respects to my most honoured
confrere and friend, Doctor Troy, and my affectionate salutes
to Mr. Mulcaile. I beg you will both remember me before
the Lord ; and believe me to be, with every good wish for
your happiness,
" Dear Madam, your affectionate in Christ,
"And most humble servant,
" 4. F. Moylan*
" To Miss Mullaly,
" George' s-hill, Dublin."
In the foregoing letter Most Rev. Dr. Moylan alludes
to two new postulants whom Miss Mullaly was about send
ing to Cork, and in whose favour he was prepared, at Miss
Mullaly's request, to shorten the usual time of probation.
These ladies were Miss Judith Clinch and Miss Clare
Biggar, who proceeded to Cork in the same coach which
had brought the professed sisters to Dublin, and entered
the mother house on September 9th, 1794. They received
the religious habit there on the 9th December in the same
year; and, having been professed on 25th January, 1796,-
returned to George's-hill in the following month.
"The Presentation Order of nuns having now been fairly
started in Dublin by the efforts of a humble, unpretending
woman — Miss Mullaly, the Nano Nagle of the metropolis,
she determined on devoting the remainder of her days to her
* Copied from the original in the archives, Presentation Convent,
George's-hill, Dublin.

1 1 8 Nano Nagle :
own individual sanctification, and for this purpose re
tired, with Mrs. Toole and'Miss Corballis, to an orphan
age which she had built near the convent, and which still
happily exists to bear witness to her charity and her zeal.
Need we say that the nuns would have made great sacri
fices to keep their holy foundress under their roof ? But
she would not listen to any such proposal. In her abject
humility she deemed herself not only unworthy to assume
the religious habit, but even to dwell within the same
walls which sheltered the spouses of her Lord. But, as
in the case of Miss Nagle and the Ursulines, Miss Mullaly
was ever deeply attached to her community, and even
continued to manage their temporal affairs. She also
joined them regularly during their recreation hours, and
on these occasions she was always most cheerful and edify
ing in her conversation. One of the maxims which she
constantly repeated was, " My child, make your election
sure ;" a maxim which was borne out in her own life of
pious humble toil.
Towards the end of the year 1802, her health began to
decline, and because she did not suffer from any settled
form of, disease, neither she nor her friends thought
it necessary to look for medical advice. On the 9th
of February, 1803-, she received the last rites of the Church
with marked piety and resignation, and after the Holy
Viaticum had been administered she asked Sister Mary
Clare Doyle to read aloud her thanksgiving. On the
evening of the same day, surrounded by her weeping com
munity, she surrendered her pure soul into her Maker's
hands. Such was the life, and such the death, of the.
foundress of the Presentation Order in Dublin. Except
in the mere accidental matter of birth and social position,
it would be extremely difficult to find two persons whose
lives bore a greater similarity to one another. They were

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 19
distinguished by the same charitable zeal for the poor, the
same sense of humility, the same spirit of faith, the same
strength of mind and firmness of will under trying difficul
ties, and the same self-sacrificing disinterestedness which
led them both to give their fortunes, their time, and their
life-long labours ' to the service of the poor. They are
both now dead in the body, but their spirit lives in the
hearts of their children, and their works have remained
and prospered.
The convent at George's Hill, which Miss Mullaly
founded' in so humble and unostentatious a manner, is
now a flourishing institute, with large and well-ventilated
schools, which were erected in i860. Notwithstanding
the many colonies which have gone forth from the con
vent, the community numbers in the present year (1874),
seventeen members. The number of poor children on
the school roll for the same year is 900 — the average daily '
attendance varying from five to six hundred. These chil
dren receive a sound religious and English education ;
special care being taken that not only shall the mind be
instructed, but the character of the pupils formed after a
truly Christian model. The better and more advanced
classes are taught music, drawing, and French, by secular
teachers who have been previously trained by the nuns.
All the pupils are taught plain and fancy needlework.
The orphanage erected by Miss Mullaly still exists and
flourishes. The inmates were formerly employed in plain
needlework and in the manufacture of gloves and lace,
which they brought to great perfection. This institution
is, however, principally devoted at present to the reception
and education of the children of respectable parents who
have met with reverses of fortune. On the completion of
their education some of these, through the influence of
the nuns, are provided with situations as governesses,

120 Nano Nagle :
school-teachers, shop-assistants, &c. ; while such as God
calls to a religious life are readily provided for — the home
and foreign missions having been supplied with subjects
who have become edifying and zealous members of their
respective communities, and have given such universal
satisfaction that innumerable applications for postulants
are made every day. There are forty children at present
in this orphanage. Such has been the history in the past,
and such is the condition at present, of the Presentation
Convent, George's Hill, Dublin.*
As Cork was the cradle of the Presentation Order, it
would not be unreasonable to expect that the South of
Ireland should have given most help towards its after
development and extension. Yet it was no mere pro
vincial pride (if we may call it so), but a knowledge
of the spiritual destitution of the poorer classes in
Waterford which induced the zealous and, highly-accom
plished bishop of that see — Most Rev. Dr. Hussey — to
establish a branch of Miss Nagle's institute in Waterford.
There was, perhaps, not one city in Ireland where it was
more needed. All the schools there were Protestant ;
and when children of the better class were forced, through
unavoidable circumstances, to frequent these schools,
they had to put up with the sneers of those who assumed
to be their superiors, and who lost no opportunity of dis
playing their contempt for their fellow-citizens who were
the slaves of Popish tyranny.
Dr. Hussey knew all this ; and — practical man of the
world as he was — he thought he could see his way to an easy
* As evidence of the work which this convent has been doing in the
past, and of the progress it has been making for the last fifty years,
see appendix at the end of this volume, in which are contained the
answers given in 1822 to his Majesty's Commissioners of Education ,
regarding the schools at George's Hill.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 2 1
solution of the difficulty. Miss Nagle's institute had suc
ceeded admirably in Cork ; might not the same success
attend it in Waterford ? Difficulties there would be, to be
sure ; and these neither few nor far between. But then
the personal popularity of the Catholic Bishop with, his
Protestant fellow-citizens ; the wealth, the influence, and
the high position of -many of his flock, would, as he
judged, and rightly, disarm Protestant prejudices ; and,
though objections might be made, and some difficulties,
no doubt, would have to be grappled with, the good
prelate foresaw. that these impediments would disappear
in due- time, and he concluded that at all hazards the ex
periment of introducing the nuns was worth the cost of
trying it.
Once the Bishop's wishes were known, candidates were
not wanting to carry them into execution. Three young
ladies offered themselves as aspirants to the habit of the
Presentation nun with a view to the introduction of the
order into Waterford. These were, Miss Power, of Bally-
brack (Mother de Sales), Miss Jane Power, and Miss
Molony (Mother Teresa). The two first-mentioned en
tered on their noviceship in the South Convent, Cork, in
.April,- 1795 ; received the religious habit on January 4th,
1796 ; made simple vows in January, 1798 ; and pronounced
their solemn vows (as did all the other Presentation com
munities then existing), on August 15th, 1806. Mother
Teresa Molony did not enter the noviciate until April 7th,
1797; she was received on July 18th in the same year;
and made her simple vows on July 31st, 1798. Mother
de Sales having been appointed superioress of the new
colony, the three sisters left' Cork on September 3rd,
1798, and arrived in Waterford on the 6th of the same
month. The year '98 was a troublous one in Ireland's
history, and it was more than usually troublous in the

122 Nano Nagle :
counties bordering on Waterford. We may, then, imagine
the terrors of the young nuns when they met, within about
five miles of the city, a troop of Hessians en route for
Dungarvan. The reputation of the Hessians for brutal
ruffianism was at the time noised over the island, and the
nuns would have infinitely preferred death at their sabre
points than suffer indignities which cannot be named,
but may be imagined. However, sheltered by God's pro
tecting hand, they suffered no inconvenience beyond a
little fright and a little excitement.
Arrived in Waterford, they opened their first school on
the 6th November, 1798, in a temporary building attached
to the old house of the Jesuit Fathers, which had been
placed at their disposal by Rev. John Barron, S.J., the
last of the Fathers remaining in Waterford, and who had
been up to this date doing duty in the city as an ordinary
secular priest. The first stone of a regular convent for
the nuns was not laid until March 19th, 1799, when that
ceremony was performed by Most Rev. Dr. Hussey,
assisted by Rev. John, Power, who succeeded Dr. Hussey
in the episcopate of Waterford and Lismore.
In opening the schools in Waterford, as elsewhere, the
Presentation Nuns had to struggle with the bigotry of the
ascendancy party, and in the archives of their convent there
is still preserved a document which throws some light on
the condition of Catholics towards the close of theiast cen
tury, and offers a striking contrast between the difficulties
which surrounded the first labours of the Presentation
Order, and the almost uncontrolled freedom in educational
matters which they now enjoy. The document in ques
tion is a "license" granted to the nuns to open their
schools, and is- a curious relic of the penal days.v It has
the seal of the Consistorial Court affixed, and is as fol
lows: —

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 123
" Richard, by Divine permission, Lord Bishop of Water
ford and Lismore, to our well-beloved in Christ, Miss
Eleanor Power, greeting. Whereas, you are presented to
us by the Rev. W. Keating, the Rev. John Power, and
Peter St. Leger, merchant, all of the City of Waterford,
as a fit and proper person to teach females and keep a
boarding school for the education of females in the City
of Waterford aforesaid. We, therefore, confiding as well
in the integrity of your morals and honesty of 'your life
and conversation, as in your skill and ability in instruct
ing or causing females to be instructed, do by the tenor ¦
of these presents give and grant unto you, the said Eleanor
Power, in whose fidelity we confide, full power and
authority to keep a boarding school, and perform the
office of schoolmistress, to teach and instruct, or cause to
be well and sufficiently taught and instructed, such females
of the Roman CathoHc profession of said city, as now are,
or shall hereafter be, committed to your care, strictly en
joining and earnestly recommending it to you to pay the
greatest attention, as well to the morals of such chil
dren, as to teaching them the fear of God and keeping His
•commandments. And we do by these presents inhibit all
other person or persons from teaching within the said
city without our license of faculty first to them for that
purpose granted, in pain of the law and contempt thereof.
In testimony whereof, we have caused the seal of our
Consistorial Court of Waterford and Lismore to be here
unto* affixed, this 16th day of December, in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.*
" George Fleury, Registrar.
" R. Dobbyn, Vicar-General."
[Seal.]
* Copied from the original in the archives, Presentation Convent,
Waterford.

1 24 Nano Nagle :
It must be remembered that the nuns had actually
opened school twelve months hefore the date of the
" license," from which we may fairly conclude that legal
action was contemplated on the part of the Protestants,
and that the "licence" was procured merely as a pre
cautionary measure, if possible, to avert, at all events to
mitigate, the penalties to whi6h, otherwise, the religious
might have been subjected. . In this the nuns acted with
great prudence ; for, from the concluding portion of the
document given above, it is quite evident that anybody
presuming to teach Catholic children without the per
mission of the Anglican Bishop, might, at any moment,
expect to be visited by all the penalties which the laws
allowed — and these penalties were numerous and heavy
in the extreme.
My readers. will excuse me if I give them an anecdote
further illustrative of the spirit of those days. It has been
communicated to me by my valued correspondent, Mother
M. Bernard Purcell, of Waterford, and npver did I read
anything which has given me a stronger sense of the degra
dation to which the humbler classes of the Irish Catholics
were reduced towards the close of the last century. I
shall give it in the words of Mother Mary Bernard, as
she tells the story much better than I could possibly do.
After describing the timidity of the nuns, and the caution
'with which they proceeded through fear of the Penal
Laws, she continues — "When they became somewhat
braver they wished to have the veil given to one of the
postulants with a little eclat. The spirit of the times
seemed to admit of it, and amongst those who were kind
'to them they could count some Protestants, and even some
Quakers, so they thought it would be desirable to give
them a little insight into some of our ceremonies. They,
accordingly, invited a few to witness the 'Reception;'

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 125
but the spirit of ascendancy made some of them forget
their politeness — one lady, in particular, who fancied that
her acceptance of the invitation was a great act of con
descension on her part. This lady and her party entered
the little chapel, preceded by a livery servant, who looked
as if he had been appointed to open a pew-door in some
Protestant church. The grand lady took her place beside
a humble, pious, poor woman in a hood cloak. As soon as
she perceived the social status of her neighbour, she
looked around, apparently horrified, and observing in the
chapel a military sergeant, a Catholic, who with his wife
had come to witness the ceremony, she called out at the
very top of her voice (regardless of the presence of some
priests who had entered the sanctuary in surplices, as
well as of a great concourse of laity), ' Soldier ! soldier !
you and my footman remove that person [pointing to the
poor woman with the cloak] ; if necessary use force ; and,
when you have put her out, see that you do the like to all
among the crowd in this place who wear the same garb —
they are not loyal, and cannot have come here with a good
intent." It is needless to say that the poor woman dressed
in the national garb kept her place, as she was thoroughly
entitled to do ; but the anecdote proves, nevertheless, that'
some seventy years ago the Protestants of Waterford
wouid trample on th,e necks of their Catholic fellow-
citizens — if they could.
Nevertheless, the Presentation Convent went on and
prospered — no small amount of its success being due to
the lengthened presence in the community of Mother
Teresa Molony, one of the original Foundresses. She
was truly a great woman— -a. worthy daughter of Nano
Nagle — massive in thought, of sound judgment, unpre
tending in her piety, strong in will, yet ever ready to
obey; firm, when firmness was a duty, but at all other

126 Nano Nagle :
times gentle as a babe. She lived to see her hundredth
birthday, and is the connecting link between the Water
ford community of the present and the humble institute
of well-nigh eighty years ago. The Waterford Convent
of to-day is one of the most flourishing in the order. It
was in the beginning but a confined house in a narrow
lane ; but the visitor who now seeks the children of Nano
Nagle in the "urbs intacta" will find them domiciled in
a noble building of Gothic architecture, designed by, and
erected under the superintendence of the restorer of
Gothic taste in these countries, A. Welby Pugin. There
are twenty nuns in the community, and in the present
year (1874), the average number of children attending
their schools is 284. It is not, perhaps, generally known
idaat, under God, the introduction of the Christian
Brothers into Ireland is due to the Presentation Nuns of
Waterford. Edmund Rice, the founder in Ireland of that
invaluable institute, was intimately acquainted with Mother
de Sales Power, and was from the start a staunch supporter
of her infant colony. His purse and his advice were
always at the disposal of the nuns ; he frequently visited
their schools ; and seeing the immense benefits conferred
by them on the female poor of the city, he determined to,
employ his great wealth in establishing similar schools for
boys.* Thus was Nano Nagle instrumental not only in
providing schools for the upper class of females, but also
for the poorer classes of both sexes.
The work to be done in Cork was becoming too heavy
for the nuns in Douglas-street, and all felt that a branch
of the Presentation Order was sorely needed in the
northern portion of the city. How this was effected, and
* For a short account of the Irish branch of the Christian Brothers,
see appendix at the end of this volume.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 127
with what results, it is now our pleasing duty to place
before our readers.
Miss Barbara Goold, daughter of a respectable Cork
merchant, married Connell O'Connell, Esq., M.D., who,
dying after thirty years of wedded life, left her the sole
inheretrix of his property. This pious lady, who was
childless, finding herself freed from every earthly tie, not
only retrenched all expenses necessary to her condition in
life, but retreated within the narrow limits of two small
apartments, where in earnest prayer she sought to know
God's will in her projected foundation of some institute
which should comprehend in itself the various duties of
active charity combined at the present day in the great
and widespread order of the " Sisters of Mercy." For
this purpose Mrs. O'Connell tenanted a house where some
pious ladies associated themselves with her ; but finding,
after the lapse of some time, that her scheme did not
entirely answer her expectations, she disclosed her design
to her enlightened director, Dr. Moylan.
This great and good prelate had long cherished the
desire of seeing the order of Presentation Nuns established
in the north parish ; and he seized the favourable oppor
tunity now offered him for the realization of his design.
The docile spirit of Mrs. O'Connell bowedassent to the pro
posal of her venerable bishop, and she immediately rented
a small house in the neighbourhood of the cathedral for the,
purpose of converting it into a convent. A dismal house it
was ; and the extent of ground attached was a yard of only
a few feet in length, and fewer still in width. Dr. Moylan
next looked -around for subjects qualified to undertake the
important step of a new foundation, and fixed his eyes on
Miss Margaret Fitzgerald, who had been educated in a
Carmelite convent in the city. Miss Fitzgerald had de
voted herself in a spirit of self-sacrifice to the education

128 Nano Nagle:
of her sister's three children, and thus did the Almighty
architect prepare her for the lofty edifice which he de
signed to raise through her instrumentality for "His own
glory, and the sanctification of thousands. Dr. Moylan
now proposed to her to enter the South Presentation
Convent as the first subject for the intended foundation,
and her immediate compliance with his suggestion proved
her the obedient, handmaid of the Lord. On the 2nd of
January, 1796, she entered the South Convent, and on the
20th of the same month was joined by Miss Mary Kenny,
whose spirit had been previously formed to the practice
of every virtue, under the enlightened guidance of her
director, Rev. Florence M'Carthy,»afterwards coadjutor
bishop to Most Rev. Dr. Moylan. On the 6th of July
following,, Miss Catherine O'Brien entered as the third
member for the North Establishment, and a peculiar
dignity and suavity of manner, with a mind whose saga
city, penetration, purity and integrity, raised her above
the ordinary level of her fellow-creatures, could not fail to
render her an invaluable acquisition. On the 30th of
September, in the same year, Miss Margaret Murphy con
stituted the fourth member of this rising mission; and
she, too, was an acquisition, being eminently gifted with
the spirit of zeal for the salvation of souls, and endowed
with a particular talent for the instruction of youth. After
the usual term of probation, the Misses FitzgerAld and
Kenny pronounced their vows under the names of Sisters
Mary Patrick and Mary Joseph ; and in the following year
the Misses O'Brien and Murphy made profession under
the respective names of Augustine and Teresa.
The 15th of January, 1799, was appointed for their
departure from the South Convent, and is the period from
which the establishment in Clarence -street dates its birth.
Mrs. Mary Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed superioress.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 129
Mrs. O'Connell had funded -for the support of the nuns
/"i,Soo— ;-the interest on which was supposed to meet all
their demands, so that we can easily conjecture that these
heroic missionaries must have been in want of almost the
common necessaries, and that their scanty and insufficient
revenue made them rival in poverty and' privations the
mortified daughters of St. Clare. A celebrated Cork
physician of those days — Dr. John Barry — while pro
fessionally attending Mother M. Patrick Fitzgerald in an
illness brought on by excessive fatigue and mortification,
had many opportunities of witnessing the hardships to
which the nuns were exposed ; and he once gave utterance
to this remarkable saying — " If there were but four per
sons in the world destined to inherit the kingdom of
Heaven, these would be the four religious of the North
Presentation Convent." As in the case of their Waterford
sisters, already noticed, the nuns of the North Convent
in Cork had to procure a "license" to open their school.
The following is a copy of the document : —
" Thomas, by Divine permission, Lord Bishop of Cork
and Ross, to our beloved Margaret Fitzgerald, greeting.
Whereas you are recommended to us as a proper person
to be licensed to keep a poor school in the parish of St.
Mary's, Shandon, in our diocese of Cork. We, therefore,
by these presents, give you full power and authority to
teach and instruct children in the English tongue, writing
and arithmetic, and other lawful and honest documents
allowed and approved of by the laws and statutes of this
kingdom,' within the said parish, and we appoint you a
schoolmistress within the said parish during our will and
pleasure, with all wages, stipends, salary, and other profits
and emoluments to the office of schoolmistress belonging
and appertaining ; you having first taken the oath required
K

130 , Nano Nagle :
by law as Roman Catholic in this behalf to be taken and
subscribed. All which by law you ought to subscribe.
In testimony whereof we have caused our episcopal seal
to be hereunto affixed. Dated the 14th day of November,
in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
ninety-nine.
" Thomas Gregg.*
" Thomas, Cork and Ross."
[Seal.]Notwithstanding all the precautions which had been
taken to conceal the religious character of the new insti
tute, it transpired that nuns were about fixing Jheir resi
dence in the parish of St. Mary's, Shandon; but the
special care of Divine Providence in their favour was
singularly demonstrated in the following circumstance.
A poor woman while passing through the street overheard
the words of a sheriff, who vauntingly said to another that
" he had a writ in his pocket which authorised him to
eject the nuns on the following day." The lowly instru
ment made use of for their protection hastened to Most
Rev. Dr. Moylan, who, on learning what had occurred,
took such measures that same evening as averted the
impending calamity.
The sisters worked on quietly and unostentatiously, but
- with a success almost beyond belief. They had committed
to their charge from four to five hundred poor, abandoned,
ignorant little children, not to mention a large number of
uninstructed adults, many of whom were steeped in vice.
So patent were the results of their zealous labours after a
short time, that the Very Rev. Robert M'Carthy used to
say, "It would not be good for the nuns to know the
* Copied from the original preserved in the archives of the North
Presentation Convent, Clarence-street, Cork.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 131
extent of what they are effecting." The narrow limits of
their convent obliged them to economise space ; and for
this purpose they converted the one large room of the
second story into a chapel for their religious exercises in
the morning, while it served the purposes of a schoolroom
during the day, and was utilised as a community room
throughout the evening. Every available inch of the
lower story was put in requisition for school purposes.
In the year after the arrival of the nuns (1800), Mrs.
O'Connell claimed the privilege allowed by the rules to a
foundress, and came to lodge in the convent. Here this
pious lady, emulating the recluses of the early centuries,
spent her" time in mental prayer, spiritual reading, and
the distribution of alms. The Abb6 Gauthier, a Car
thusian monk and "emigre," who was taken by the
English and imprisoned in Bandon forty-five years pre
vious, celebrated JMass every Sunday and holyday in her
oratory, and administered to her the 'Holy Communion.
Content with the ordinary fare of the community, she
received her daily portion from the nuns' refectory, and
never quitted her retreat except once in each year, when
she went to the parish church for the purpose of making
her Pascal Communion. Such was the life of this holy
woman until her death, which took place in 1806. The
only article of value in her possession at the time of her
demise was a gold watch, which she bequeathed to her
beloved foundation of the North Parish, that it might be
sold and the money applied to the use of the altar, which
up to that time could boast of no furniture beyond a pair
of plain brass candlesticks, and two small delf cream-
ewers to serve the wine and water for the Holy Sacrifice.
In 1803 the sisters of this convent determined to assume
the religious habit, which they had not hitherto wo_rn, ex
cept on special festivals ;-and it is an interesting fact in
K 2

.132 Nano Nagle :
connexion with the history of the North Convent, that
its inmates were the first to assume the full attire of the
Presentation nun, thereby setting an example which was
readily followed by the other houses of the institute.
In 1807 the community received a fresh accession to its
numbers in the person of Miss Elizabeth Jackson, a recent
convert to Catholicity, and aunt to that sterling Irishman
and truly loyal son of Holy Church, the late lamented
John Francis Maguire, M^P. In 18 10 one acre of ground
was rented in Clarence-street, and the nuns commenced •
the erection of a convent, having on hands for that pur
pose a sum of ^~8oo. As the works progressed, a debt of
£$00 was incurred, and of the many wealthy citizens then
solicited to relieve the infant community from this pressing
incumbrance the late Mr. Jeremiah Murphy — to his honour
be it recorded — came forward with the munificent donation
oi £ 1 00. A large schoolhouse had next to be erected,
for which purpose the nuns were forced to contract a heavy
loan ; but the money was judiciously expended, for it
enabled them to remove in August, 1813, from their dingy
and confined apartments in Philpot's-lane to the cheerful
and spacious convent in Clarence-street.
The community in Clarence-street numbers at present
twenty-six members, who carry on in this densely popu
lated district the work of Christian education with signal
success. The daily average attendance of pupils is over
eight hundred, the greater number of whom are located
in the magnificent infant school which was lately erected
through the. princely liberality of a citizen to supply a long-
felt want, and was opened on the 15th of January, 1872,
the seventy-third anniversary of the filiation of the North
Convent from the mother house in Douglas-street. In
the year 1855 the nuns opened a crochet and netting de
partment on a very extensive scale, and paid for several

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 133
years an average of £25 per week to a number of girls
employed in it. However, the managers of some of the
large mercantile establishments in Cork fancied that
greater 'profits would accrue to them by confining the
workers to their own immediate supervision, either in their
warehouses, or by giving contracts to trustworthy girls
who would execute the work in their own homes. These
gentlemen little thought of, and, probably, cared less for
the dangers to which those eighty or one hundred girls
would be exposed by withdrawing them from the holy and
powerful influence of the nuns, who made it a condition
that, from ten o'clock to three, the work should be done
in the industrial school, where, without at all interrupting
the daily task of embroidery and crochet work, these girls
— varying in age from ten to twenty years — received, each
day, religious instruction, had their conduct outside the
school carefully inquired into, their attendance at sacra
ments secured, and their compliance with the daily duties
of religion strictly insisted on. As would be only natural
to expect, when the children found that they could earn
as much by going direct to the warehouses, they pre
ferred visiting the shops to the inconvenient restraints of
conventual supervision, and by this means the industrial
school attached to Clarence-street Convent has gradually
come to assume a different character, the young girls at
present attending it being merely taught plain and fancy
work — an acquirement, however, which enables very many
of them to secure in after life an honest and respectable
livelihood. The diocese of Ossory was next favoured by the pre
sence of the Presentation Nuns. Towards the close of
the year 1797, Miss Isabella M'Loughlin (called in religion
Mother Mary Joseph)and Miss Catherine, Meighan (Mother
Mary De Sales), both natives of Kilkenny, and children

134 Nano Nagle:
of its most respectable inhabitants, took their places in
the coach for Cork to enter the South Convent as novices,
with the purpose of founding, subsequently, a branch of
the Presentation Order in their native city. Travelling
was not very expeditious in those days, iot the conveyance
by which they journeyed to the south, though named
" The Fly," because of its supposed swiftness, took a full
.week to accomplish the trip. Arrived in Cork, the two
young ladies immediately entered on their, holy mission,
and, after a probation of three years returned to Kilkenny
to open the new, foundation. Mr. Michael Murphy, a
wealthy citizen, gave them a house to serve as a temporary
convent ; but that the premises were neither commodious
nor suitably situated is evident from some old entries to
be found in the annals of the house. Thus, under date
January 4th, 1801, we read: "We have this day resolved
on seeking permission to throw down the cabins which
infringe so much on the garden ; also to repair the turret,
and enclose the garden from the common entrance.
The spirit which animated the Kilkenny nuns when
undertaking their great work, may be best gathered from
their own words, penned just seventy-four years ago, and
which they little fancied would ever be read by others than
members of their community :
"September 25th,- 1800 — Sisters M.Joseph M'Loughlin
and M. De Sales Meighan having, during the three years
of their probation, been taught by the instruction and ex
ample of their saintly superiors, the all-important lesson of
labouring together as one, united in heart, soul, and mutual
confidence, determined. to adhere strictly to the principle,
and, in all possible occurrences, to act in concert with
each other, keeping always in mind, as a stimulus and
support to their resolution, the words of Jesus Christ —

Her Life, her. Labours, and their Fruits. 135
' These things I command you that you love one another
as I have loved you,' for ' by this shall all men know that
you are my disciples,' and ' if you .love me you will keep
my commandments,' ' you have not chosen me, but I have
chosen you ; and have appointed you that you should go
and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain.'
. . . . ' If you abide in me, and my words abide in
you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done
to you.' Thus animated by confidence under the shield ¦
of obedience, we began the arduous work confided to us.
" First, we consecrated our community to the adorable
Trinity, and the noviceship to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St.
Joseph. We resolved to observe all the rules, ' as far as
possible,' with the same strict order and discipline as if
we had a numerous community, and determined to assimi
late ourselves ' much as we could ' to the regulations of
the Ursulines in obedience to the Holy See. We agreed,
' far as consistent,' to be always in company with each
other at private prayer, work, &c. Having found all the
house divided into cells and parlours, no provision being
made for chapel, &c, we resolved at once to ask permis
sion for the alterations necessary for regular observance.
About two hours after our arrival, being visited- by the
bishop, Right Rev. Dr. James Lanigan, we presented our
request, &c."
On the 27th of October, 1800, the Kilkenny nuns opened
their schools, but as the community was so very small they
resolved not to admit more than sixty pupils, and none
under the age of ten years. It is not difficult to imagine
how terribly overworked these two poor sisters must have
been, who, in addition to their private devotions, and a
large share of household work, had to instruct sixty poor

136 Nano Nagle:
children ; but that they have long since received the only
reward which they coveted, we have not the smallest doubt.
We are ever hearing from the Newdegates and Whalleys
of the selfishness and cunning of nuns. In glancing over
the annals of the Presentation Convent, Kilkenny, an
entry attracted our attention which shows that after all
nuns can be dead to all personal feelings, and are pre
pared to make sacrifices, however painful, if they can only
serve thereby the cause of religion. The entry to which
we allude is dated August 10th, 1801 : — "A request being
made by our sisters of the Presentation Convent, George's
Hill, Dublin, to admit for a few months Sister Mary Teresa
Bigger, a novice in the white veil who was ordered change
of air for recovery of health, we accede to the proposal
with the permission of the bishop." It must have been a
singularly fortunate occurrence for the two over-worked
sisters at Kilkenny to secure the assistance even of an
invalid ; much more fortunate would it have been had she
remained with them after the recovery of her health, but
loyalty towards their sisters in Dublin would forbid this,
and in the Kilkenny annals, November 7th, 1801, we find
the following entry, " Sister Mary Teresa Bigger, having
wonderfully recovered her health, and feeling perfectly
happy, proposes to remain a subject of this house ; but
we, thinking it would be an injustice towards the com
munity who sent her to us for the benefit of health, refuse
to accede to the proposal, though by doing so we feel we
renounce a treasure in every respect; and we agree that
whilst we live, and have influence in this community, no
sister shall ever be allowed to remain who entered for
another house."
Such disinterested sisterly love deserved God's blessing;
and that blessing came. The mustard seed sown in the
old city of Saint Canice grew to be a great tree until its

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 137
branches spread not only throughout Ireland, but even
across the prairies of America to the shores of the Pacific ;
and it can now number among its filiations the convents
of Carlow, Galway, Thurles, Wexford, Maryborough, Castle-
comer, Mouncoin, Enniscorthy, Portarlington, and San Fran
cisco, not to mention the number of subjects who served
their noviceship in Kilkenny for the purpose of assisting
in the establishment of branches of the order elsewhere.
Notwithstanding this unprecedented demand on their
resources, the Presentation Order flourishes in the city by
the Nore. The community numbers in the present year
twenty-one members, and the schools have a daily average
attendance of 300 pupils, many of whom are supplied by
the nuns with food and raiment.
We must here interrupt our narrative of the progress
which Miss Nagle's institute was making throughout Ire
land in order to chronicle a most important event in its
history — its elevation to the rank of a religious order.

138 Nano Nagle .

CHAPTER XIII.
Dr. Moylan is anxious that the Presentation Institute should be raised
to the rank of a Religious Order. — Difficulties and Delays. — Two
Letters of Father Laurence Callanan to Miss Mullaly. — Brief
Pope Pius VII. confirming the New Rules of the Presentation
Nuns, and elevating their Institute to the Dignity of a Religious.
Order.
The Most Rev. Dr. Moylan had long determined with
himself that in due time Miss Nagle's institute for the in
struction of poor children should bd elevated to the rank
of a religious order. This could be readily accomplished
if the nuns would adopt the system of enclosure; but, as,.
in the opinion of many, this might limit the sphere of
their usefulness in a country situated as Ireland then was,.
it formed the subject of a lengthened correspondence be
tween the Holy See and Most Rev. Dr. Moylan. Miss
Nagle's original intention was that her spiritual, children
should not only instruct the poor, but should also discharge
the other corporal works of mercy which are now the
special care of the Sisters of Charily and the Sisters of
Our Lady of Mercy. The Holy See, on the other hand,
was slow in recognising the new institute as a regular
order of the Church unless the religious would submit
themselves to the discipline of " enclosure." The con
troversy, if it can be termed such, was a prolonged one,
as may be judged from the dates of the following commu
nications from Father Callanan of Cork (who eventually
drew up the rules), to Miss Mullaly. - "Cork, October 28, 1788.
" Madam — I have been favoured with yours of the 21st
inst. in due course, but deferred answering till I could

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1397
give you an account of Miss Kelly's reception, which took
place, yesterday. She would have been received to the
habit before, but that Dr. Moylan had been to Bath for
the establishment of his health, whence he returned lately,
and appointed the first convenient day for the ceremony.
"He performed it in his Pontificals with all solemnity,
after a sermon suitable to the occasion had been preached.
He has the institute so much at heart that he would spare
no efforts to promote its success, for he, every day, ex
periences its great utility to the cause of religion. It was
for this reason that Miss Kelly's reception was put off
until his return from England.
"He has received a highly flattering answer from, the
Holy Congregation expressing how much they were edi
fied by the letter written them relative to the institute ;
they wish its establishment, but require that the constitu
tions be sent them for their approbation. The only diffi
culty they make is that the Holy See is not accustomed to-
approve of religious congregations of women uncloistered. But
''tis hoped that this will be done away by further reasons
which will be offered in a letter that I believe will be sent
them in a little time.
"Dr. Moylan intends writing this day to Dr. Troy, if he
has leisure ; he told me so last night. Your subject joins
the rest of the ladies in presenting best respects. She
enjoys good health, and has vast zeal for this holy and
most usefulinstitution. I pray you to give my best com
pliments to the worthy Mr. Mulcaije, and believe me,
" With great esteem, Madam,
"Your most obedient and humble servant,
" Brother Laurence Callanan.*

* Copied from the original in the archives, George's-hill Convent,
Dublin.

140 Nano Nagle:
The second letter is dated three years later, and is as
follows : — " Cork, October 1, 1791.
" Madam — Cm receipt of your late favour, I waited on
Dr. Moylan and Mrs. Collins to notify your wishes. They
are, be assured, very zealous for the propagation of the
holy and meritorious institute ; but present circumstances
will by no means admit their sending a subject to Dublin
so soon as you expect. . . . The confirmation of the
institute has not yet arrived. The agent frequently wrote
that the Pontiff and cardinals could scarcely1 attend to
anything but the distracted affairs of France ; but in a
letter received about six weeks ago, he mentioned that
the rule had at length received the necessary approbation,*
and that in a few posts he would send it forward. How
ever, we are yet obliged to wait in anxious expectancy.
Dr. Moylan told me on last Monday, he would write to
Rome to urge the expediting of it. As soon as it arrives
I will with pleasure give you immediate information. . .
"I am, &c. &c,
" Laurence Callanan."!
The correspondence between the " Propaganda " and
Dr. Moylan having lasted for a number of years, the latter
saw that the Holy See was inexorable on the subject of
" enclosure ;" and that the constitutions of the new insti
tute would have to be remodelled before the Sovereign
Pontiff would consent to elevate the Presentation Nuns to
the rank of a religious order. The zealous prelate accord
ingly commissioned the Rev. Laurence Callanan, a
Capuchin friar, residing in the convent of his order in
* This refers to the rule confirmed by Pius VI., when the institute
was not as yet raised to the dignity of an Order, and when the obliga
tion of " enclosure " was not enforced.
f Copied from the original in the archives, George's-hill, Dublin.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 141
Broad-lane, Cork,* to draw up a code of rules based c>n
the constitutions of the Ursulines, and conformable to the
views of the Apostolic See in regard to the establishment
of the new order. This task Father Callanan accomplished
with singular prudence ; and after submitting the result of
his labours to his ordinary and some other Irish bishops
who were more immediately interested in Miss Nagle's
work, the rules were forwarded to Rome with the follow
ing recommendation : —
" We, the undersigned, approve of the- foregoing rules
and constitutions.
" «J« Richard O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, &c.
•[• John Thomas Troy, Archbishop of Dublin, &c.
•J* Thomas Bray, Archbishop of Cashel, &c.
•J* Edward Dillon, Archbishop of Tuam, &c.
•J* James Caulfield, Bishop of Ferns.
•J« James Lanigan, Bishop of Ossory.
•J* Charles Sughrue, Bishop of Kerry."
After mature deliberation, the rules received the sanction
of the Holy See, and Dr. Moylan had the dearest wishjof
his heart gratified in receiving from the Supreme Pontiff,
Pius VII., the following brief, dated April 9, 1805 : —
* The Rev. Laurence Callanan was born in Cork in 1739; and
having joined the Franciscan Order, pursued his studies at the Con
vent of Saint Anthony, in Louvain. He is represented as a man pos
sessed of profound theological acquirements, but more remarkable still
for his piety, amiability, and unostentatious charity. The rules which
he drew up for the nuns of the Presentation Order are a lasting monu
ment to his good sense and prudence. During life he was intimately
associated with some of the most distinguished men of his day — fore
most among them being the celebrated Father Arthur O'Leary.
Father Callanan died in Cork on January 29th, 1818, aged 80 years.

142 Nano Nagle :
" To our Venerable Brother, Francis, Bishop of Cork.
" Pope Pius Vlf .
"Venerable Brother, Health and Apostolic
Benediction. — The care of the Pastoral Office committed
to us from above, which extends to the entire flock of our
Lord, requires most particularly of us sedulously to listen
to the voice of the pastors, who implore the assistance of
the Apostolic See, iii order to revive and promote Christian
piety in their flocks, and effectually to unite our exertions
with their zeal.
"It having, therefore, been represented to. us in your
name, that Honora Nagle, an opulent and noble lady of
the kingdom of Ireland, did employ her fortune in found
ing houses for the purpose of receiving pious virgins, who
are desirous of devoting themselves to the laborious duty
of instructing young girls, especially the poor, in the rudi
ments of the Catholic faith, and in different works suitable
to their station, and likewise visiting sick females in the
public infirmaries, and administering to them spiritual and
temporal relief:
" And, whereas some have already joined this charitable
institution, and many more have shown an earnest desire
of embracing the same, if it should be approved of by the
Apostolic See ; and, whereas our late predecessor, Pius
VI. (principally induced by the weight of your postulation),
granted to you by his apostolical letters, expedited in form
of brief, on the third day of September, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-one, with the advice of our ve
nerable brethren, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Ca
tholic Church, charged with the affairs concerning the
propagation of the faith, the faculty of erecting, not only
in the city of Cork, but also in other towns, cities, and
places in Ireland (having, however, on all occasions, ob
tained the consent of the ordinaries of the different dio-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 143
ceses), houses, and forming them into communities for
the reception of pious virgins, who are desirous of employ
ing themselves in the aforesaid works of charity, and who,
after completing the time of their probation, are to make
simple vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and so-
forth, as is more fully contained in the said letters, the
tenor of which we will to be understood as fully and suffi
ciently expressed, in these presents.
"Wonderful, indeed, does the rapid and successful in
crease of that institute appear after receiving the aposto
lical approbation, and not less so the multiplied and abun
dant fruits it has produced wherever established, since it
flourishes now not only in the city of Cork, but has ex-
- tended itself also to the cities of Dublin, Kilkenny, and
the town of Killarney.
"But what is of still greater consequence, not only
young girls, but also the adult and married women fre
quent these communities, to learn what they are generally
ignorant of — the principles of faith and of morals ; inso
much, that the pious virgins already professing that insti
tute have rejoiced at the visible increase of religion, and
being more anxiously desirous of its further progress,
unanimously and earnestly have solicited to be converted
into real religious, and to be consecrated by solemn vows
for the education and, instruction of females, ' particularly
the poor, which consecration, it appears to you, would
tend considerably to the stability and perfection of this
institution, and contribute also to fix therein with greater
attachment those virgins so animated with zeal for the
glory of God.
" Whereas the said Pius, our predecessor, in order that
the virgins might with greater alacrity of spirit embrace
their duties, did most abundantly impart to them all the
indulgences and spiritual favours already granted to the

144 Nano Nagle:
religious of the Order of St. Ursula, and to their churches
and convents, and did impose on you the obligation of
composing for the said virgins constitutions and rules
similar to those of the institution of St. Ursula, and ac
cording to the instructions of the said Cardinals de Propa
ganda Fide, which constitutions and rules having been
now completed by you, with the utmost care, and corro
borated by the weighty suffrages of other ordinaries of that
kingdom ; and after having, morever, been with mature
deliberation most minutely examined by the aforesaid
cardinals, have lately been laid before usof the following
tenor : (Here follow the rules of the Presentation Order.)
" Whereupon you have humbly prayed us to approve these
rules, and to grant through our apostolical benignity, to
the said virgins, the favour of being henceforth transferred
from the state of members of a simple congregation to that
of a real religious, under the title and invocation of the Pre
sentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We, therefore, desirous
of seconding your zeal, and the wishes of the aforemen
tioned virgins, in a matter that so nearly regards the glory
of God, and the increase of religion ; willing also to confer
on you and them our special favours and graces, and by
these presents absolving each and every one of them, and
considering them absolved, for the purpose only of obtain
ing the effect of these said presents, from all and every tie
of excommunication, suspension, and interdict, and from
all other sentences, censures, and penalties, if by any way
whatever they may have incurred the same, whether ex
pressed in the law» or pronounced by an ecclesiastical ¦
judge on any occasion or account whatsoever ; disposed
and inclined in favour of the above petitions by and with
the advice of the aforesaid cardinals, we approve by our

Her Life, Her Labours, and their Fruits. 145
apostolical authority, in virtue of these presents, the pre-
inserted Constitutions or Rules, together with all and
everything contained therein ; We consider and declare
them ratified and valid, and superadd to them the force of
perpetual and iaviolable stability. And if any defect of
law or fact should by any means be found in them, We
fully repair and supply it. Next, by the authority and
tenor aforesaid, we consent and grant to the now-existing
afore-mentioned virgins and to all future ones, that they
may and can,- on the expiration of the time of probation,
having observed, all that is otherwise to be observed,
freely be admitted to the Solemn Profession of Religious
Vows, with the addition of a fourth, namely, that of edu
cating and instructing young girls, especially the poor, in
the precepts and rudiments of the Catholic Faith : in such
wise, nevertheless, as that they may be obliged in future
to live under the aforesaid Rules and Constitutions, to be
subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, to observe the
laws of enclosure, and therefore never by any means to
pass the limits of the Monastery, except for the most
weighty reasons, expressed in the constitutions, and sanc
tioned by the Canon Law.
" For which reason, as far as it may be necessary,' We
expressly dispense with the obligation, before meptioned,
by visiting sick women in the Infirmaries, and, in this
pointy We absolutely derogate, and declare We have dero
gated, from the letters of our Predecessor, these said
letters or any others to the contrary notwithstand
ing. Moreover, We confirm by the aforesaid Authority
all the Indulgences and spiritual favours granted to this
pious Institution by our said Predecessor.
" Given at Rome, by our special command, under the
Fisherman's Ring, the ninth day of April, one thousand
L

146 Nano Nagle:
eight hundred and five, and in the sixth year of our Pon
tificate. " For Cardinal Braschi Onesti,
"G. Berni, Substitute."
The rules to which allusion is made in the brief just
cited, and which, as we have already said, were drawn up
by Father Callanan after the model of the Ursuline con
stitutions, are divided into two parts, each part being
subdivided into several chapters. The first part contains
twenty chapters, and treats of the end proposed to itself by
the congregation ; the schools; the vows in general ; chastity ; the
vow of obedience ; the enclosure; the reception of postulants, and
their admission to 'the religious habit and profession ; the
office and mental prayer ; the annual spiritual retreat and
renewal of vows; confession and communion; silence; em
ployment of time; fasting and abstinence; humility ; sisterly
charity ; sisterly correction ; the perfection of their ordinary
actions ; and the intention which ought to guide the sisters
in their performance ; the cares of the sick, and prayers
for the dead ; the refectory, and the order of the daily
exercises. 1,
The second part of the rules contains twelve chapters,
which treat of the annual episcopal visitation of the con
vents ; of the election of the superior ; of the duties of the
superior; of the duties of the mother assistant; of the
bursar's duties ; of the duties of the mistress of novices; of
the " discreets," and their duties; of capitular meetings;
of devotion to the Passion of our Lord ; and to the Blessed
Eucharist ; of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and
the other saints; of Ihe convent registries; and of new
foundations. The contents of many of those chapters, though calcu
lated to edify all, would prove of slight interest to many

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 147
*
of our readers. We shall, therefore, content ourselves
with placing before the public such parts only of the rule
aS are generally interesting ; and this we do, not to gratify
any mere vulgar curiosity, but that the outside world may
know what manner of persons nuns are — the work they
do, and how, and in what spirit they do it. This we must,
however, reserve for the next chapter.

L 1

148 Nano Nagle

CHAPTER XIV.
Some Rules of the Presentation Order  The Nature and Spirit of the
Institute. — Rules for the Guidance of the Nuns in the Manage
ment of their Schools. — Rules regulating the Admission of .
Postulants, their Reception and Profession  Formof Govern
ment established in the Order, and Method followed in electing
the Superioress.
As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the Holy See
would not confirm the constitutions of the Presentation
Order until it had given them long and most anxious con
sideration ; and as nothing can convey such an accurate
idea of the nature and spirit of any religious order as the
examination of the rules by which its members are directed,
we purpose laying before our readers, in this chapter,
some of the most interesting regulations sanctioned by
the Holy See for the guidance of the Presentation Nuns.
The first chapter of the rules explains the general scope
of the congregation, and is as follows : —
" 1 . The Sisters admitted into this Religious Congrega
tion, besides the principal and general end of all Religious
Orders, such as particularly attending to the perfecting of
themselves in the way of the Lord, must also have in view
what is peculiarly characteristic of this Institute, that is,
a most serious application to the Instruction of poor
female children in the principles of Religion and Christian
Piety. In undertaking this very arduous but meritorious
task, the Sisters, whom God is graciously pleased to call
to the state of perfection, shall encourage themselves and
animate their fervour and zeal by the example of their

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 149
Divine Master, who testified on all occasions a tender love
for little children, expressed the greatest pleasure on their
approaching Him, and declared that Whosoever receivetA
these little ones in His name receiveih Himself. They shall
also consider, that in cultivating the tender minds of
young children, by impressing on them a horror for vice
and the love of virtue, and by instructing them in the
duties of Religion they are associated to the functions of
those heavenly spirits whom God has appointed Guardian
Angels to watch over and direct them in the ways of
eternal salvation.
" 2. It is a duty incumbent on the Sisters to teach the
Children, daily, the Catechism, which they shall explain to
them briefly and simply, adapting their language to the
age and capacity of the children. They shall be cautious
not to propose anything abstruse, that might embarrass
themselves or th&^children.
" They shall accustom them to think and speak reverently
of God and of holy things, and not allow them to be over
curious in their questions, but constantly exhort them to
captivate their understanding in obedience to faith ; and to
keep their minds always disposed to receive instruction
from those whom Christ has appointed to rule the Church
of God,.which He purchased with His blood.
" 3. They shall teach the children to offer themselves
up to God from the first use of reason, and when they
awake in the morning to raise up their hearts to Him,
adore His sovereign majesty, return thanks to Him for all
His favours, and arm themselves with the sign of the
cross. They shall instruct them how to offer all their
thoughts, words, and actions to God's glory, implore His
grace to know and love Him, and to fulfil His command
ments — how they are to examine their consciences every
night, and to honour and respect their parents.

150 Nano Nagle:
" 4. They shall teach them how to prepare for confes
sion, and to confess their sins with all sincerity and con
trition. They shall be ever attentive to dispose them for
the sacrament of confirmation, and for their first commu-
nion. " 5. As the] Poor are the main object and particular end
of this institute, it is hereby enacted as a statute, invio
lably to be observed, that the Sisters of this Religious Insti
tute shall admit none into their schools but poor children ;
nor can they receive money or any other temporal emolu
ment for instruction, contenting themselves with the glo
rious retribution promised to those who instruct many to
justice. " 6. Should, however, this Institute be established in
villages, or in country towns, where there are no proper
schools for the education of girls, then it may be allowed,
with the express leave and approbation of the Bishop of
the Diocese, to admit the children of easy circumstances
into their schools ; but the emolument received on those
occasions are not to be applied to the use of the sisters,
but to the relief of the poor children. If poor children
be so numerous as to require the whole attention of the
Sisters, they are not, under any pretext, to charge them
selves with the care of others. Pensioners or Lodgers,
whether young or old, shall not on any account be re
ceived into their convents, with an exception in favour of
a Foundress or a very principal Benefactress."
These extracts place before us in the clearest possible
light the objects which the Presentation Sisters propose
to themselves. They aim at educating the poor, first in
religious, and next in secular knowledge ; and this they
are bound to do gratuitously, seeking no earthly fee or
emolument, but awaiting their reward in heaven. Hence

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 151
their labours are not performed iii any servile spirit ; they
have been undertaken voluntarily, and are daily performed
in a spirit of love and self-sacrifice, sanctioned and ap
proved of by religion. Those who have had any expe
rience in the instruction of youth well know that it is
always a toilsome, and not unfrequently a thankless task.
How much more toilsome and, speaking humanly, thank
less must the dutybewhen, as inthecase of the Presentation
Nuns, the teacher's labours are confined exclusively to the
lower orders ? Most persons would shrink instinctively
from the performance of such duties ; but it is the vocation
of the daughters of Nano Nagle, and right bravely have
they been doing their holy work in quiet hamlets and in
the lanes of crowded cities for now almost a century.
The second chapter of the rules refers to "the schools,"
and informs us hew the Presentation Sisters carry on the
education of the poor. It is as follows :
" The Schoqls for the poor children shall be within the
Enclosure, and shall be proportioned to the number of
Religious capable of attending, without too much over
charging or distressing themselves.
" 2. The Sisters appointed by the Mother* Superior to
attend the schools shall, with all zeal, charity and humi
lity, purity of intention, and confidence in God, undertake
the charge, and cheerfully submit to every labour and fa
tigue annexed thereto, mindful ¦ of their vocation and of
the glorious recompense attached to the faithful discharge
of their duty.
" 3. When the Mistresses enter the Schools they shall
raise up their hearts to God, and to the Queen of Heaven,
and then salute with all reverence, interiorly, the Guardian
Angels of the children, recommending themselves and the
dear little ones to their care and protection. They shall

152 Nano Nagle:
endeavour to inspire with a sincere devotion to the Passion
of Jesus Christ, to His real presence in the Most Holy
Sacrament, to the Immaculate Mother of God, and to
their Guardian Angels.
"4. The Scholars in each School shall be divided into
Classes of ten or twelve, according to their total number,
and over every Class the Mistress shall appoint one of the
most advanced and most regular scholars as a Superinten
dent, to watch over the others, to keep them in order,.
make them give an account of their lessons and catechism,
inform her of the absentees, and acquaint her of any im
propriety they may be guilty of, either in or out of School
"5. In each School there shall be a Book, in which the
Mistress shall register the names and ages of the children
at their entrance, the names of their parents, their occu-
pations'in life, and places of abode, and the year, month,
and day in which the children were received into the
school. " 6. The Children shall be taught reading, writing,
needlework, and spinning.* The hours of the School shall
be, in the morning from nine till twelve and a quarter;
and in the evening, from one till half-past three o'clock.
" 7. At a quarter before twelve silence shall be observed
in the School, to accustom the children to recollect them
selves in thp presence of God, and to afford the Sisters an
opportunity of making their particular examen. Then the
Angelus Domini, with the Acts of Contrition, Faith, Hope,
and Charity, shall be said. *
" 8. Half-an-hour before school breaks up in the even
ing a spiritual lecture shall be delivered tb the children
* At the time when these rules were drawn up a, spinning-wheel
formed an ordinary article of furniture in the houses of the humbler
classes. It has disappeared with the progress of the age, and, in con
sequence, the Presentation pupils are now taught other useful arts as a
substitute for the time-honoured accomplishment of spinning.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 153
out of some instructive oook, suited to their capacity, or
a meditation not too sublime for their understanding, in
order thus to forward and direct them in true and solid
piety. For this purpose such books alone shall be chosen
as shall be deemed proper, and approved of by the Ordi
nary. After which they shall say five Paters and five Aves
for the Benefactors of the Institute, with five decades of
the Rosary, or the Litany of our Blessed Lady, to recom
mend themselves to her holy protection.
" 9. The Schools shall be kept as clean and as airy as
possible. The Mother Superior, or her Assistant, shall
visit them at least once a Week.
" 10. There shall be Vacation from the schools on all
Saturdays ; and from the feast of our Blessed Lady of
Mount Carmel until the Monday after the Octave bf the
Feast of her Assumption ; and from the 20th day of De
cember until the Monday immediately after New Year's
Day ; and from Wednesday in Holy Week until the Mon
day after Low Sunday ; on every holiday of obligation ; and
on the eve and feast of the Presentation of our Blessed
Lady.* " u. On the days of Vacation, and whenever the sisters
are disengaged from the schools, they shall' be always
ready to instruct such poor, ignorant women as may be
recommended to them by the Parochial Clergy in their
prayers and the principal mysteries of Religion ; in the
Commandments of God and of His Church ; in the Acts of
Contrition, Faith, Hope, and Charity ; and in the neces
sary dispositions for a good confession and a worthy com
munion." * Some Irish bishops, feeling it inconvenient that the long vacation
should take place in the summer months, applied to, the Holy See for
permission to change it to the winter months instead. The late Most
Rev. Dr. Keane sought for and obtained such permission in the case
of convents in his diocese of Cloyne.

154 Nano Nagle:
It is, unfortunately, an idea too prevalent among non-
Catholics, that nuns embrace the religious life in a moment
of impulse — before they haye had time to know their own
minds, or to understand the duties they may be called upon
to discharge. We need offer no apology, therefore, for
placing before our readers the seventh chapter of the
Presentation Constitution, which treats of the Reception of
Postulants, their Admission to the Habit, and Religious Pro
fession. We add also the form of the act of profession :
"i. Such as desire to enter into this Religious Order
shall be previously examined with respect to their Vocation
by the Bishop, or Priest delegated by him, and by the
Mother Superior, the Assistant, and Mistress of Novices.
If approved of they shall be received postulants. For the
six months of their Postulation they shall attend the schools
every day for three hours ; the remainder of the time they
shall employ in spiritual exercises, and in learning such
things as may qualify them for the functions of the Insti
tute, according as the Mother Superior and Mistress of the
Novices shall direct.
" 2. If their conduct during this time be truly humble,
and conformable to the spirit of the institute, they shall
be allowed to solicit in Chapter the Religious Habit. And
if the majority of votes, which must be secret, be in their
favour, they shall be admitted to it, and begin their Novi
ciate, provided they be of sufficient age.
" 3. The time of their Noviciate shall continue two en
tire years. (The Bishop can, however, in extraordinary
cases, reduce it to one year.) The first six months shall
be employed chiefly in spiritual exercises and in the study
of the duties and functions of the Institute. They shall
afterwards attend more closely to the schools and to the
instruction of the poor children. Two months before the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fritits. 155
expiration of the period of their probation they shall, with
the permission ofthe Mother Superior, present their request
in Chapter to be received to Profession. If the Chapter
accede thereto, a scrutiny shall be made with white and
black beans, and if the majority of the votes shall be in
their favour, they shall spend- the remainder of the time of
their Probation, as circumstances may allow, in prayer and
other spiritual exercises.
" 4. As many- shall be received on the establishment as
the funds shall admit of, and no more, unless the subject
brings with her a sufficient dower for her support in every
necessary. "5. None shall be received who are subject to the falling
sickness, or any contagious disorder, or who labours under
any infirmity of body or mind, that might disqualify them
for the duties of the Institute.
" 6. The young Professed shall remain under the direc
tion ofthe Mistress of Novices for two years, without either
active or passive vote, except for the first seven professed
in each house, who shall have both active and passive
vote immediately on their profession."
Form of the Act of Profession.
"In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
and under the protection of His immaculate mother, Mary
ever Virgin, I, Sister N. N., called in religion N. N., do
vow and promise to God, poverty, chastity, and obedience,
and to persevere, until the end of .my life, in this institute,
for the charitable instruction of poor girls in this en
closure, according to the rules and constitutions of this
congregation of the Presentation of our Blessed Lady,
approved of and confirmed by the apostolical authority of
our Holy Father, Pope Pius VII., under the authority,
and in the presence of you, my lord, Right Reverend

156 Nano Nagle:
Father in God, N. N., Bishop of N. N. (or in presence of
the priest who officiates by the appointment of the bishop),
and of our reverend mother, Sister N. N., called in religion
N. N., superioress of this Convent of the Presentation. —
In the year of our Lord, N. N.
" N.B.— Should the Mother Superior, through sickness,
not attend, instead of naming her, they shall name the
Assistant." The government of the Presentation Order is in its
nature strictly republican — the superioress being elected
for a limited period by the free and secret votes of the
community. The rules regulating the election of the
superioress are interesting (part ii., cap. 2) : —
"1. A Superioress shall be elected from among the
Vocals, distinguished for her virtue, prudence, and dis
cretion. She shall be at least thirty years old, and of five
years' profession (except in new establishments), and must
have the majority of votes for the validity of her election.
"2. The Superioress canonically elected shall govern
for three years. She can with the approbation and con
sent of the Bishop be re-elected, and confirmed for three
years more, after which another Superioress shall be
elected. In new Establishments or Foundations, the first
Superioress shall continue for six years, unless there be
canonical reasons for her being removed from her office
during that time. The six years of her government ex
pired, a new Superioress shall be elected.
"3.. On the Saturday immediately after the feast of the
Ascension of our Lord, the Chapter shall assemble in the
chapel in presence of the Bishop, or his delegate, at an
appointed hour. The Mother Superior shall then resign
her office into his hands, who, accepting of her resigna
tion, shall dismiss her from the exercise of it, saying, We

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 157
dismiss thee, Sister N. N.,from the office of superioress of this
community, in the name of the Father,^ and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost. Amen. He will then transfer the
Superioress's authority to the Assistant, by giving her the
keys of the convent ; after which he shall exhort them all
seriously to think on a new election against the following
Thursday, that is, the octave of the Feast of the Ascension,
and to have no view in the choice they are to make but
the greater glory of God, and the good order and welfare
of the Community. They shall then repeat the hymn,
Vent Creator Spiritus, the versicle Emitte Spirilum tuum,
and the prayer Deus qui corda; with the Salve regina, and
then retire.
" 4. On the Sunday within the octave, there shall be a
General Communion for the approaching election, and
every morning after Mass, and at night after the Litany of
the Blessed Virgin, the Veni Creator shall be said to
direct the choice of the community.
"5. On Thursday, the day of the election, , Mass shall
be celebrated at seven o'clock, and a General Communion
made for this intent. At ten o'clock the election shall
begin with the hymn, Veni Creator.
" 6. The billets shall be prepared by the secretary of
the chapter, all of the same form and dimensions, and all
folded in the same manner, which shall be distributed the
day before the election among the Vocals,* each of whom
shall write down on her respective billet the name and
surname of the sister for whom she intends to vote. They
shall take care not to show their signed billets to others,
nor to intimate in any manner for whom they vote, nor be
curious to look into the billets of others.
" 7. The Bishop or delegate shall preside at the election
* Vocals are those sisters who are entitled to have a voice in the
election.

158 Nano Nagle :
with one assisting priest. The election shall be made in
the chapel.
" 8. Immediately before the election, the Sisters shall
assemble in Chapter to appoint by plurality of votes, two
Sisters to stand by the President and his Assistant, to see
each billet opened and read and to mark down the votes.
They shall take care that the Sisters come forward in due
order to give their votes. They shall never reveal, if by
the handwriting, or -by any other means, they happen to
discover for whom any sister has voted, nor the number
of votes concurring to the election, nor how many have
been given to any one, nor any other secret whatever of
the election.
" 9. If any of the Vocals be sick, and not able to go to
the chapel, the President shall depute two of the Sisters to
receive her vote, enclosed in a sealed cover, which shall
be thrown in with the others. But should she not be able
to write, the President with his Assistant shall go to the
Infirmary and receive her vote verbally, and write it down.
" 10. When all the billets are collected in the box pre
pared for the purpose, the President shall reckon them,
and if they be found more or fewer than the number of
Vocals, another scrutiny shall' be made., If they answer
the exact number, the President shall open each one, and
show it to his Assistant, and to the two Sisters deputed by
the Chapter, expressing the name and surname in a low'
voice, but so as to be distinctly heard by them. On in
specting each billet in particular, the assisting Priest shall
write down the name mentioned in it,- the same shall be
done by one of the deputed Sisters on another paper.
But should there be an equality of votes for two or more,
being the highest on the list, a new scrutiny shall be
made ; and if neither in this nor in a third, there be found
a majority of votes for one and the same person, the elec
tion shall devolve to the Bishop.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 159
"11. The billets having been duly examined," if there
appear the requisite majority in favour of any one, the
President shall call on her to come forward. Being on
her knees before him, he shall declare her canonically
elected, without mentioning the number of votes which
concurred to her election. He shall then confirm the
election, saying, We confirm this election (if a delegate pre
sides, he shall add, By the authority we have received from
our Right Rev- Father in God, N. N., Lord Bishop of this
diocese), and declare you, Sister N. N, mother and superioress
of this community , in the name of the Father,^ andof 'the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. The billets shall then be
all burned.
" 12. The Mother Superior, being thus confirmed, shall
take her place as superior. The bell shall then be rung
to announce the election, and all the Sisters, one after the
other, according to seniority in the Order, shall on their
knees kiss her hand. In the meantime the Ave Maria
Stella shall be sung, with the psalm Laudate Dominum
Omnes Gentes. This done, the Assistant shall write down
the day of the election, and the act shall be signed by the
President. "13. The Mother Superior, thus elected, shall make
choice of such Vocals as she shall in conscience deem fit
to execute the offices of the Assistant, Bursar, and Mistress
of the Novices, and propose them to the Chapter. The
election shall be made according to plurality of votes by
white and black beans. Should they or any of them be
negatived, the Mother Superioress shall propose others for
the said offices, who shall in a like manner be elected. The
election made, she shall, with the advice of the three
Sisters newly chosen, make choice of such other Sisters as
she may judge qualified for the other different offices, and
these shall remain in their several charges until the Mother
Superior shall think fit to remove them.

160 Nano Nagle :
" 14. Where there are not seven Professed to make the
election, the Bishop shall appoint to the office of Mother .
Superior, and to the other principal charges, after having
consulted the eldest Sister of the Community, and the
Priest appointed to have the direction of it."*
From the rules of the Presentation Order which we
have given, it will be seen how the guiding finger of the
Holy Spirit is visible in them all. The main ends of Miss
Nagle's institute are two — the individual sanctification of
its members, and the Christian education of the female
poor. To give in detail the various rules laid down in
order to obtain the end first mentioned, would be quite
foreign to our purpose ; suffice it to say that they are rules
hallowed by the observance of centuries, and approved of
by the greatest masters of the spiritual life. How ad
mirably Miss Nagle's order is constituted for the promo
tion of education of the humbler classes is evident from
the rules quoted above. A spirit of religion breathes
through everything. From the moment a child is handed
over to a Presentation Nun she feels herself solemnly
pledged to God to spare.no pains in making that child a
model Christian woman, and a bright saint for God's
paradise hereafter. Hence the alternate variations of in
struction in the science of earth, and instruction in the
knowledge of heaven — the one to fit them for their duties
here below, the other to prepare them for that immortality
to which they are created. If a tree may be known from
its fruits, the wisdom of the Presentation Constitutions
may be seen in the glorious results which they have pro
duced in many lands during a period of well nigh a
century. * The above Rules of the Presentation Order have been copied
verbatim from the authorised translation, printed by M. J. Elwood,
10, Capel-street, Dublin (1872) ; and are a most faithful version ofthe
Constitution as originally drawn up in Italian-, and published in the
Bullarium S. Cong, de Prop. Fide.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 161

CHAPTER XV.
History of the Presentation Order in the first Twenty Years of the
Nineteenth Century. — Political and Religious Difficulties which
militated against the Extensionof the Institution  Establishment
of Presentation Convents in Dublin, Tralee, Dungarvan, Carlow,
Drogheda, Carrick, Clonmel, Galway, Rahan, and Doneraile. —
Mother Mary Magdalen Gould  The Children of Nano Nagle in
Wexford.
The condition of Ireland at the commencement of the
present century was gloomy in the extreme, and seemed
to augur most unfavourably for the success of Miss Nagle's-
new Order. The 'insurrection of '98 had drenched the
country with blood ; property was insecure ; martial law,
with all its attendant horrors, reigned supreme throughout
the land ; party feeling ran high ; a famine was impending
which might convert the island into a wilderness ; and, to
fill the cup of misery to the brim, an intriguing, unscru
pulous minister had matured his plans for robbing the
nation of her birthright — the inalienable power of self-
government. These evils, however, mainly affected the material in
terests of the country : but Castlereagh would do more —
he would fetter the people's liberty of conscience, and
make the Church the slave of the Crown, not, indeed, by
open persecution, as in the days of the Penal Laws,- but
by a system of astute diplomacy worthy the perverted in
genuity of a Machiavelli or a Von Bismarck. To effect
his purpose the. Chief Secretary represented to ten of the
Irish bishops who in 1799 constituted the board for ex-
m

1 62 Nano Nagle:
amining into the affairs of Maynooth College,* that his
Majesty's Ministers would recommend the king to eman
cipate the Catholics if the prelates would assent to two
propositions which were deemed essential in the interests
ofthe Crown. These propositions were — i, that the King
should have the.power of " veto " in all future ecclesiastical
promotions within the kingdom ; and 2, that the Treasury
should, thenceforth, provide for the maintenance of the
Irish Catholic clergy.. No measures calculated to destroy
the Faith in Ireland could have been more cunningly
devised. The first would have made the bishops the
minions of the State, and had it become law our prelates
would most probably be now in the same degraded position
as are the bishops ofthe Anglican, orRusso-Greek Church.
The second of the proposed measures would certainly
have loosened, and might, possibly, have severed, those
ties of closest union which for centuries had bound the
Irish pastor to his devoted flock. The prelates deliberated
on the Minister's proposal for three days (17th, 18th, and
- 19th January, 1799), and finally resolved "that in the ap
pointment of Roman Catholic prelates to vacant sees
within the kingdom, such interference of government as
may enable it to be satisfied of the loyalty of the person
appointed, is just and ought to be agreed to." Regarding
the proposed pension for the clergy they say, " that a pro
vision, through government, for the Roman Catholic
clergy of this kingdom, competent and Secured, ought to
be thankfully accepted." To these resolutions the prelates
* The prelates who composed the board on this occasion were : —
Richard O'Reilly, Archb. Armagh; J. T. Troy, Archb. Dublin;
Edward Dillon, Archb. Tuam ; Thomas Bray, Archb. Cashel ; P. J.
Plunketf, Bp. Meath; F. Moylan, Bp. Cork; Daniel Delany, Bp. Kil
dare ; Edmund French, Bp. Elphin ; James Caulfield, Bp. Ferns ; and
John Cruise, Bp. Ardagh.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 163
added certain explanations with the view of preserving
their own rights of recommending candidates, and pre
venting any encroachments on the prerogatives of the
Apostolic See. Their resolutions, as may be seen, are
framed with extreme caution ; but the bishops were com
pletely out-manoeuvred by the wily Castlereagh. They
thought the "veto" as proposed to them meant merely
the exclusion of disloyal persons from the episcopacy, and
as such they agreed to it. Castlereagh meant all this too,
but he meant a great deal more — viz., that though the
, parish priests might still enjoy their right of elections,
and the bishops their right of recommendation, and the
Pope his right of confirmation, the Crown s'hould possess
the right of rejecting any candidate no matter how worthy
on other grounds, unless his political views were in agree
ment with those of the Ministers of the day, and he was
prepared to become the tool of the government in carrying
out their administration of Ireland.
That we are not wrong in thus interpreting the wishes
of Castlereagh is proved by the following amusing example '
given by the celebrated Dr. Milner (who was mixed up
with the question from first to last),rof what would be the
practical working of the veto : — " The process of the ap
pointment of a Catholic prelate, I have been informed' by
¦very high authority, would, on the veto plan, be this. The
returning prelate of a Catholic recommendation, we are
to suppose, waits on the Minister and says, ' My lord, we,
the prelates, or we, the dean and chapter, &c, have found
that Mr. A., and Mr. B., and Mr. C, are any of them
worthy and fit to be appointed by the Pope the Catholic
prelate to the vacant see.' His lordship having found,
upon/ inquiry, that each one of these candidates has
preached a controversial sermon, or written an able book,
or made a convert, will certainly answer, ' Not one of
M 2

164 Nano Nagle:
those whom you have mentioned can be accepted of for
reasons best known to us : but if Mr. F. (the flatterer), or
Mr. L. (the latitudinarian), or Mr. Z. (the cypher), be
chosen, he will be accepted of.' "*
The bishops, then, had been completely duped by
Lord Castlereagh, but they soon discovered and repented
of their error. " Dr. Moylan, Bishop of Cork, was one
of these ten prelates ; but he afterwards frequently and
solemnly declared that those bishops never contemplated
the possibility of the advantage which was afterwards
taken of that document, or the construction' since put
upon their resolutions. He felt very indignant at the
attempts afterwards made to bring forward these answers
in support of what he was accustomed to call the odious,
abominable, and destructive measure of securities."!
Meanwhile, the action of the bishops had caused a
serious division, and much angry controversy within the
Catholic ranks. The aristocracy and gentry fully endorsed
the bishops' resolutions, in the hope that the Emancipa
tion Act, which was expected to follow, would open up to
them the avenues to place, and power, and wealth. But
the vast majority of the nation, both lay and clerical,
vigorously resisted the course of action approved of by
the prelates assembled at Maynooth, and were cordially
supported in their resistance by some distinguished mem
bers of the Irish hierarchy, foremost among them being
Dr. Lanigan, Bishop of Ossory, Dr. Coppinger, Bishop of
Cloyne, J and Dr. Florence M'Carthy^ coadjutor Bishop of
* See Life of Dr. Milner, by F. C. Husenbeth, D.D., V.G., Provost
Of Northampton. Duffy: Dublin, 1862. Page 325.
f Life of Dr. Milner, &c, page 124.
+ William Coppinger, u scion of one df the oldest Catholic houses
in the south of Ireland, was bora in St. Finbar's parish, Cork, in the
year 1753. Prohibited ,by the^Penal Laws from obtaining a liberal.

Her Life, he? Labours, and their Fruits. 165
Cork. The controversy ranged over a series of years ;
but it would be quite foreign to our purpose to follow it
through its various stages. Indeed, we have thus lightly
touched upon the subject merely to show that the growth
and progress of Miss Nagle's order in the commencement
of the present century was not only impeded by the dis
astrous results following the insurrection of '98, but was
also seriously hampered by the dissensions and contro
versies which existed among the leading members of the
Catholic body. .
Serious difficulties, then, as we have seen, opposed the
extension of the Presentation Order in the early years of
the nineteenth century ; but the Church has always had
education at home, he repaired at an early age to the continent, where
he pursued his studies with marked success. Arrived at manhood, he
resolved to embrace the profession of arms, and solicited a commission
in the French service, in which so many of his fellow-countrymen were
then distinguishing themselves. Some friends, however, dissuaded
him from carrying out this resolution, and he then determined to join
the soldiers of the Church and labour for the salvation of souls in his
native land. With this intention he entered the Irish College, Paris,
where, after an academical career of unusual brilliancy, he was ordained
priest in 1 780. He immediately returned to Ireland, and was appointed
curate in his native parish of St. Finbar. The term .of his curacy was
brief, for he was soon after his return home appointed parish priest of
Passage and vicar-general of the diocese of Cork. About this time
the venerable Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. M'Renna, became so enfeebled
that he begged the Holy See to give him » coadjutor, and suggested
the appointment of Dr. Coppinger to that office. This suggestion
was warmly supported by Dr. Moylan, then Bishop of Cork, and
accordingly, in the year 1788, William Coppinger was consecrated
Bishop of Cloyne. His office was no sinecure. He had to battle
against the political and religious difficulties of the time, and right
nobly did he acquit himself of the task. The then Chancellor of Ire
land, Lord Redesdale, wished to prove that the existence of the
Catholic clergy in Ireland was not recognised by law. Practically this
was to a certain extent true ; but in the strict letter of the law it was
•

1 66 Nano Nagle:
to strive against difficulties, and if the apostles had only
calculated difficulties after the world's fashion — why the
world would to-day be Pagan. The daughters of Nano
Nagle, little heeding the obstacles that beset their path,
thought only of extending, as best they might, the sphere
of their usefulness, so as to gain souls to Christ. Hence
in 1807 we find them establishing a second branch of
theit Order in the metropolis. On the 17th of August in
that year Mother M. Francis Xavier Doyle and Mother
M. Angela Biggar, members of the community at George's-
hill, left their convent for the purpose of establishing a
new foundation in James's-street. A house had been
placed at their disposal by a Miss Cruise, and on their
taking possession, Mother Fl X. Doyle was appointed
false. The Bishop of Cloyne took up the gauntlet so hastily and in
cautiously thrown down by Lord Redesdale, and in an able pamphlet
proved to the learned Chancellor that he was ignorant of the laws
which he was paid to administer. This exposure of the Chancellor's
ignorance afforded much merriment to Curran and other legal celebri
ties of the (lay. In 1 798 the Orange faction was wild with the spirit
of fanaticism, and to escape insult and perhaps death at their hands,
Dr. Coppinger had to fly from Youghal to a remote corner of his
diocese. Despite the turmoil of the times, however, he continued to-
administer the affairs of his diocese with great zeal, and with singularly
beneficial results to religion. As stated in the text, he was a deter
mined opponent of the veto, and it was his hand which drew up the
resolution against that measure adopted in the national synod of 1808^
by twenty-three prelates (only three dissenting) — "It is the decided
opinion of the Roman Catholic prelates of Ireland that it is inexpedient
to introduce any alteration in the canonical mode hitherto observed in
the nomination of the Irish Roman Catholic bishops; which mode
long experience has proved to be unexceptionable, wise, and salutary."
Besides several pamphlets and letters on topics of the day, Dr. Cop
pinger has left a translation of the Imitation of Christ ; a General '
Catechism, and a brief memoir of Nano Nagle. He died in 1830, and
his remains are interred in Queenstown Cathedral, beside those of
another patriot prelate of Cloyne, Most Rev. Dr. Keane.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 167
superioress. The labours of the good nuns were sadly
needed in this densely populated district, and true to the
spirit of their Order, the sisters did not spare themselves ;
but after thirteen years' residence, it became evident that
the unwholesome situation of their convent imperatively
demanded a change to some more healthy locality, and in
consequence the community, numbering eleven members,
removed to Richmond on the 19th September, 1820. At
Richmond, as in James's-street, the nuns laboured zeal
ously and unceasingly for the education of the poor. In
all their trials and difficulties they were supported by the
counsel and encouraged by the example of Mother Doyle,
who was the contemporary of Nano Nagle, and the first
jubilarian ofthe order, having completed the 50th anni
versary of her profession on July 25th, 1 845 . She survived
this event twelve years, dying in 1857, at tne advanced
age of 104 years. The erection of a lunatic asylum quite
close to their convent obliged the nuns, who had no par
ticular taste for such lively and eccentric neighbours, to
seek, for the third time, a more suitable residence. They
had not long to wait ; for the Very Rev. Canon Byrne,
P.P. of Rathfarnham, fully alive to the merits of the Pre
sentation Order, and conscious of the good work it had
effected elsewhere, invited them to his parish, and in
response to his invitation they removed to Terenure on
24th of September, 1866. The community in the convent
at Terenure numbers at present seventeen members ; and
they have on their school-roll an average daily attendance
of 180 poor children.
The eighth house of the Presentation Order was opened
in Tralee on the 9th July, 1809, by Mother Joseph Cur
tayne and Sister Mary John Sheehy, who came for that
purpose from Killarney. This foundation owes its origin
to the piety and charity of Dr. Shea Lalor, of Killarney,

1 68 Nano Nagle :
who, having witnessed the blessings which the children of
Nano Nagle were diffusing among the poor of that town,
was anxious that the capital of his native county should
participate in them, and with that intent generously allo
cated a sum of £iooq for the establishment of a convent
in Tralee. The first inmates of the Tralee convent had
ample opportunities for the practice of the spirit of
poverty. The convent was merely an old dilapidated
house, surrounded on all sides with sink and mire, and
what was, perhaps, still more annoying to the nuns,
situated in the centre of a noisy milk-market in a place
called Black Pool, where the dulcet tones of wrangling
Kerry milk women were assuredly no great help to the
due discharge of the good sisters' morning meditation.
The furniture of the house was, as may be expected, not
very recherche ; the nuns on their arrival had not even a
chair to sit on until they had borrowed a few from the
poor neighbours who surrounded them. They had no
garden in which to take the exercise which -was essential
to the preservation of health ; and one small room had to
serve the purposes of refectory, recreation hall, and school
room. Truly, the first Presentation Nuns of Tralee ought
to get credit not only for the spirit, but for the practice of
austere poverty ; but they endured it alL for three weary
years not only patiently but cheerfully. At the end of
three years a subscription was raised to build them a more
suitable residence attached to the parish church. What
manner of mansion this was may be judged by its propor
tions ; it was 35 feet in length, 20 inbreadth, and 17 feet
in height — just the dimensions of a respectable room — so
that it might be said the change from the house in Black
Pool was merely a passage from Scylla to Charybdis.
Small as it was, the new house was unfurnished when the
nuns entered it, and it remained in the same state for

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 169
•some years. The sisters heard Mass in the sacristy of
the parish church, and had to use the church itself as
a schoolroom. Of course the cold damp flags soon
-affected the health of the poor sisters, who walked them
¦daily for six hours, and, as a natural consequence, Sister
M. J. Sheehy caught a most dangerous fever. However,
" out of evil comes good " — the good effect in this instance
being that a Miss Toomey gave £200, towards building a
school, and other friends gave donations to furnish the
nuns with a choir. The little house built in 1812 still
forms part ofthe present convent ofthe Presentation Nuns
in Tralee. By making collections from time to time they
have been enabled to enlarge it, and additions have been
made to the buildings in each of the following years, viz.,
1823-35-45-50-66-70. The nuns, however, want further
accommodation. Nearly 200 poor children are still idling
and learning vice in the lanes of Tralee, whom the nuns
of the Presentation schools would train up in virtue and
knowledge if they had only room to accommodate them.
This is not as it ought to be. Tralee is a flourishing town
with many wealthy merchants who spend hundreds on
•contested elections. Would it not be worth while to ex
pend some of their money in educating and civilizing
those poor forlorn ones who, after all, are their fellow-
•creatures, and children of the same Father ?
The Tralee foundation has struggled on bravely through
all its difficulties, and numbers at present thirty members
in community. There are, as we write, 805 poor children
on the school-roll, with an average daily attendance for
the past twelve months of 466 pupils.
The same year which witnessed the establishment of
the Presentation Order in Tralee dates its introduction
into Dungarvan. In 1809 Mary M'Grath, Margaret
JM'Grath, Mary Collins, and Sarah Kearne, with a

170 Nano Nagle :
view to the promotion of the greater glory of God,' con
ceived the design of devoting their lives to the instruction
of poor children. To this end 'they agreed to engage a
house in Jail-lane, in Dungarvan, where they opened a
school, and admitted gratis such poor children as presented
themselves. Mr. Pierce Barron, of Saraville, a wealthy
and highly respected gentleman, being apprised of their
noble and pious project granted the sum of ^1000
towards the erection of a convent and schools. This sum
having been placed at interest for the projected founda
tion, the Very Rev. Dr. Walsh, P.P., V.G., applied to the
Most Rev. Dr. Power, bishop of the diocese, for two mem
bers of the Waterford Presentation community to establish
a branch of the Order in Dungarvan. His lordship most
willingly acceded to the proffered request, and selected
for the filiation Mother M. Joseph Sullivan and Mother
Mary Peter Ronayne, the former being appointed su
perioress. On their arrival in Dungarvan (September, 1809) they
joined the four postulants who awaited their coming in
Jail-lane, and with them proceeded to a private house in
Church-street intended- for their future residence. Two
of the postulants (Mary M'Grath and Mary Collins) left
immediately to. serve their noviceship in the Waterford
Convent ; while the other two remained under the direc
tion of Mother Mary Joseph in their new abode in Church-
street. In 1814 — nine months after their profession, the
two sisters who had gone to Waterford returned to .Dun
garvan, and Miss Mary M'Grath (called in religion Mother
M. Teresa) was appointed superioress — the foundresses,
Mother Mary Joseph and Mother Mary Peter, having left
to establish a branch of the order in Clonmel. The sisters
who composed the Dungarvan community continued to-
occupy the private house in Church-street to which we

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 171
have alluded until the year 1822, when they removed to a
convent in the same street, which, with the adjoining
schools, had been built for their reception in the preced
ing year. In process of time it was found that the
accommodation afforded by the new schools to the num
ber of children in daily attendance was quite inadequate,
while their over-crowded condition began to tell visibly
on the health of the' nuns. This trying state of affairs led''
the Very Rev. Dr. Halley, P.P. and V.G., to consider the
pressing necessity which . existed for the erection on a
better site of a larger ponvent and more spacious schools
for the double purpose of affording larger accommodation
to the uninstructed poor of his flock, and of preserving to
the good religious that health and vigour which their
arduous labours imperatively demanded. At length the
foundation of the present much^admired convent and
schools of the Presentation~Nuns was laid in Dungarvan.
on Ma#rch 27th, 1850, but it was not until August 14th,
1858, that the sisters took up their abode in their new
house. On their removal the Sisters of Mercy, who had
been for some years established in the town, changed
their residence from the South-terrace to the venerable
building within whose- hallowed walls the cloistered
daughters of Nano Nagle had found a shelter for thirty-
six long years.
There are well-authenticated traditions in connection with
the first inmates ofthe Dungarvan Convent ofthe Presenta
tion Order which would go far to prove that while the outside
world is now-a-days all but atheistic, the daughters of Nano
Nagle emulate in the cloister the penances and the sanc
tity of the servants of God in the olden times. Some of
them were remarkable for possessing in an eminent degree
the spirit of prayer, in which holy exercise they would
spend whole hours together whenever their doing so did

172 Nano Nagle :
not interfere with the discharge of any other duty. One
of them, now deceased, on days of vacation from the
schools, was frequently known to thank God at mid-day
that previous to that hour she had spoken to Him alone.
Many of the deceased sisters were remarkable also for
their spirit of mortification, and in some instances it was
discovered after their death that they had been in the
habit of using instruments of penance. Others again
would use no protection against intense cold in winter.
A novice who did not live to make her profession, at a
period when the community was still -in its infancy, had
attained such a degree of perfection that she was regarded
as a saint. This young fervent sdul would often in confi
dence give expression before her seniors to her determined
resolution never to cease her efforts until she had brought
herself to such a state of indifference as to be insensible
to all that was not God. So much did she dread the loss
of time that in her walks with her companions her .first
care after purifying her intention was- to remind them
gently to turn every moment to good account ; and should
she chance to hear a useless remark, she would sweetly
rejoin, " Sister, this remark will not surely rank among
your most perfect actions on the day of judgment."- People
may smile and say this is old-fashioned sanctity, but it is
sanctity nevertheless, approved of and practised by the
greatest saints, and not to be lightly condemned until the
philosphers ofthe nineteenth century shall have discovered
a surer path to heaven.
The Presentation community at Dungarvan numbers at
present twenty-four members, who have in attendance at
their schools an average of 330 children in the summer
months, and a somewhat smaller number in the winter.
The nuns have in connection with the schools a circulating
library, where not only the pupils, but such of the towns-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 173
people as wish it, may procure useful, entertaining, and
edifying books wherewith to occupy their leisure hours in
their own homes.
The Presentation Order next established itself in Car-
low, where a convent was opened on January 29th, 1 8 1 1 ;
the foundresses being Mother de Sales Meighan,* M.
Magdalen Breen, and M. Agnes Madden, who came from
Kilkenny for that purpose. This foundation was estab
lished by Most Rev. Dr. Delaney, then Bishop of Kildare
and Leighlin,' mainly at the suggestion of Dr. Staunton,
President of Carlbw College, and of Dr. Fitzgerald, Pro
fessor of Theology in the same institution. Through the
instrumentality of the latter gentleman several benefactors
came forward to help the nuns in their early struggles,
notably Messrs. John Clarke and Michael Cahill. The
Carlow convent has sent out many colonies, the last three
being for Mountmellick, Clondalkin, and Baltinglass.
-Hence the community is at present small, numbering only
twelve choir nuns and three lay sisters. The average daily
attendance of children in- the schools for the past year
was 249^2 ; but in the summer months the number is often
up to 400. The old house taken by the nuns in 1811,
though frequently added to, became in course of time
dilapidated, and in fact dangerous to live in. Hence on
the 20th of June, 1873 — the Feast of the Sacred Heart —
Most Rev. Dr. Walshe, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin,
laid the foundation stone of a new and handsome convent
• which is now all but completed, and will be an honour to
religion and to the Presentation Order.
The daughter's of Nano Nagle next sought to establish
* Mother de Sales Meighan made her novitiate in the South Pre
sentation Convent, Cork, but as she came to Carlow not from Cork
but from Kilkenny, the Carlow House must be regarded as a filiation
of the latter.

174 Nano Nagle :
themselves in Drogheda, on the banks of the historic
Boyne. In the year 1811 some inhabitants of that town,
with the sanction of Most Rev. Richard O'Reilly, Arch
bishop of Armagh, applied to the superioress of the Pre
sentation Convent, George's-hill, Dublin, for one or two
religious to commence an establishment of the Order in
Drogheda for the education of the poor female children.
Their request having been acceded to, the , inhabitants
organised a collection, with the proceeds of which they
purchased for a term of seven years a small house in Fair-
street, which had been previously in the possession of his
grace the primate, and adjoined the parish church of St.
Peter. On the 23rd of February, 1812, Miss Teresa
Lynch, a native of the town (and aunt to the present
worthy coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin), entered
the house at George's-hill to serve her novitiate for the
new establishment ; and having received the habit of the
Order, and the name in religion of Sister M. Catherine,
came with Mrs. Bridget Doran (in religion Sister Mary
Ignatius of Loyola) to found the convent in Drogheda on
the 7th of June, 1813. On the 19th of August in the
same year Sister M. Catherine Lynch made her solemn
profession in the Church of St. Peter, and during the few
years she survived she was a model — a living example of
what a Presentation Nun ought to be. With a slight
change we might apply to her the words of the inspired
writer, " Consummata in brevi, implevit- tempora multa."
Day and night she toiled for the poor, who were to be
" her joy and her crown for ever ;" and when the measure
of her labours had been filled, and the night of her
troubles had passed by, and the dawn of her glory was
about to break forth, God called her to Himself on the
14th of August, 1 821.
Many and trying were the privations against which the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. . 175
Presentation Nuns of Drogheda, like their sisters else
where, had to struggle. They had no means of subsis
tence beyond what they might derive from a sum of £s°°
brought them- by Sister M. Catherine, and an annuity of
^30 which belonged to Mother Ignatius. ' Yet out. of this
pittance they had to furnish their little convent, fit up a
' small chapel, and try to put their garden, into some shape.
Their food was of the very plainest and cheapest kind,
and so straitened were their resources that after the
meagre morning breakfast the sisters used often ask one
another, " Where shall we get our dinner ?" Indeed, the
"dinner" question had become so very pressing, that on
one occasion the poor sisters had collected some lead, and
were in the act of sending it out to be sold in. order to
purchase necessaries for the day, when an unknown person
•called at the convent and handed in a £1 note, for which
it is superfluous to say the sisters heartily thanked Provi
dence. Never was succour more sorely needed ! The
school accommodation was also miserable. The ceiling
of the room allocated to school purposes was so low that
one might touch it with one's hand, and the ventilation
was such as to render escape from disease almost impos
sible. Mother Ignatius feared much that under the cir
cumstances she would be forced to abandon the foundation
and return to George's-hill ; but to fly in the face of danger
never was the role contemplated by God for the daughters
of the dauntless Nano Nagle ; and so she bore her flag
bravely, and, though in delicate health, struggled on hope
fully amidst all her difficulties, sowing broadcast the good
seed that was to fructify in due time beneath the shadow
of the cross.
On the 15 th of October, 18 13 (the feast of St. Teresa),
the Blessed Sacrament was for the first time deposited in
the tabernacle of the convent chapel, and so poor were the

176 Nano Nagle :
nuns that they were obliged to accept the loan of a chalice
from the Rev. Mark Nolan, O.P., in order to have the
Divine mysteries celebrated under their roof. This chalice
they were generously told to keep until asked for, and it
was only in 1854, when they were rich enough to purchase
one for themselves, that it was returned — though unasked
— to the Dominican community. The Drogheda nuns
had no regular chaplain for many years ; in fact, they were
dependent for daily Mass on the generosity of the regular
and secular clergy of the town. However, when his Emi
nence Cardinal Cullen was appointed to the See of Armagh
he brought a fourth curate to Drogheda, and thus enabled
the Presentation Nuns to enjoy a privilege they so anxiously
ambitioned — a regular daily Mass.
The first years of the Presentation Order in Drogheda
were, as we have seen, gloomy enough ; but the darkness
could not last always ; sooner or later a gleam of sunshine
should break in upon the dark, dull shadows. On the
21st of November, 1813, Miss Anne Fullam, an only child,
entered the convent. Her parents, natives of the town,
had seen their other children fall victims to consumption,
so that she was prized and petted the more. On her ap
plying to be admitted as a postulant Mother Ignatius felt
it incurhbent on her to inform Miss Fullam of the difficul
ties which the community had to encounter through want
of means ; and to explain that only for the kindness of their
relatives and friends they could not possibly get on.
This recital in nowise disconcerted Miss Fullam, whose only ¦
reply was, " If 1 knew of a poorer convent it is there I would
go." She was accordingly admitted, and received the habit
ofthe Order oh the 16th June, 18 14, her name in religion
being Sister Mary Anthony of Padua. In 1817 she made
her demand to be professed, but was soon after attacked
with consumption. As she had not yet pronounced her

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 177
solemn vows her father took her to the south of France,
in the hope that the mild climate would restore her to
health, but that hope was never to be realized as she died
in Bordeaux, on the 14th September, 18 17, having made
a dying request that . her father would leave a sum of
£\,ooo to the Drogheda Convent, with which wish he
religiously complied. In 1820, the nuns were enabled to
purchase a more suitable convent in which they now re
side. The community consists of twenty-four members,
of whom three are lay sisters, and two have not as yet
been professed. There are four large school-rooms in
connection with the convent, with an average daily attend
ance of 432 children. There is also a room in which girls
are engaged in plain and fancy work, and several Protes
tant ladies have their work done there, saying they could
not get it made up as well elsewhere. Thus, the Presen
tation Convent, Drogheda, after struggling through a sea
of difficulties, is, to-day, a most prosperous institution,
diffusing the blessings of religion and education among
the poorer inhabitants of that historic town.
A new branch of the Presentation Order was opened in
18 1 3, in Carrick-on-Suir. Two sisters, natives of that
town, the Misses Mary and Ellen Dwyer, called in reli
gion, Sisters Mary Paul and Agnes, entered the novitiate
of the Waterford Convent, on the 5th of April, 1806, to
serve their noviceship there, with a view to the future es
tablishment of the Order at Carrick. They were joined
on the nth April, 1808, by a fellow-townswoman, Miss
Mary Burke, and all three pronounced their solemn vows
on the 2 1 st November, 18 10. Miss Frances Smyth, in
religion, Sister M.. Peter, entered the Waterford Convent
on the 7th of August, 18 12, for the purpose of assisting
in the new foundation. Sister Mary Agnes Dwyer was
summoned to her eternal reward before she could witness
n

178 Nano Nagle :
the accomplishment of her pious desires, dying on the
22nd of June, 1812; but in the following year the other
three ladies — viz. Sister M. Paul Dwyer, Sister M. De
Sales Burke, and Sister M. Peter Smyth, accompanied by
Mother M. Jane De Chantal, of the Waterford Convent,
as Superioress, arrived in Carrick to open the new estab
lishment, which they did on the 3rd of May, 1813.
Sister Mary Paul Dwyer did not live long to labour in the
field she had chosen, as she went to join her sister in
heaven, on the 24th February, 18 14, being then only twenty
years old. Of her, it might be truly said that, " having
lived a short time she fulfilled a long space ; " young in
years, but ripe for heaven, she was taken to swell the
choir of virgin souls that follow the Lamb. Of the other
foundresses, Mother M. Peter Smyth died on the 16th of
March, 1838, while holding the office of Superioress, and
being in the sixtieth year of her age. Mother M. Jane
De Chantal Power, after a life of surpassing labour and
usefulness, was summoned to her reward on the 19th of
January, in the same year, being then in her seventy-third -
year ; while we are happy to state that Mother De Sales
Burke, having reached the ripe age of eighty-seven years,
is still alive — the connecting link between the present and
the past — edifying the community by the example of her
virtues, and retaining in extreme old age all the cheerful
ness and buoyancy of youth. The community at Carrick-
on-Suir numbers at present eighteen members, who have
in attendance at their schools from 350 to 400 poor chil
dren. It is worthy of record that' some ten years ago the
Presentation Nuns of Carrick refused, with commendable
spirit, to have any further connection with the. Board of
National Education, because its regulations excluded re
ligious emblems, statues, &c, during the hours devoted
to secular instruction. This movement, far from affecting

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 179.
the schools injuriously, has proved of very considerable
advantage. Under the constant influence of religion, the
nuns find that the children have become more docile and
more industrious, while the average daily attendance has
been steadily on the increase.
St. Joseph's Presentation Convent, Clonmel, dates its
origin fromi8i3; Mothers Mary Joseph Sullivan, Mary
Peter Ronayne, and Mary Aquin Byrne having come from
Dungarvan on the 2nd October in that year, for the pur
pose of establishing a branch of their Order in the capital
of Tipperary. They were joined by two novices, Sisters
M. Austin Power and M. Magdalen Seargent, and took up
their temporary residence near the Church' of St. Mary,
Irishtown, in a house which had been placed at their dis
posal by the Very Rev. Dr. Flannery, then parish priest of
Clonmel. On the Monday immediately succeeding the
Feast of the Epiphany, 18 14, the nuns opened their
schools for the first time, and the good people of Clon
mel readily availed themselves of the advantages thus
held out to them. During that year, 500 children were
entered on the school-rolls, and about 400 adults, among
whom were many converts, presented themselves for re-
• ligious instruction. After many years' experience it was
found that the house which they first tenanted was quite
unsuited to the requirements of conventual life, and the
nuns had the happiness of seeing the first stone of a new
convent laid on July 17th, 1828, by Most Rev. Dr. Kelly,
Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, attended by a large
number of the clergy, and a vast concourse of the laity from
the town and neighbourhood. The sisters took possession
of the new building on the eve of the Feast of the Most
Holy Trinity, June 12th, 1829; and on the 3rd of October,
in the same year, Most Rev. Dr. Kelly solemnly dedicated
the chapel and convent under the invocation of the glo-
n 2

1 80 Nano Nagle :
rious St. Joseph. In 1835, the Clonmel Foundation sent
out a colony of three sisters to establish a branch of the
Order in Manchester, for the purpose of introducing the
blessings of religion and education among the working
classes of that densely populated centre of manufacturing
industry. In 1865, a cloister and large schools were
erected within the enclosure. The average attendance of
pupils for the present year is 300 ; and the community
numbers just twenty-nine members.
The Presentation Order in the ancient "City of the
Tribes " owes its establishment, under God, to the inde
fatigable and zealous exertions of the Rev. Bartholomew
Burke, P.P. of St. Nicholas East, Galway, who, in the
year 1809-10, collected a sum of/~4,8oo, which he placed
in the hands of the Messrs. Lynch, The Castle, Galway,
until such time as a community of nuns, devoted exclusively
to the instruction of poor female children, could be intro
duced into the town. Though it was not God's will that
Father Burke should live to see the accomplishment of a
work so dear to his heart, yet, his long conception of it,
together with the practical proof which he gave of his
earnestness in that direction, entitle him to be regarded
as the Founder of the Presentation Convent, Galway.
About two years after the death of this zealous priest,
Most Rev.- Dr. Ffrench, Bishop of Kilmacduagh and ¦
Kilfenora, and Warden of Galway, made application to
the Superioress of the Presentation Convent, Kilkenny,
for some of the pious sisters of her community to estab
lish a branch of the Order in the West. The following
letters* on the subject passed between them : —
" My dear and ret. Mother — It has been for a
considerable time the anxious desire of the inhabitants of
* Copied from the originals in the archives, Presentation Convent,
Galway.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 181
the town of Galway to establish a House of the Order of
the Presentation for the religious instruction of our poor
female children. It is quite unnecessary to remark to you
how ill-calculated the laity, in general, are to preside
over such schools. They are mostly governed by mercenary
views and temporal interests. May I, therefore, beg leave
to implore your kind interposition in favour of our pious
intention, by lending us, during the term of six years,
three of your pious sisters to form a community of that
truly merciful institution. Should Providence crown our
application with success, I pledge myself, on my own part
- and that of the Governesses of the Female Charity School
of St. Nicholas, Galway, to deposit for that time, in the
hands of the three sisters (proposed to be sent to that
town), all funds, leases, and furniture belonging to and
appropriated for the exclusive support of the aforesaid
establishment. Their funds and means of subsistence
consist of ^~i,ooo sterling in National or Government Five'
per Cent. Debentures ; also the amount of subscriptions
annually collected from the people, and the collection at
the yearly charity sermon. We further agree to assign over
to the said three sisters a bond of ^4,500 sterling, the
annual interest thereof to be applied to their maintenance
and support, with a salary to their chaplain during the
term of six years. Should you (or the then existing
Mother Superioress) think it meet to recall them after
that period, they shall be sent back to your community
free of expense. I sincerely, however, pray Heaven to
inspire these pious sisters to remain among us, in order,
mercifully, to instruct the' poor but much-neglected
female children of the town of Galway;, and I think it my
bounden duty to cherish, console, advise, and assist these
truly charitable sisters in their pious but arduous work,
as also to use every possible exertion in establishing the

1 82 Nano Nade:
house, increasing the funds, and thereby multiplying the
community with valuable and effective postulants. May
Providence, in His holy mercy, pour a blessing on their
endeavours, is the earnest prayer of, my dear and rev.
Madame, " Your brother in Christ,
" Edmond Ffrench,
" Warden of Galway and its District.
"To Mrs. McLoughlin,
Presentation Convent, Kilkenny."
The following is the reply of Mrs. McLoughlin to the
foregoing communication: —
" My Lord — Having weighed the importance ,of your
proposal relative to the establishment of a house of this,
the Presentation Order, in the town of Galway ; and
having viewed in it a flattering prospect of promoting the
great end of our holy- Institute — the instruction of poor
female children — (should our venerated prelate, Dr.
Marum, approve and permit) We, the sisters of this com
munity, consent to grant your Lordship's request. Lest,
however, at a future day, either the pious inhabitants of
the town of Galway who interest themselves in the pro
posed establishment, or the community who shall here
after be formed in Galway, might be disposed to misconceive
the conditions on which the proposal was acceded to, I beg
leave to insert the words of your Lordship's letter to me
indicative of them ; they are as follows : [Here are inserted
the terms of agreement as laid down by Dr. Ffrench in the
preceding letter]. You perceive, my Lord, the quotation
is exact, and I consider the style too explicit to admit of
misconception. Hence I feel it unnecessary to offer
further commentary on the subject, but I beg leave to

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 83
stipulate in addition to the terms — ' That your Lordship
shall have the power of sending back to this community
any individual of the three sisters who, from any cause what
ever, may, before the expiration of the six years, become
inefficient ; and that you shall have the power of claiming
a sister out of this community to supply her place, should
you wish to do so ; also, that this community, in case of
actual exigency, shall have the power to recall either of
the sisters who shall now be destined to fill the place of
subjects in Galway.'
" Now, my Lord, with sentiments of esteem for, and
confidence in your paternal tenderness and protection, I
resign to you whichsoever of our dear sisters shall be
chosen by Dr. Marum for the great work ; earnestly
soliciting for them a continuation of the kind interest you
now profess to take in their every happiness. I trust those
sisters shall not disappoint your sanguine wishes, but that
faithfully co-operating in your zealous efforts for the wel
fare of the establishment, your Lordship, with them, shall
have the consolation of Seeing it perfectly consolidated ;
to obtain from Heaven this blessing, the prayers of this
community shall not cease to be offered.
" I have the honour to remain, my Lord,
" Your servant in Christ,
" Sister Mary Toseph McLoughlin.
" Kilkenny Presentation Convent,
October 18, 1815."
The resolution ofthe Superioress and Community of
Kilkenny Community was approved of by the venerated
Bishop of the Diocese in the following terms : — " I sanc
tion and approve of the stipulation entered into (as appears
by the above letter) by the Superioress and Community
of the Presentation Order of this city, with the Right

184 Nano Nagle :
Rev. Dr. Ffrench ; and I do by these presents authorise
and direct the Sisters Mary De Chantal McLoughlin,
Mary Gertrude Breen, and Mary A. Martin to depart from
the convent which they now inhabit, and proceed under
the guidance and protecting care of Dr. Ffrench to the
town of Galway, there to found and establish a new con
vent of this excellent institute for the instruction of poor
female children, and consequently for the promotion of
the best interests of religion and society. Given in Kil
kenny, this 20th day of October, 1815.
" •£• Kyran Marum, Bishop of Ossory."
[Seal.] When all these preliminaries had been satisfactorily
arranged, Most Rev. Dr. Ffrench proceeded, to Kilkenny,
in order to accompany the three sisters who had been de^
puted to found the institute in Galway. His Lordship having,
by a document signed on October 23rd, 1815, appointed
Mrs. A. Martin Superioress of the new community, arrived
with them on the 27th of the same month in Galway,
where they were welcomed by the inhabitants with demon
strations of the greatest joy. The first abode of the
sisters was in a very indifferent house in Kirwan's-lane,
but in f8i6, they removed to a more commodious dwelling
on the Green, which they rented for three years, in order
that time might be afforded them to provide an eligible
site for a permanent establishment. A very desirable
site was procured in 18 19, at the«west end of the suburbs
of the town, but the rent was pretty high, and it involved a
considerable outlay to repair the premises which had been
successively employed as a charter school and artillery
barracks, but had been untenanted for years. However,
the situation was convenient both for the nuns and the
poor children', and as the generous people of Galway

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 85 1
were not slow in contributing funds, the< unsightly mass-
of ruins very soon assumed the proportions of a graceful
and commodious convent. On the opening of the con
vent schools, pfipils flocked to them in great numbers,
the daily attendance varying from eight to nine hundred.
At first the instruction imparted by the sisters -was limited
to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Special attention
was also paid to the Industrial Department, which, in a
short time, acquired such celebrity for the character of the
work executed by the pupils that large orders for lace
shawls, &c, were constantly pouring in from all parts of
the country, and even from England. The Presentation
Nuns of Galway do not confine their attentions to the
mere instruction and education of their pupils ; they also
provide for their physical wants, to a large extent. They
have in connection with the convent a " Breakfast Insti
tute," partially supported by an annual charity sermon,
in which 120 poor starving children daily receive a com
fortable and substantial breakfast before attending school-
In addition to this, twenty-two poor girls are entirely
maintained in the institute as day boarders, and are care
fully trained in the duties of domestic servants. Some of
them are apprenticed to respectable seamstresses, that
they may thus have the means of earning a livelihood in
after-life. The daily average attendance of children at
the schools in the present year is 350.
The Presentation Convent in Galway has been instru
mental in spreading the Order in America. In the year
1833, Dr. Fleming, Bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland,
applied for nuns to establish a foundation in his distant
mission, and the call was promptly responded to by four
sisters from the house in Galway. God has blessed their
labours, for from that convent, established in St. John's
four and forty years ago, twelve new foundations of the

1 86 Nano Nagle:
Order have sprung into existence in the island. At the
request of Most Rev. Dr. McHale, a colony of four nuns
went from Galway to Tuam, in 1835 ; and the same con
vent established a branch of the Order in Oranmore, on
the 3rd May, 1861. Thus have the children of Nano
Nagle whose lot was cast in the " City of the Tribes," been
for years labouring with signal success in the cause of
Catholic education and Catholic charity, not alone in their
own land, but, also, beneath foreign skies. There are, as we
write, twenty-two members in the community, and we can
wish them no greater blessing than that they may emulate
the bright example and the fruitful labours of those who
have preceded them, and who are now, we trust, enjoying
an eternal repose in heaven after their' brief but arduous
hour of toil upon earth.
The first Presentation Convent in the Diocese of Meath
was founded at Rahan, in the year 1817. On the 16th of
July, in that year, Mother Angela Bigger, who had spent
her noviceship in the Parent House at Cork, came from
George's-hill to take possession of the new establishment,
which had been erected at the sole expense of Miss "
O'Brien, proprietress of the Rahan estate, and had been,
together with three acres of land, placed at the disposal
of the nuns. Having thus devoted a large portion of her
wealth to God,, Miss O'Brien resolved on consecrating
herself to His service, and for that purpose handed over the
estate to her brother, and "joining the Presentation Com
munity, lived and died with theni in the odour of sanctity.
In 1841, the Rahan Nuns sentout a colony to toil beneath
the burning sun of Madras ; and within the last fifteen years,
forty-seven of the children trained in their schools have
become nuns, one of them being the foundress of the
Convent of the Good Shepherd in Melbourne. The c6m-
munity at Rahan numbers at present thirteen members,

Her Life, her Labours, a?id their Fruits. 187
who have in attendance at their schools a daily average of
100 pupils. The situation of the convent — quite near
Tullabeg College — is singularly healthful, as is proved by
the fact that since its foundation in 18 17, only ten mem
bers of the community have died.
The children, of Nano Nagle next established them
selves at Thurles, in the year 181 7, during the episcopacy
of the Most Rev. Thomas Bray, Archbishop of Cashel and
Emly, whose predecessor, Most Rev. Dr. Butler, had be
queathed for that purpose a sum of money which was
supplemented by the contributions of a pious widow living
in the town. The foundresses of the new house were
Mothers Mary Augustine Power (of the Clonmel Convent),
and Mary Francis Cormack (of Kilkenny), both of whom
arrived in Thurles on the 19th of June, 18 17, the former
being appointed Superioress on 22nd of the following
month by his Grace, Most Rev. Dr. Bray. During the
first nine years, the sisters occupied a house (the present
orphanage) near the bishop's palace, and it was not until
the 24th of May, 1824, that Most Rev. Dr. Laffan, Arch
bishop of Cashel, laid the foundation stone of the new
•convent, which the nuns entered on the 23rd March, 1826.
The convent at Thurles has already sent out four colonies .
to diffuse the blessings of Christian education throughout
the land. The first, under the direction of Mother Mary.
Francis Cormack, left for Cashel on the 9th of Novem
ber, 1830. On the death of the foundress, the supply
of nuns in Cashel being very small, the sisters in Thurles
sent them a second colony in 1857, m the first year ofthe
•episcopacy of Most Rev. Dr. Leahy. On the 12th of
August, 1862, Mother Mary Agnes Ryan, with two sisters,
left to establish a Presentation Convent at Fethard, county
Tipperary; and on the 22nd August, 1871, Mother Mary
Francis De Sales Ryan, accompanied by four sisters,

1 88 Nano Nagte :
established a branch of her Order in Ballingarry, in the
' same county. Notwithstanding these constant drains on
its numbers, the Thurles Presentation Community consists
in the present year of thirty-one members, who labour
with untiring zeal for the instruction of the poor. There
is on the convent grounds a large school, erected in 1862,
with an average daily attendance of about 400 children.
To this school the nuns have attached a work-room and
laundry, where from fifty to sixty adults are daily employed
at knitting, crochet and plain work, washing, &c, and
so highly are, their labours appreciated, that a sum of
^250 was paid out to them as wages in the year 1873.
The old convent, as has been already stated, was con
verted into an orphanage in 1869, and has since been
certified as an Industrial School. It contains at present
fifty-five inmates. The foundation stone of a new Indus
trial School, dedicated to St. Aloysius, was laid by his
Grace, Most Rev. Dr. Leahy, on the 21st of June, 1874,
in the lawn facing the convent, so that the great Order of
the Presentation is evidently losing nothing of the vigor
and vitality which marked the early period of its existence.
The extensive and important Diocese of Cloyne was
the next to welcome the saintly daughters of Nano Nagle,
and the first house of the Order in that diocese was most
appropriately established quite close to the spot in which
the holy* foundress was born, and in a parish where her
ancestors owned many broad acres in days gone by. The
foundation to which we allude was that of Doneraile,
which owes its inception to Mrs. Mary Anne Flynn, and
its after-progress mainly to the generosity of the late
lamented Mother Mary Magdalen Gould, of whom more
anon. The building of the Doneraile Presentation Con
vent was commenced in 1815, with the approbation of
Most Rev. Dr. Coppinger, under the supervision of the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. \ 89
Very Rev. William O'Brien, then parish priest of that
town. The expenses attending on the work were de
frayed partly by public collections, partly by private sub
scriptions, but mainly by the generous liberality of Mrs.
Flynn, afterwards called in religion Sister Mary Joseph.
This pious lady, on the demise of her husband, had
entered the South Convent, Cork, with a view to the
establishment of a branch of the Order in her native
town, Charleville ; but influenced by the counsel of Dr.
O'Brien, she altered her intentions, and made Doneraile
the first home of the Presentation Nuns in the Diocese of
Cloyne. On the 30th of September, 1818, Mother Mary
Joseph Flynn, accompanied by Sisters Mary Teresa Lane,
Mary Augustine Fitzgerald, and Mary De Sales Madden,
arrived from Cork to open the new house in Doneraile.
The district was thickly populated by Protestant gentry —
some of them not over-liberal — but, contrary to what
might have been expected, they seemed to vie with one
another in paying attentions to the nuns on their first arrival
in the neighbourhood. The schools filled rapidly, and to
the delight of the good sisters, the poorer classes eagerly
availed themselves of the opportunities of religious and
secular instruction now placed within their reach. The
convent was still in a very unfinished state, but improve
ments were being made every day, principally through
the liberal donations of Miss Hannah Gould, who entered
the house as a boarder on the 8th of May, 1820. The
community received an accession of strength in 1821, in
the persons of Miss Mary Bourke, Miss Maria Hennessy
(still living), and Miss Eliza Tuite, a West Indian lady,"
and the missioners from Cork having completed the good
work for which they had come; returned to their own con
vent on the 15th of June, 1824. On the 26th of Septem
ber, 1825, the Doneraile Nuns lost by death their great

i go Nano Nagle:
benefactress, Miss Gould; but on the 6th of June, in the
following year, one entered their house who was to be a
benefactress on a larger scale — her niece, Angelina Goujd.
This lady — known in religion as Mother Mary Magdalen
— was no ordinary person ; to her nearly all the Presenta
tion and Mercy Convents in the Dioceses of Cloyne and
Ross owe their origin, and we feel, therefore, sure that
our readers will readily pardon us if we pay to her memory
something more than a mere passing tribute.*
" Her parents, some years before her birth, in common
with many other respectable Irish Catholic families, quitted
their native land, to escape the persecution to which their
religion was then exposed. They settled in Lisbon. There
they soon attained to the possession of great wealth by
the honourable pursuit of commerce, and earned for them
selves the esteem of all who knew them by their practical
piety and their Christian virtues. In Lisbon, on the 13th
of December, 1792, Angelina Gould was born. She seemed
destined to fill no inconsiderable place in the world of
rank and fashion. So, doubtless, thought her parents as
they watched over the infant years of their first-born, and
noticed with pride the development of the quick intelli- '
gence and the many endearing and attractive qualities of
mind and person with which nature had endowed her.
That they did not at this time contemplate the possibility
of her embracing a religious life is clear from their subse
quent refusal to sanction such a step — a refusal in which
her father persevered to the end of hi§ life. But God,
* The author is indebted for information concerning Mother Gould
to a brochure, containing her panegyric preached in 1869, by the pre
sent gifted Bishop of Cloyne, Most Rev. John MacCarthy (then parish
priest of Mallow), and to details furnished by the worthy Superioress
of the Presentation Convent in Youghal, where Mrs. Goujd died.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 191
whose overruling Providence disposes of all things in
favour of His elect, thought not as they did. Whilst her
earthly parents, blinded by their ardent but natural affec
tion for their daughter, anticipated for her a happy mar
riage and a position in life, suitable to her rank and wealth,
her Eternal Father had already destined her for higher
and holier nuptials, and selected her as an instrument to
develop and extend the good work commenced but a
few years before by a distinguished countrywoman of her
own — the celebrated Nano Nagle.
"At the age of seven the young Angelina Gould was
sent by her parents to the Benedictine Convent of New-
hall, then one of the most celebrated Catholic educa
tional establishments in England. There she continued
until the age of fourteen.' She distinguished herself by the
quickness of her understanding and the amiability of her
character. In the edifying example set her by the holy
daughters of St. Benedict, was, doubtless, sown the seed
of that divine vocation which took root and flourished in
her soul, despite the opposition of relatives and the
allurements of pleasure ; and which, at a later period,' was
destined to ripen and bear fruit in the uncongenial soil
and chilling atmosphere of the world.
"At fourteen years of age, Angelina Gould quitted this
retreat, never again to revisit it. The interval between
this and entering the Presentation Order was spent prin
cipally with her family in Lisbon. Her life in Lisbon was
one peculiarly calculated to obliterate every trace of a
religious vocation from her, mind, as well as to satisfy all
the cravings of a youthful and impressionable heart. The
object of the tenderest affection of both her parents ;
beloved by her brothers and sisters with a love which
suffered. neither diminution nor change to the end of her
life ; flattered and paid court to as an heiress ; mingling

192 Nano Nagle:
* in the best and most refined society of Lisbon, sharing in
all its gaieties and amusements ; surely this was a lot to
bte envied. It was one which is and has been sought after,
passionately, in every age by thousands of her sex. But
it had no charms for Miss Gould. To gratify her parents
she assumed her proper place in the gay and fashionable
society with which she was surrounded. But she did so
. as a duty, not as a pleasure. Its fascinations had no power
to shake the settled purpose of her soul. She had re
solved to consecrate herself and the whole of her immense
fortune to the service of her Creator.
"The stability of this< purpose was severely tried. To
the allurements of a life surrounded by all that was likely
to captivate a young and sensitive heart was added the
pain which she knew her perseverance in her holy resolve
was inflicting on those most.dearto her. Both her parents,
and her father in particular, positively objected. She did
not relinquish her purpose ; but she postponed its execu
tion. " Thus she continued for several years, until the death
of her father took place. - Then her good mother, with a
generosity equal to *her own, hesitated not to make the
sacrifice of the first born and most dearly-beloved of all
her children. Miss Gould's own desire at this time was
to enter some contemplative Order in the country where
she resided ; but here again we behold the overruling
Providence of God, who -had destined her for another
sphere of action, where her piety and the vast fortune she
possessed could effect greater things for' His glory. The
instrument of whom God made use to accomplish this
end was her director, a holy English priest, then Superior
of the English College in Lisbon. On consulting him as
to the selection she should make, he, with a disinterested
ness worthy of a true servant of God, represented to her

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 1 93
the claims which the persecuted land of her fathers had
on her, and the greater good she could effect by devoting
her great wealth to the extension of education and re
ligion amongst its long-tried but ever faithful children,
then but just emerging from the blighting and demoralis
ing influence of the Penal Laws.
" With Angelina Gould, whose ruling principle had ever
. been to sacrifice her own inclinations at the slightest inti-,
mation of God's holy will, this advice was decisive. She
relinquished without a pang her long-cherished desire of
entering a contemplative Order ; and a letter which she
received about the same time from an aunt of hers (Miss
Hannah Gould), who was a boarder in the Presentation
Convent of Doneraile, determined her choice towards that
Order. " And then came one of the sorest and bitterest of all
her earthly trials — the parting with a mother whom she
loved with all the ardour and strength of a truly affec
tionate and unselfish riature, arid who she knew would
experience in this separation all the agony of a second
bereavement; a mother, too, who loved her with the intense
fondness which only a mother's heart can feel ; the tear
ing of herself away for ever from all the sweet charities
of home — those daily interchanges of mutual kindliness
and love which formed the bond between her and her
brothers and sisters ; and, finally, the severing for ever
of those ties which linked her. to the home of her child
hood and youth, and' were entwined with - all the associa
tions of her life.* All these formed a sharp and bitter
trial, indeed, for one whose affections had always been
concentrated within the happy circle of her home. But,
like Abraham, she had heard the voice of God calling on
her ' to go forth out of her country, and from her kindred,
and out of her father's house, and to go into the land

194 Nano Nagle :
which he should show her ; ' and, like him, she unhesi
tatingly obeyed the divine call.
" A passage, attended with much suffering and some
danger, in one of the ill-appointed vessels of those days,
brought her to Cork in the summer of 1826. On the sixth
day of June of that year she entered, as a postulant, the
Presentation Convent of Doneraile. There her true life
— that life to which she had been called by God, and after
which she had so long sighed — may be said, in reality, to
have begun. "But how different from her former one ! The
wealthy heiress had become a poor postulant for admis
sion to a poor convent ; her rich dress was changed for a
coarse habit ; the delicately nurtured lady, accustomed to
be tended and waited on by others, was now compelled,
equally with her companions, to discharge the lowest and
most menial offices of the community, to rise at five
©'clock, to labour unceasingly during the day at that most
irksome and monotonous of all occupations — teaching the
ignorant and the thoughtless ; in a word, to lead, tyithout
any indulgence or relaxation in her regard, the hard and
self-denying life of a sister of the Presentation Order.
How fervently and faithfully she did all this, and more,
the record of her noviciate, which is still preserved as an
edifying tradition in Doneraile, abundantly attests.
"After a noviciate thus spent, she was professed on the*
24th day of April, 1829. Previous to her profession, she
had vested in trustees, for the founding of convents in
the then united dioceses of Cloyne and Ross, the whole
of her immense wealth, without even reserving to herself
a voice in the' appropriation of any portion of it. The
sum thus disposed of, with the subsequent additions made
to it by legacies and donations from her family, amounted
to over ^60,000. In this was included — to the honour of
her family be it spoken — a sum of £1 1,000, which they

Her. Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 195
allowed her to enjoy during her life, though they were
not legally obliged to do so.
" The fund thus created has been fruitful in blessings
ever since. Already ten convents of the Presentation and
Mercy Orders in the diocese of Cloyne, and two in the
diocese of Ross, have been founded, in whole or in 'part,
by advances made from it. From these convents, as
centres^ have gone forth, in ever-widening circles, the
twin blessings of education and religion, to enlighten
and sanctify the female children of these dioceses. All
honour to her to whom we owe such inestimable blessings;
whose noble sacrifice of wealth has raised up among us
so many thousands of pious and educated wives and
mothers, and so many tens of thousands of virtuous and
well-instructed daughters. When we consider the power
ful and salutary influence which these latter have exer
cised, and still continue to exercise, on husbands, and
fathers, and brothers, we will find it difficult, indeed,, to
¦estimate the full amount of good for which we are in
debted to Miss Gould, or the influence her benefactions
have had in civilizing, elevating, and improving the cha
racter of our people."*
It will be seen by the preceding pages that the Presen
tation Nuns of Doneraile gained much in a worldly point
of view when Angelina Gould was admitted into their
•community ; but her rare talents, her sincere humility,
her unaffected piety, and her untiring devotion to the
duties of her state were a still greater gain — a treasure
which money could not buy. Under the watchful care of
* Panegyric of Mother Gould by Most Rev. Dr. McCarthy, Bishop
-of Cloyne. We shall make further mention of Mrs. Gould when we
tome to write the history of the Presentation Convent in Youghal.
O 2

ig6 Nano Nagle:
the first mothers of the house (some of whom we are glad
to state are still living), the Convent Schools in Doneraile
attained a reputation, which their successors have success
fully endeavoured to maintain. We can state of our own
knowledge that these schools are not only eagerly availed
of by the inhabitants of Doneraile and the surrounding
districts, but that very many children from the county of
Limerick and even from the borders of Tipperary take
lodgings in the neighbourhood of the convent to avail
themselves of the instruction of the nuns ; thus renewing
in the nineteenth century scenes which were of ordinary-
occurrence in the days of Ireland's glory, when pilgrims-
from far-off lands came to quench their thirst for know
ledge at the fountains which danced and sparkled brightly
in the hallowed cloisters of Bangor, and Clonmacnoise,.
arid Lismore. The daily average attendance of pupils
was, at one time, 700 — a very large number for a rural.
district ; but the emigration movement has so diminished
the population, that the present average attendance does-
not exceed 300. These children acquire,- in the convent
schools, a sound secular and religious training. The
nuns in Doneraile do not care much to teach their .pupils-
mere accomplishments, and in this, we think they act
most judiciously ; for though accomplishments may and
do suit a fine lady, they are sadly out of place when the
training of poor girls is in question. The speciality
of the teaching in Doneraile consists in imparting a
thoroughly solid English education, .and we have reason
to know that in the matter of grammar, orthography,
arithmetic, caligraphy, geography, &c, the advanced
pupils of the convent schools in Doneraile could com
pete, successfully, with the pupils educated in purely
secular schools. This we state on the authority of a
Government Inspector of National Schools ; and we re-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 197
member having once heard the late lamented Bishop of
Cloyne, Dr. Keane, while on the visitation of his diocese,
declare that some of the Doneraile Convent children who
presented themselves for Confirmation were so grounded
in the Christian Doctrine as almost to be qualified to
fill the chair of a professor in the faculty of Theology.
Many of the former pupils have filled, and fill at present,
important situations as teachers in various places, espe
cially in England, where, not long ago, their united
salaries amounted to ^"1,800 per annum. Many others
are edifying members of religious communities in Eng
land, in America, and in their native land, thus, in some
measure, repaying the unwearied exertions of the nuns,
and giving to the world a convincing proof that even the.
cloistered Order of the Presentation may contribute to the
good of society in the noble work of educating God's poor
and lowly " little ones."
The Presentation Convent in Doneraile having been
originally designed for the accommodation of twelve or
fourteen nuns only, was soon found too limited for the
reception of all those who would seek a shelter within its
walls. It was evident that new buildings should be erected
to meet the requirements of the nuns, and to provide for
the educational wants of the Catholic community. Provi
dence raised up a man to accomplish this task, in the
person of the Very Rev. Thomas William Croke, D.D.,
formerly the gifted, genial, and highly accomplished
parish priest of Doneraile, and to-day the zealous, hard
working Bishop of Auckland — a see which, when en
trusted to his charge was little better than a wilderness,
but which has been, in the short space of four years
transformed by his energy into a blooming garden in the
vineyard of the Lord. In the year 1869, Dr. Croke laid
the foundation stone of a new chapel and ohoir, and after

iq& Nano Nagle:
watching the progress of the works with untiring zeal,
and a hopeful courage which never for an instant flagged,
he had the happiness of celebrating Mass, pontifically, in
the new chapel before taking his departure for his distant
see in New Zealand in 1870.
The Presentation Convents in Youghal and Mitchels-
town, of which we shall treat later on, are filiations from
Doneraile ; and one of the foundresses of the establish
ment in Youghal, Mother M. Joseph Loyd, is, we are de
lighted to say, still living in the Convent at Doneraile,
after having attained the fifty-fifth year of her religious
profession. Infirm in health, as may naturally be ex
pected at her advanced age, she still retains all the bril
liancy of intellect and buoyancy of spirit which marked
her early years, and if any of our readers should wish to
hear some spicy anecdotes of Irish society about the
beginning of the present century,- we know of no more
interesting " raconteur " than Mother Mary Joseph Loyd
of Doneraile. The c'ommunity numbers twenty-seven,
members, including two jubilarians, one of whom at pre
sent worthily fills the office of Superioress.
On the 2nd of October, 1818, Mother Mary De Sales
Devereux and Sister Mary Baptist Frayne left Kilkenny
to establish a branch of the Presentation Order in Wex
ford. This was the first convent established in the diocese
of Ferns since the Reformation, and the advent of the
nuns was hailed by the bishop, Most Rev. Patrick Ryan,
and the parish priest of Wexford, Very Rev. John Corrin,
as the dawn of a brighter day. Mrs. Devereux may be
truly regarded as a pioneer of the Presentation Order, for
having established the community in Wexford, and having
governed it until the year 1826, she went to found a new
house at Enniscorthy, where she died on November 5th,
1844, in the fifty-seventh year of her age, and the twenty-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 199
eighth of her religious profession. She Was succeeded in
the government of the Wexford Convent by "Mother M.
Baptist Frayne, whose life, devoted to training the "little
ones " of Christ in the practice of every virtue, end'ed-
happily on the 31st of January, 1852, in the fifty-sixth
year of her age". The Presentation Nuns of Wexford ex
perienced on their arrival the greatest kindness from all
classes ; foremost among their benefactors being Thomas
Brennan, Esq., grandfather to the present Sir James
Power, Bart., of Edermine ; Mary, late Countess of Shrews- •
bury, herself a native, of Wexford; and the Very Rev. John
Sinnott, President of St. Peter's College, who ever evinced
the greatest interest in the welfare of the community, and
contributed largely to the erection of the convent chapel.
The new and truly magnificent "schools, connected with
the convent by a cloister 280 feet in length, were opened
in 1863, and owe their origin to the princely munificence
of Richard Devereux, Esq. In these schools there is
at present a daily average attendance of 500 pupils, while
there are over 700 names on the rolls. Attached to the
convent is an Industrial School, where lace work and em
broidery are brought to a state of high perfection. The
community at Wexford consists, in the present year, of
twenty-two members.
We have now given the history of the Presentation
Order up to the year 1820. During that period, eighteen
houses were established in various parts of Ireland, and
the preceding pages tell what privations, what hardships,
what annoyances these pioneers of Catholic education had
to endure for the sake of the poor of Jesus Christ. But
they bore all this cheerfully — aye, and for the same cause
they would have died, were there need, with a smile upon
their lips, for the spirit which animated them was the spirit
of Nano Nagle.

200 Nano Nagle.

CHAPTER XVI.
Success of the Ursulines in Cork  Death makes ravages among the
first Members of the Community. — Several French Nuns banished
from France during the Great French Revolution find a Home in
the Douglas-street Convent. — The Sisters change their Residence'
from Cork to Blackrock. — Splendid success- of the Ursuline
Schools at Blackrock. — Establishment ofthe Ursuline Order at,
Thurles. — Mothers M. Ursula Young, and M. Charles Molony. — ;
Early Struggles and final Success of the Ursulines at Thurles. —
Mother M. Teresa Joseph Greene. — Three Sisters from Cork
proceed to found a Branch of the Order in New York. — Perils of
the Journey and failure ofthe Mission. — The Ursulines in Water
ford. — Mother De Sales Cooke and the Devotions ofthe Month
of May. — Present condition of the Ursulines in Waterford.
Having in the preceding chapter essayed to sketch the
history of the Presentation Order during the first twenty
years of the present century, we must now go back some
what to trace the fortunes of the Ursulines, during" the
, same period, in this kingdom and in other English-
speaking countries. For many years the community
established in Douglas-street, Cork, continued to occupy
the old home erected for their reception in 177 1 by the
munificence of Miss Nagle. The fame of their schools
attracted crowds of pupils — more, indeed, than the
good nuns could well accommodate — and these, by the
soundness of the education which they received,-by the
polish and. refinement of their manners, and by the visible
evidence of the influence which Religion exercised' on
their every action, soon established for the Ursuline
Schools a reputation which no vicissitudes of fortune can

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 201
easily affect. The number of applicants for admission
into the sisterhood was, also, steadily on the increase ;
but as new members came in, the original foundresses,
already ripe fruit for Heaven, began to drop off one by
one. Mrs. Mary Joseph Nagle was the first to wing her
flight to God, dying on the 23rd of November, 1789. She
was followed by Mrs. Angela Fitzsimons on the 25th of
April, 1 80 1. JVIrs. Ursula Kavanagh went to join her
sisters on September 18th, 1804; while Mrs. Coppinger'
was spared to direct and edify her community until
November 16th, 1822. All four, the first companions of
Nano Nagle, are now quietly sleeping around their
Mother's grave in the little cemetery in Douglas-street.
We, Irish, have doubtless our faults, as every other
people has had them from the days of Adam to our own
time, and as they will continue to have them until the
last trumpet peals forth the dread summons to God's
judgment seat. But we have had, and have our virtues
too ; not the least among them being a deep-seated and
fondly cherished feeling of the duties which hospitality
imposes upon us ; and to the discharge of which the Irish
Ursulines were summoned at an early period of their
¦existence. In their case,' however, they were not merely
gratifying a national instinct, but were paying back a
long-standing debt of gratitude ; for the recipients of
their bbunty were exiles from the noble land of France —
gentle nuns forced to fly from their convents, because of
the demoniacal excesses perpetrated in the sacred name
of Liberty, during the Great Revolution of 1793. "The
first who claimed the charity of a resting-place at their
hands" (we quote the words of the Very Rev. Dean
Murphy) " was' Madame St. Helena de Kavanagh, a sister
of the religious of that name who has been just now
mentioned. She had been many years a professed nun in

202 Nano Nagle :
a Benedictine Convent in France. She remained in Cork '
hut a short time, and left the convent to reside with a
nephew, who lived near the town of Carlow. Another
refugee who shared in their hospitality for a time was a
member of the sisterhood called the 'Annunciade
Celeste.' Her name was Lonergan,* and she is said to-
have been a highly gifted and accomplished woman-
After a short visit' which she paid to Dublin with her
brother, she finally took up her abode with the Ursuline
establishment in Thurles, which, as will be presently seen,
was founded about this time.
" The sisters Eugenie and Henriette Cinque-Mars,
Ursulines, the one of the Convent of Amiens, the other
of Abbeville, also sought and obtained a home and refuge
from the evils of persecution within its walls ; and they
were soon followed by another member of the community
at Abbeville, Mrs. Ambrose Daull. But the individual
whose name is most revered, and whose memory is most
fondly cherished, is Mrs. St. John White, a member of the
French Order of the Annunciation. She was admitted on
the 29th of September, 1797, and had been for fifty years
a professed member of a religious community. She was-
born in Ireland, but was only eleven years old when she
was placed in a convent for education. About the year
1746 she made her profession in a religious house of the
' Annunciades ' at Boulogne. Here she remained nearly
half a century, in the practice of her duties as a religious,
until the Revolution cast her forth a wanderer on the
world  On coming to Ireland to reside with a.
relative, she heard to her great delight and surprise that a.
convent existed in Cork, and she accordingly presented
herself to request from its members the hospitality which
* From Clonmel.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 203
was due to her years and character  During the
eleven years that she spent in the house, she was each day
becoming more and more dear to the members of the com
munity. In the Holy Week of 1807, her strength began
visibly to decline, and in the month of April she was called
to receive the reward of her labours and her sufferings.
In after and more peaceable times, the convent of the-
' Annunciades ' to which she belonged was restored, but
such was the dismay and the confusion attending its
dispersion, that the members could never discover what
had become of Mrs. White. It was five and twenty years
after the suppression of the convent, and many years after
her death, that the ' Annunciades ' of Boulogne learned in
a casual visit of an Irish lady, what had become of their
revered mother, and that her remains rested with the
Ursulines of Cork. The list of these religious refugees
is closed by the name of Mrs. Felicite Basteyrot, an
Ursuline of the Congregation of Bordeaux, who came to
Cork in 1799, and left the convent in 1802 to reside in the-
house of a relative."*
After the lapse of many years the Cork Ursulines had
ample evidence that their convent in Douglas-street was-
quite unsuited to the wants of their Institute. The
crowded streets of a city did not offer an eligible site for
a boarding-school ; and the nuns, therefore, resolved to
look out for some better locality, where their -young pupils
might enjoy the advantages of sea-bathing, pure country
air, and spacious grounds for exercise. The Ursulines-
chose for this purpose a residence at Blackrock, a village
charmingly situated on the Lee, about two miles from the
city. It was a strange coincidence that this property,
* "Memoirs of Miss Nano Nagle," by Very Rev. Dean Murphy,
pp. 87-88. Cork: Printed by Joseph Roche, 1845.

204 Nano Nagle :
which formerly belonged to the Nagle family, should thus
return to the spiritual children of a member of that house.
In the last century the Ursuline Convent, Blackrock, had
been the residence of the chivalrous, but ill-fated Henry
Sheares, whose tragic end, in consequence of the part
taken by himself and his brother in the Insurrection
of '98, is known to every student of Irish history. The
first stone of the new convent was laid on the 9th of
June, 1824, by Most Rev. Dr. Murphy, then Bishop of
Cork, and on the 12th of October in the following year
the community took possession of their truly palatial
residence, so picturesquely vseated above " the pleasant
waters of the River Lee."* Since 182^ no events of
importance to the outer world have diversified the tranquil
lives of the religious at Blackrock. Though death has
been very busy among them of late years, the community
numbers at present fifty' members (lay sisters- included),
* In Lewis's Topographical Dictiodary of Ireland, published in
1837, we find the following allusion to the Ursuline Institute, under
the heading Blackrock : — " An Ursuline convent was removed
hither from Cork, in 1825; it was founded in 1771 by the late Miss
Honora Nagle, whose portrait is in the visiting room, and is the
original of all the institutions of this class founded in Ireland. The
community consists of thirty-five professed nuns and six lay sisters,
and is governed by a superioress, her deputy, and a council of six.
At this institution many of the daughters of the Roman Catholic gentry
are instructed ; and in a separate building about 100 poor girls are
gratuitously taught and partially clothed. The convent has a demesne
¦of 42 acres, and is an ornamental building, consisting of a centre
and two wings, with a frontage of 350 feet. The chapel, which is
in the east wing, is fitted up with simple elegance, and ornamented
with four Ionic pilasters supporting a pediment, on the apex of which
is a cross, and at each of the other angles a vase. It contains a neat
monument to the Rev. Dr. Lyons, who was many years chaplain to
the convent."

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 205
whose untiring zeal in the cause of Catholic education
of the highest type is beyond all praise. The number of
young ladies annually educated within the convent varies
from sixty to seventy. These are almost exclusively the
daughters of wealthy Cork merchants, and of the Catholic
gentry of the county. We have already given in this
volume the curriculum of studies which the young ladies
pursue, and it will be seen that it is such as fits them for
occupying afterwards the highest social position. The
Ursulines at Blackrock have also in charge a poor school,
which is detached from the boarding establishment, and
in which about ninety poor children are annually in
structed, and are moreover partially fed and clothed by
those devoted daughters of St. Angela.
The beneficial results which followed the introduc
tion of the Ursulines into Cork soon began to attract
universal attention, and many Bishops were anxious to
secure for their flocks the blessings dispensed in the
Southern Capital by those devoted nuns. It was simply
impossible to gratify in this respect the wishes of all, as
the Cork community was for many years not very nume
rous, and could ill afford to send out subjects for new
foundations. However, in the year 1787, the learned and
zealous Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. James Butler, was
fortunate in procuring Miss Tobin (in religion Sister M.
Ursula) to enter the parent house with a view to the
establishment of a branch of the Ursuline Order in
Thurles. Mother Ursula had a rather singular role to
play for fully nine years after her profession, for she was
the only nun in the Thurles convent, and had to call im
lay governesses to assist her in conducting the schools.
Those who know anything of conventual life can easily
judge how trying this situation must have been to the
good religious, for almost the only solace which nuns

206 Nano Nagle :
¦enjoy after the arduous toil of the day is over, is found,
if we except their communications with God, in kind and
genial intercourse with one another, and this Mother
Ursula had to forego for nine long years. She was a
solitary palm-tree in the desert, leaning for support on
God alone, and on the counsel and friendliness of the
Archbishop. At length a brighter morn began to dawn for
the Ursuline institution at Thurles, and in August, 1793,
Miss Luby sought to associate herself with Mother Ursula,
and her pious request was readily granted. Her two sisters
and a lady named Lee soon followed her example, and
willingly took on younger shoulders a portion of the
burden which Mrs. Tobin had bravely and cheerfully
borne for so long a time. From this period the Thurles
foundation went on prospering for many years, but its
prosperity resembled April weatheV, " half sunshine, half
showers," for after a certain period, adversity knocked
once more at the door. In 181 8 the community had so
diminished in numbers that Dr. Everard, then Coadjutor
Bishop of Cashel, went to Cork in the hope of recruiting
its ranks from the parent house. His efforts were success
ful, and on the 14th of September in that year, Mothers
Mary Ursula Young and Mary Charles Molony, accom
panied by the Rev. Theobald Mathew, whose name has
since become " familiar as household words" in connection
with the cause of temperance, set out from Cork, and on
the following day reached Thurles, where they were
cordially welcomed by the Ursuline community, then
consisting of only seven members, and presided over by
Mrs. Scully. The arrival of these two sisters had a
marvellous effect on the Ursuline foundation at Thurles.
Their schools filled rapidly, the nuns were buoyed up
with new hope, and Science marched hand in hand with
her sister Religion. It may seem incredible that a caus

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 207
apparently so small should produce such great results,
but Mothers Mary Ursula and Mary Charles were no
ordinary persons, and it was because their sisters iri Cork
well knew this fact that they selected them to support the
tottering house of their Order at Thurles.
The former lady (Mrs. Young) was a woman of eminent
virtue, untiring zeal, and masculine intellect. She is
author of a Catechism of Irish History, admirably com-.
piled, which was at one time, and, we believe, is still in
general use in the Ursuline schools. This volume created
a sensation when it first appeared. Mother Ursula's
honesty of character forced her to " call a spade [a spade,"
and so, in detailing the barbarities practised by the
English in Ireland, she told some very unpalatable
truths, in very plain, strong, and, to the Governnlent of
' the day, unpalatable language'. The publication was
anonymous, and there were various, speculations as to its
author. Government officials attributed the volume to
the pen of Rev. John England, afterwards the celebrated
"Bishop of Charleston, and contemplated a prosecution.
The attention of the Imperial Parliament was next
directed to the publication, but eventually British
common sense prevailed over British stolidity, and men
were forced to admit that if Mother Ursula had said
some very hard things in her Catechism of Irish History,
she had said neither more nor Jess than what was true.
This talented religeuse subsequently published a " History
ofthe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."
On its appearance this book had a great sale on both
sides of the Atlantic, but is now rarely met with except
in the schools of the Ursulines. Its chief characteristics
are a singular terseness of style rarely found among
lady authors, and a critical acumen quick in distin
guishing fact from fiction.

208 Nano Nagle :
Mother M. Charles Molony was just such another
woman as Mother Ursula Young. There were common
to both the same spirit of genuine but unostentatious.
piety, the same untiring zeal, the same masculine intel
lect allied with a bright wit, the same feeling of deep
attachment to their native land, which
" '—taught them to speak plain the word Country ;"
but there was combined with all this a dash of poetry
surrounding the character of Mother Molony, which makes
her figure stand out prominently among the celebrities of
the Ursuline Order.
Born at Macroom Castle on the 17th of September,
1785, Christina Molony was ushered into the world under
most favourable circumstances, her father, Francis Molony,
Esq., being a leading merchant of Cork city, and at the
same time the owner of many broad acres in the county.
When the proper time came, Christina was sent to be
educated at the Convent of the Ursulines in Douglas-
street ; and there she not only realised the fondest antici
pations of her friends in the acquisition of worldly lore,
but laid up, beside, a store of heavenly wisdom, which,
eventually, led to her assuming the serge gown and black
veil of the daughters of Angela Merici. After her depar
ture from school, her time was occupied in the discharge
of the offices of charity towards her poor neighbours,
those hours only being excepted when_ social etiquette
demanded her presence elsewhere,. Before her father's
death, in 1808, both her parents had acceded to her ear
nest request that she might be permitted to join the
Ursuline Community, and so, after the customary term of
probation, Christina Molony pronounced her solemn vows
on the 10th of October, 181 1, and assumed the name in

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 209
religion of Mother Mary Charles. "The community had
discovered a real treasure in Mother Charles, as she was
to be henceforth called. Her piety was great ; her talents
were far beyond the average standard ; the literary and
artistic acquirements which she possessed were of a high
order ; but her industry in the acquisition of knowledge
was, perhaps, the most striking feature in her character.
She sought knowledge not to earn the world's applause,
for she despised the world and the proudest trophies which
it could lay at her feet ; she sought it not to win herself
a name, or to see the products of her pen glaring in cloth
and gold from the shelves of public libraries — but she
sought it that she might thoroughly correspond with the
spiriti of the Order she had embraced', and she drank in
knowledge only that it might be given back again to fer
tilize the minds and purify the souls of those guileless
maidens whom Catholic Ireland had committed to the
¦charge of the Ursulines. It was to gratify this thirst of
hers for knowledge that she was permitted, after com
plying with all the regular duties imposed upon her by
the rule, to devote her spare hours to study. She had
thoroughly mastered the French and Italian languages,
but she always considered it a great disadvantage not to
be able to commune with the master minds of ancient
Rome. But nil desperandum. Mother Charles quietly took
up her Latin grammar, and working on steadily and
methodically during the few hours allowed for such studies,
she soon attained such proficiency in the Latin tongue as
to be enabled to read the pages of Livy and Cicero, and
Virgil and Horace, as fluently and readily as she would
those of Burke or Addison, Dryden or Pope. She
also studied deeply the natural sciences — not from any
feeling of vain curiosity — but that she might thus be
p

2io. Nano Nagle :
enabled to impart more knowledge to the pupils com
mitted to her care.
But Mother Charles was not only learned — she was also
highly accomplished ; and would, occasionally, seek re
lief from her more severe pursuits in gratifying her love
for music, which, with her, had almost become a passion-
She possessed, moreover, a voice of exquisite melody, and
often, when the evening's shadows were falling, hersisters-
and their pupils would listen, spell-bound, to the sweet
notes of Mother Charles hymning in the dimly-lighted
convent chapel the praises of Heaven's Queen, or pouring
out in the recreation hall the history of Ireland as it is
expressed in her matchless melodies — now jubilant with
hope, and again sighing in the mournful accents of
despair. Such were the two sisters selected by the Cork commu
nity to help on the struggling foundation at Thurles, and
we need not feel surprised that under their direction the
schools flourished, and that what threatened to be a dis
astrous failure, became in a short time a most decided
success. Having achieved the work for which they had
been sent to Thurles, the two sisters returned to Cork,
where they remained until, as we, shall see later on, the
indefatigable Mary Charles proceeded to America to found
a branch of her Order in Charleston.
In the year 18 1 8, Most Rev. Dr. Everard laid the first
stone of a new and beautiful convent, and for many years-
the community flourished. Once more, however, the
Ursulines of Thurles had to struggle for existence, and
they once more appealed for aid to their sisters in Cork.
The appeal was successful, his Grace, Most Rev. Dr.
Leahy, the present distinguished Archbishop of Cashel,,
having been so fortunate as to secure for his diocese the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. .211
services of Mother Mary Teresa Joseph Greene of the
Convent of Blackrock. Under her able guidance the
prospects of the Thurles community rapidly became more
cheering. New, elegant, and spacious buildings sprang
into existence with marvellous rapidity, thereby affording
by means of additional accommodation fresh guarantees
for the preservation of the health of the pupils. The
schools were worked with unremitting zeal, and, as the
results became known, parents became so anxious to se
cure for their ehildren the training of the Ursulines, that
their convent in Thurles is at this moment, probably, the
most flourishing boarding-school for young ladies to be met
with in Ireland — the, average number of pupils, varying
during the year from 100 to 120. The system of educa
tion pursued in Thurles is. similar to that at Blackrock,
which has been already described in this volume.
In the year 18 10, the Very Rev. Dr. Koleman, Vicar^
General of New York, prpposed ,to the Ursuline commu
nity at Cork, through the Most Rev. Dr. Moylan, the
"establishment of a branch of their Order in the "Empire
City." The nuns thought the matter over, but took no
active steps towards the execution of the proposed project
until it was a second time submitted to their consideration
in the foljowing year. The prospect opened for the ex
tension of their Order-was, seemingly, a very bright one.
A splendid mansion situated in an equally splendid park,
and quite near the city, was to be placed at their disposal ;
and the existence of a Jesuit college in the neighbour
hood might be supposed a sufficient guarantee that the
spiritual requirements of the sisterhood would be amply
satisfied. It was also stipulated that the religious should
incur no expense in their journey to New York, and that
they might return on like terms whenever they might
think fit to do so. Preliminaries having been arranged,
p 2

212 Nano Nagle:
the Cork community selected three of their number to
undertake the new mission ; these' were Sister M. De
Chantal Walsh, Sister M. Anne Fagan, and Sister M.
Paul Baldwin.* Leaving Cork in the early days of March,
1 8 12, under the protection of two Dominican priests, they
arrived in Dublin, where they enjoyed for ten days the
hospitality of their dear Presentation Sisters at George's-

* Though this was the first foundation sent to America by the Irish
Ursulines, the Order had already been established On that vast conti
nent through the missionary zeal of the French daughters of S. Angela.
As far back as the commencement of the seventeenth century, a colony
of Ursulines from Bordeaux established themselves at Quebee, and
having.been, after some time, joined by sisters from the Congregation
at Paris, their institute became so flourishing that they were enabled to
send out a filiation to Trois Rivieres. When Canada was conqyered by
the British, the Ursulines at Quebec, fearing the hostility of the
invaders, fled for a time from their convent, but returned after a brief
period to resume their invaluable labours in the cause of Catholic educa
tion. The community' at Quebec sent out a second colony in the begin
ning of the present century to Boston in Massachusetts, funds having
been bequeathed for that purpose by the Rev. John Thayer, a Presby
terian clergyman who had been about that time converted to the true
faith during a tour in Europe, and had, after his conversion, taken
orders in the Catholic Church. Another branch of the Ursuline Order,
not however of the Congregation of Paris, was established at New
Orleans, and when the„British troops were forced to retire from that city
before the flashing steel of the Uoops of the young Republic, under
General Jackson, the Ursuline Nuns took the place of the devoted
daughters of Vincent de Paul, and by their unremitting attentions to
the sick and wounded, earned and received the warmest thanks of the'
President of the Republic. We omitted to notice above an interesting
relic which is still preserved in the convent garden of the Ursulines at
Quebec. It is an ash-tree, sole survivor of- " the forest primaeval,"
beneath which the foundress of the house, the venerable Mother Mary
of the Incarnation, styled by Bossuet " The Teresa of New France," .
used to sit while teaching the mysteries of the Faith to the savage
Hurons just 235 years ago.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 2 1 3
hill, and on the 19th of that month (St. Joseph's Day)
they sailed from the Bay. of Dublin in the brig "Erin.''
We, who are familiar with the improvements which the
appliance of steam has introduced into modern naviga
tion, can scarcely realise the dangers attendant on a pas
sage across the Atlantic in the days when the good ship
" Erin " sailed with her little freight of Ursulines for New
York. But dangers there were, and these neither fe\v
nor far between. Before they had got well outside Dublin
Bay, the vessel narrowly escaped being wrecked On a sand
bank, in which case all on board would almost inevitably
haVe perished, as the sea ran very high, and it was blowing
a strong gale. Again, as they neared Newfoundland, they
discovered one morning that they had been sailing all
night in the midst of immense icebergs — some of them
400 feet above the level of the sea — any of which coming
in collision with their frail craft would have shattered it
to pieces. However, under the protecting care of the
" Star of the Sea," the sisters reached New York safely
on the 9th of April, 181 2, after a voyage of twenty days.
They were most cordially welcomed by Dr. Koleman, and
after a brief delay went to take possession of their con
vent at Bloomingdale, within six miles of New York.
It is a curious feature in American nomenclature that
the name of a place can never be trusted to indicate the
chief characteristics of the locality itself. Our readers
will recollect how humorously Charles Dickens describes
the efforts of honest Mark Tapleyto appear "jolly" when
he and young Martin Chuzzlewit took possession of their
estate in the "flourishing city of Eden," and found, instead
of a terrestrial paradise, as they had expected, a miserable
swamp, breeding pestilential fevers. It was pretty much
the same with the New York Ursulines. Notwithstanding
all the pictures of happiness and success which their fancy

214 Nano Nagle:
had been painting, they found in the end that Blooming-
dale held out no very blooming prospects to them. All their
previous high expectations were doomed to be disap
pointed. They had been led to hope that their ranks
would be recruited by several American ladies who would
be sure to join the Institute, but they very soon found that
this hope was delusive, as the young blood of the United
States could not be induced to submit to the Ursuline rule,
which demands as a first sacrifice self-abnegation and a
total renunciation of one's own will. They had, also, inno
cently imagined that they would have the same material to
work upon in America as they had had at home in Ireland.
But they were not long in discovering their mistake ; for
though their schools were rapidly filled with pupils, very
many of them Protestants, the nuns were soon convinced
of their utter inability to render those young ladies ame
nable to discipline. Theymissed that docility, that modesty
of demeanour, that respectful deference to authority which
are pleasing and distinguishing features in the character
of Irish children ; and had to contend against the haughty
airs, the spirit of equality, and the petulance of the
children of the Young Republic. They missed, too, the
consolations of religion which would have sustained them
in their trials ; for though residing within six miles of the
city, as has been said, they were often for whole weeks
together without an opportunity of hearing Mass ; and for
the discharge of the other duties imposed by religion they
were entirely dependent on the casual visit of some priest
who might happen to call on his way to a station of his
mission. What wonder then that their hearts often turned
to their old convent by the Lee, and that they yearned to
drink in once, more the music of Shandon's bells ! They
had not long to wait; for the Ursulines in Cork, on hearing
the miserable circumstances in which their sisters at the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 215
¦Other side of the Atlantic were placed, immediately recalled
them — having very prudently reserved this power to them
selves when permitting them to go on their mission to
America. 'Accordingly, on the 27th of April, 1815, the
New York Ursulines bade adieu to Bloomingdale, and next
•day took ship for Ireland, being accompanied by some
clergymen and lay friends. After a sail of twelve days
they arrived in Halifax, where they remained for nine
weeks the guests of a worthy Irish priest, Dr. Burke, then
-vicar-general of the diocese of Quebec. They found it
very difficult to procure a passage home, as all the vessels
available were pressed into the service of the Government,
for the purpose of conveying troops to check the progress
of Napoleon, who had effected his escape from Elba. At
length, Dr. Burke, aided by two wealthy Irish Catholics
of Halifax, chartered a vessel exclusively for the use of
the nuns, in which, after various escapes from French
privateers, they sailed safely into Cork Harbour on the 13th
of August, after an absence of three years and five months.
Thus ended the first attempt of the Irish Ursulines to
'establish their Order in America. But this failure did not
dishearten them, for, as we shall see later1 on, they after
wards made a second and more successful endeavour
towards the same end.
In the year 18 16, the Ursulines came to Waterford and
¦settled at New Grove ; their first elected Superioress being
Mother De Sales of the Sacred Heart, sister of the late
Very Rev. James P. Cooke, President of St. John's Col
lege. Having been educated in the Ursuline Convent at
Cork, Elizabeth Cooke imbibed at an early age the spirit
of the Order, and on the completion of her studies, she
joined the Waterford Community. Her high education,
winning manners, and extraordinary talents, eminently
fitted her for the instruction of youth, so that immediately

216 Nano Nagle:
on her entry she was entrusted with the charge of the
young lady boarders. In May, 1 8 1 8, she received the re
ligious habit ; but her profession and that of the other
two first subjects who entered the Waterford Foundation
was deferred until June, 1821. As soon as she had
made her solemn vows, her prudence, piety, and talent,
warranted her appointment to the office of mistress of
novices ; and on the occasion of holding the first election
of a Superior, she was, as has been already said, selected
to preside over the new community. On seven subsequent
occasions her sisters appointed her to the same high
charge — that is to say, they placed themselves voluntarily
under her guidance as often as their rule permitted them to do,
so, a fact which is in itself the strongest proof of the love
and esteem in which this good lady was held. Though
always suffering in health, she never spared herself, and
through life it might fairly be said that she was the most
active and energetic member of her community, and was-
ever busy in the discharge of duties from which her phy
sical infirmities might have reasonably exempted her-
We cannot pass over in silence one debt of gratitude
which Catholiq Ireland owes to Mother De Sales. From
childhood we have been familiar with the charming devo-
, tions of the Month of May, which is specially consecrated
by.the Church to the Immaculate Queen of Heaven ; but,
perhaps, few know that to Mother De Sales Cooke we are
indebted for the introduction of this devotion into our
country. She established it in 1818 in the schools of the
Ursulines at Waterford, and thence, as from a centre, it
spread in ever-widening circles through the convents, and
schools, and parishes of our land, until , few Catholic
families can now be found who do not decorate a picture,
or a statue, or an oratory in their own homes in furtherance
of the devotions of the month of Mary. Mother De Sales

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 2 1 7
lived to a ripe old age, beloved by her religious- sisters,
and endeared to a large and admiring circle of friends.
She retained the possession of her faculties -to the last,
and was summoned to her crown on the 4th of June, 1868,
being then in the seventy-second year of her age, and the
fiftieth of her religious profession. Her obsequies were
celebrated in presence of the bishop of the diocese, Most
Rev. Dr. O'Brien, and a large concourse of the clergy and
laity who had come to pay a tribute to her memory, and
drop a flower upon the bier of one who had laboured long
and faithfully in the vineyard of the Lord.
The Ursuline Community at Waterford grew apace and
prospered. Young ladies who felt the Divine call to de
vote themselves to a religious life sought admission into-
their ranks, and pupils in large numbers came to be in
structed in their schools which had in a very brief period
attained a well-merited celebrity. The want of proper
accommodation for their numerous pupils at Newgrove
obliged the sisters to remove, in October, 1824, to their
present convent at St. Mary's. .The site is a most desirable
one, just near enough to Waterford to permit the sisters
to avail themselves of all the practical advantages of a.
city residence, and at the same time sufficiently removed
from the town to afford the lady pupils all the benefits to-
be derived from the bracing air of the country, and that
quiet and retirement which are essential to the successful
prosecution of their studies. The nuns requiring still
further accommodation for their pupils, erected a splendid
new structure in 1868, in which one does not know
whether to admire most the spacious well-ventilated dor
mitories, with their lavatories and bath-rooms attached ;
or the cheerful class-halls furnished with every aid and
help to the acquisition of knowledge ; or the music halls,
where the " concord of sweet sounds " is heard all day

.2 1 8 Nano Nagle :
long ; or the large and beautiful exhibition hall, where at
stated periods the friends of the pupils have an opportu
nity of seeing the fruitful results ofthe good nuns' training;
or the museum, which is a speaking proof that the chil
dren of Angela Merici are no enemies to secular science ;
or, finally, the splendid refectory wherein splendid hos
pitality is lavishly dispensed by the generous and warm
hearted religious. The grounds are spacious and very
neatly laid down, so as not only to afford the pupils ample
facilities for necessary recreation, but tending also by
their very appearance to form their tastes to habits of
neatness and order. The young ladies educated in the
Waterford Ursuline Convent have also the advantage of
¦seeing from their very childhood the ceremonies of their
religion carried out with imposing grandeur. On the 8th
of September, 1872, the late Most Rev. Dr. O'Brien laid
the foundation of the new convent church which is dedi
cated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The building is in
the Romanesque style, and all who have seen it are lavish
in their praise of it, not only considered as a whole, but
in its minutest .detail. The Ursuline Community in the
" Urbs Intacta" is at present as flourishing as its most
ardent admirers could well wish it to be. There are at
Saint Mary's forty-six professed choir nuns, with the
-usual proportion of lay sisters. For many years past the
number of young ladies boarding at the convent has been
very steady, varying from seventy to eighty. The sisters
conduct also a day-school (St. Anne's), where young ladies,
mostly daughters of Waterford merchants, who prefer re
siding in their own homes, receive all the advantages of
a sound Christian education. Over a hundred young
ladies avail themselves in the present year of St. Anne's
•schools, which are quite apart from the establishment in
which the boarders receive instruction. The Ursulines

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 2 1 9
oonduct, moreover, a school for poor children, in which
there is an average attendance of about 1 50 pupils —
seldom less, often twenty or thirty more.
Having brought down thus far the history of the Irish
Ursuline Foundations, we must now take leave of them for
a brief period to resume the history of the Presentation
Order. For as both were children of the glorious Nano
Nagle, we are of opinion that the history of the one
should not be dissociated from, but rather interwoven
with the history of the other, that the record of their
united labour may prove a fitting monument to the zeal
and piety of her to whom they owe their existence.

220 Nano Nagle :

CHAPTER XVII.
Views of J. K. L. on the subject of Education. — He establishes a
branch of the Presentation Order at Maryborough, and sets forth
his ideas concerning the qualifications for the religious state in a
parting Address to the Missionaries destined for the new Founda
tion. — Further extension of the Presentation Order. — Establish
ment of Houses of the Institute at Maynooth and Mullingar. —
A Foundation opened in historic Kildare, beside the ruins of the
Old Abbey of St. Bridget. — Missionaries from Kildare establish
the Presentation Order in Wagga- Wagga. — Generosity of the
Exiles of Erin in Australia. — The Presentation Nuns in Castle-
comer. — How the daughters of Nano Nagle planted her banner-
on the battlements of the good old Orange Borough of Bandon
Bridge. — The Presentation Order in Enniscorthy. — Establishment.
of a Foundation in Dingle. — Ravages of the great Irish Famine
in 1846-1847, and how the Presentation Nuns of Dingle per
formed " Martha's work" during that eventful period. The Order
of Presentation Sisters in Mouncoin.
"We live in our lonely cells,
We live in our cloisters gray,
And sweet as the chime of the convent bells,
Glides our life with God away.
" In the roar of a maddened world,
In battling passions' thrill,
Martha's work and Mary's part
Our endless portion still." Dr. Murray.
Rarely, if ever, has Ireland given birth to a more staunch
patriot, or to a man of riper and more cultivated intellect.
than James Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. Both

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 22 1
as a patriot and as a scholar, the great J. K. L. anxiously
desired the education of his flock ; for, as he himself ex
presses it, " Next to the blessing of redemption, and the
graces consequent upon it, there is no gift bestowed by
God equal in value to a good education ;' other advan
tages are enjoyed by the body, this belongs entirely to the
spirit ; whatever is great, or good, or glorious in the works
of men, is the fruit of educated minds." But, zealous
advocate of education as he was, the illustrious Bishop
of Kildare and Leighlin would admit of no compromise
between a religious and a godless system of training ; he
would insist that the spirit of Christian faith should guide
the teachings of the master, and that the heart of the pupil
should be fashioned after the model of the Gospel, while
his mind was stored with the knowledge of human science.
The convictions of Dr. Doyle on this, the all-engrossing
topic of our own day, are so ably expressed in the sixth
of a series of letters addressed by the distinguished
prelate to a friend in England, that we need no apology to
our readers for introducing a few extracts.
" A sort of enthusiasm," writes J. K. L., " in favour of
the education of the lower orders has now prevailed in
these countries for a few years ; more than just value has
been attached to it, and there are but few men in society
who calculate upon its possible consequences. Like every
other subject or bubble, whether it be war, commerce,
religion, or taste, when it connects itself with the feelings
of a people, it hurries them forward precipitately, and
they neither will, nor perhaps can, weigh dispassionately
any arguments unless such as are calculated to promote
the favoured or fashionable system. I have more than
once, for my own amusement, reasoned against the diffu
sion of knowledge amongst the poor, and I was highly

222 Nano Nagle:
gratified to observe the surprise as well as the absurd re
marks which my observations occasioned. I took care,
however, like Socrates, when disputing about the nature
of the Godhead, that I did not reason in the presence of
' a meeting of the friends of education,' lest I would be
stoned : for if the Delphian god himself announced that.
evils might arise from an imperfect education, such as at
best can be given to the poor, his oracle would be slighted,
or, perhaps, he would himself be thenceforth excluded
from the assemblies of the gods. It happens, however,.
that I am truly and heartily devoted to the greatest pos
sible diffusion of knowledge, even in Ireland, and not less
zealously opposed to the folly or malice of those who-
would put this mighty moral engine to work; without
guards and checks to control and regulate it ; or who would
avail themselves of the public feeling in favour of educa
tion, for the purpose of engrafting upon it their own wild
theories in religion."*
After showing the advantages of education, and de
ploring the superficial, and often dangerous instruction
imparted to the youth of Ireland, Dr. Doyle proceeds : —
" Iubehoves the government of every well educated so
ciety to provide, as far as may be in its power, for each.
class of its subjects, as much education, and of the best
kind, as the latter are capable of receiving with advantage
to themselves and security to the public interests. ' But as-
the mind of man, in its unimproved state, is more under
the influence of passions than of reason, hence it is ne
cessary, whilst it is in training, and its energies employed
upon itself, that no impressions be made upon it but such
* Letters on the State of Ireland ; addressed by J. K. L. to a friend
in England. Letter VI., pp. 120, 121, 122. Dublin : Richard Coyne,
4, Capel-street, 1825;

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 223.
as are really calculated to develop and exercise its facul
ties* or to plant in it the principles of religion and the
seeds of virtue. It is a paramount duty, that in the in
struction of youth, milk, not strong food, be given ta
them ; that whatever could introduce error or passion be
removed from them ; and that their_ teachers be as intent
in forming them to the habits of piety and virtue as in
exercising the faculties of their rninds." [Ibid.)
Holding as he did such views on the important subject
of education, we will not be unprepared to find that the
great Bishop, of Kildare and Leighlin was anxious that
the Presentation Order should be diffused throughout his-
diocese. Accordingly, in 1823, he determined on sending
out a foundation from Carlow, and having selected Mary
borough as the most eligible situation for the new estab
lishment, the good prelate, in his zeal for the instruction
of his flock, contributed during his lifetime a portion of
his revenue towards the support of the infant institute,
which was established in that town in 1824. The foun
dresses were Mother Mary Magdalen Breen (Superioress),
Sister Angela Mooney (professed nun), and Sister M.
Chantal Wilmerding (novice).^ Before their departure
from Carlow, the Most Rev. Dr. Doyle assembled, the
community in the chapel, and addressed the three mis
sionaries in a touching and impressive discourse, which is-
still preserved in the annals of the House at Maryborough.
" God calls, us," said he, " and gives us graces equal to
our calling and vocation. He, from the abundance of
His mercy, bestows particular graces on religious houses
and institutes ; but to continue them, something on our
own part is strictly required — a most faithful and fervent.
correspondence with all His graces ; unremitting attention
to duty ; no relaxation of the rule but what sickness re
quires ; to seek the glory of God alone in everything,

224 . Nano Nagle :
purely, entirely, and perseveringly ; to be as victims ever
immolated to His greater honour and glory — aiming at
this alone, seeking this alone ; to be fervent in the morning
in consecrating all to His glory, and renewing this con
secration often during the day  With regard to sub
jects for this new establishment, never retain one in whom
the spirit of the world cannot be subdued. Let no con
sideration whatever [here the prelate's manner became
very warm and emphatic] induce you to profess such a
one. Mark my words, and if I would have any of them
written in your house, or handed down to posterity, they
would be : Do all for the glory of God ; keep strictly to the
rule ; and never profess any one in whom the spirit of the
world cannot be subdued. We, sometimes, meet with those
who seem to soar to heaven by prayer, and by pride fall
suddenly like stars from the firmament ; the least devia
tion from the rule often occasions these fatal falls."
Having parted with their dear sisters at Carlow, the
little colony, accompanied by two priests and some pious
seculars, arrived in Maryborough on July 3rd, 1824, and
on the Monday following, the Feast of the Assumption,
in the same year, they opened their schools for the first
time, having 216 children on the rolls. The prospects
unfolded to the view of the Maryborough Presentation
Nuns were anything but inviting.- Their convent was a
small, poor house, placed at their disposal by the parish ,
priest, Very Rev. Nicholas O'Connor, V.G. Their funds
were so limited that, even with the strictest economy, the
sisters were often in need of the necessaries of life. Their
schools were miserable in the strictest sense of the term,
being situated beneath the church, in a store which is now
used as a lumber room, and which was neither properly
lighted nor sufficiently ventilated. These evils soon began

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 225
to affect the health of the devoted nuns to such an extent
that in less than thirteen months three of them fell martyrs
to duty ; and within two years two other members of the
community passed from earth to heaven. It was evident
that in the interests of Christian education this triumphal
march of King Death should be checked somehow ; and
the first to devise a remedy was Doctor Jacob, a Protes
tant, who in his professional capacity had become ac
quainted with the nuns, and knowing the good which they
were effecting, valued and prized them accordingly. This
worthy gentleman urged the necessity of providing suit
able school accommodation for the sisters ; he appealed
to his friends — Protestant and Catholic— to help on this
work of charity; and set them a noble example by putting
down his own name for a considerable amount. However,
it was not until September, 1 844, that the new schools
were opened — need we add, to the great relief of the
good nuns who had been for twenty years immured in a
wretched cellar.
The community lost by death, on the 17th of February,
1855, their spiritual father and firm friend, Very Rev-
Nicholas O'Connor, P.P., who left to the convent all that
he possessed. But the sisters did not gain much by the
bequest, for this apostolic man had during his life ex
pended his small income in "doing good;" and it was
found that the proceeds of the auction of his furniture,
together with what little money he had at the time of his
demise barely realised a sum of ^"200. He was succeeded
by Very Rev. Dr. Taylor, who has on many occasions
given striking proofs of his zeal for the interests of the
community. Under his superintendence, important works
were undertaken in 1873, in order to enlarge and improve
the convent. These works are still in progress ; but we
hope to see them ere long successfully completed. The
Q

226 Nano Nagle:
community at Maryborough at present consists of eighteen
choir and two lay sisters. The schools are in a very
thriving condition, the average daily attendance during
the present year being "£29.
On the 6th of October, 1823, Mothers Augustine Drom-
goole, Andrew McKeever, Peter Fitzharris, and Sister M.
Aloysius Neville came to Maynooth, for the purpose of
establishing there a branch of the Presentation Order.
Their convent was dedicated to the Infant of Nazareth,
and a more appropriate designation could not have been
selected, as their first dwelling was but a poor hut on the
Dublin road, where they tarried until December 1 8th, 1 824,
when the sisters removed to the buildings which they
inhabit at present. Mother Andrew McKeever, a religeuse
of rare merit, was appointed first Superior of the new
community, and continued to discharge the onerous duties
of her office for an uninterrupted period of thirty years-
On their arrival at Maynooth, the nuns met with many
marks of kindness from all their neighbours, but more
especially still from the distinguished scholars who then
filled the professorial chairs in what may be justly termed
the alma mater of the Irish Catholic clergy. Foremost.
among their benefactors must be placed the erudite Dr.
Anglade, who not only built the beautiful convent chapef
at his own expense, but left to the nuns at his death a sum
of £4.00. He, also, bequeathed a sum of ^200 towards
creating a fund to provide a daily breakfast for very poor
children, which fund has been since largely increased by
the donations of the late Very Rev. Dr. Montague, and
the late Very Rev. Laurence Renehan, Presidents of May
nooth College.
The foundation stone of the Maynooth Presentation
Schools was laid on July 15th, 1826, by the late venerable
Duke of Leinster, who was, during his long lifetime, a

Her Life, her Labours, "and their Fruits. 227
steady and generous friend to the community, and to the
poor children confided to their care. These schools have
been of immense service to the poor of Maynooth, pro
viding not only for their spiritual and intellectual wants,
but being also the means, in many instances, .of relieving
their bodily necessities. The nuns have at present on
their school-roll a daily average attendance of 160 poor
children, of whom from twenty to thirty are supplied every
morning with a substantial breakfast of bread and cocoa.
The number of nuns in community as we write is thirteen.
The Presentation Convent in Mullingar was founded on
the 29th of October, 1825, by Mother Xavier Doyle,
assisted by Sister Mary Clare Healy, and Maria Nugent
(postulant). The house was fortunate in obtaining as its
founder a person possessed of the large experience of
Mother Xavier, who had been at the time thirty-six years in
religion, and had made her novitiate in Cork, where she
became thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Nano Nagle
and her first associates. She was, also, acquainted with
all the practical details connected with the foundation of
branches of the Order ; as she was one of the nuns who
had been sent from Cork to establish the convent at
George's-hill; and had, later on, in 1807, in conjunction
with other sisters, opened the house in James's-street,
Dublin. With a Superior of such varied experience at its
head, it is not at all surprising that the Presentation Com
munity at Mullingar attracted to itself new subjects in
large numbers ; so much so, indeed, that during the first
seven years of its existence, no less than fourteen young
ladies assumed the habit of religion, and pronounced their
solemn vows. After a term of seven years, Mother Xavier
Doyle and Sister Clare Healy (who had come from Kil
kenny) were recalled to their respective convents; leaving
as a legacy to their sisters at Mullingar the cherished
Q 2

228 Ng.no Nagle :
memory of their many virtues.* On their departure, Miss
Nugent, a native of Dublin, called in religion Mother M.
De Sales, was appointed to preside over the new founda
tion, and continued to fill the office of Superior as often as
the rule would permit until 1850, when she went to Madras,
where she survived her arrival only sixteen months, dying
on the 19th of April, 1852. Mother De Sales was dis
tinguished by her singular gentleness and urbanity of
manner ; and her memory is still fondly treasured by the
aged poor of Mullingar, to whom she was more than a
mother ; for she had always balm of words and works to
apply to the distressing cases of mentaland bodily suffering
which came constantly under her notice, more particularly
during the terrible famine years.
The Presentation Sisters of Mullingar, not content with
their arduous and unceasing labours at home, were anxious
to diffuse through other lands the same blessings which
their Order had secured for Ireland. Wherefore, animated
by the spirit which prompted Nano Nagle to interest her
self in the education of the negroes in the West Indies,
they twice sent out missionaries to Madras. The first
colony consisting of Mother Ignatius Murphy and Sister
M. B. Grey, sailed from Ireland on the 2nd of January,
1859. The second, which consisted of Sisters Gertrude
Kearney, Ignatius Moore, and Mary Agnes Walton, left
their convent to toil for God under the burning sun of
India, in the month of January, 1863. Notwithstanding
these drains on its numbers, the Mullingar community is
at present in a flourishing condition, numbering fourteen •
professed nuns, besides novices and lay sisters in the usual
proportion. The schools are conducted with the same
* Mother Clare lived to a ripe old age, departing this life on Christ
mas Day, 1873.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 229
unremitting care, and distinguished success which mark
the educational labours of the Presentation Sisters where-
ever they have been established ; and that their efforts are
duly appreciated is sufficiently attested by the fact that,
in the present year, the' nuns reckon on their school-rolls
an average daily attendance of 300 poor children.
While compiling these pages, we have wondered, on
more than one occasion, how it came to pass that historic
Kildare failed to offer an asylum to the daughters of Nano
Nagle before the year 1829. Surely, if there be one spot
of her native land dearer than another to the heart of an
Irish nun, it ought to be " Kildare's holy fane," once sanc
tified by the presence, and for ever to be hallowed by the
memory of St. Bridget and her companions. It was re
served, however, for the great J. K. L. to establish a
monastery.of Irish nuns, " racy of the soil," beside the
crumbling ruins of the Abbey of St. Bride ; and he could
not have chosen a more appropriate time for the execution
of this truly religious and national work than the year
1829, when the gyves were falling from the hands ofthe
Irish Catholics, and the Emancipation Act restored to
them some of the privileges of freemen which for centu
ries they had not enjoyed. Accordingly, Dr. Doyle se
lected, in the year named, Mother Angela Mooney and
Sisters Augustine Maher, and Clare Dillon, all of the
Carlow community, to found a branch at Kildare in the
following year. The bishop was aided in the execution of
this laudable design by the efforts of Messrs. William,
Patrick, and Thomas Maher, brothers of the late venerable
parish priest of Carlow Graigue ; and of Messrs. Verdon-
and Cullen of Liverpool, who placed a large sum of money
in the hands of the then parish priest of Kildare, Very
Rev. P. Brennan, to enable him to purchase the site of a
convent, and fit up a house which stood on it for the

23° Nano Nagle :
accommodation of the new, community. On the 15th of
April, 1830, the nuns entered their new convent, and eight
days after they opened their schools, when numbers of
children flocked to them for instruction, the average daily
attendance at that time, and for some years after, being
260. Although the house which they inhabited from the first
was not unsuited to the requirements' of conventual life,
Father Brennan determined that the nuns should be
located in a building more worthy of the ancient renown
of Kildare. He therefore laid, on the Feast of St. Brigid,
1838, the foundation stone of a new convent, of which the
nuns took possession on the 22nd of August, 1839. The
good pastor lived for many years to see his work flourish,
and produce abundant fruit, as it was not until June 24th,
1864, that he passed to his reward in another and a better
world, after having governed his parish wisely and well for
upwards of fifty summers. For many years the Presenta
tion Schools at Kildare were, in accordance with the
intention of Nano Nagle when founding the, Order, re
served exclusively for the poor. However, in 1865; it was
judged expedient to open a school in which the children
of the wealthy might be educated, and this institute has
more than realised the fondest hopes and expectations of
its warmest friends. The establishment of this select
school rendered the erection of additional buildings a ne
cessity ; and the short space of two years was sufficient for
the energy and zeal of the parish priest of Kildare to ac
complish the desired improvements. Like most other
Presentation Convents, Kildare has sent out its mis
sionaries. In March, 1874, five sisters bade a last adieu
to holy Ireland, and sailed to raise the banner of Nano
Nagle, and teach the faith of Patrick and of Brigid of
Kildare beneath the shadows of the Southern Cross. After

Her Life, her Labours, and their. Fruits. 23 1
an unprecedentedly short voyage, they settled in Wagga-
Wagga, in the diocese of Goulbourne, Australia, and were
welcomed by the Catholic inhabitants with the most
•enthusiastic demonstrations of affectionate esteem. One
gentleman, a Mr. Cox, subscribed the munificent sum of
^2,500 for the building of a convent; and another, Mr.
Donnelly, contributed ^1,500 towards the purchase of
forty acres of land for the benefit of the nuns. Thus it is
that the " Exiles of Erin " give in other hemispheres a
proof of the " faith that is in them," and are building up
in far-off lands that Church which heresy, persistently
but vainly, sought to destroy in their own. ,The colony
at Wagga- Wagga, though still in infancy, is full of hope
and promise — the average daily attendance at the schools
being, according to the latest account, eighty ; while the
vast crowds of adults who seek religious instruction at the
hands of the nuns on Saturdays and Sundays are simply
heyond calculation.
The parent house at Kildare flourishes as in days
gone^by. There are sixteen sisters in community; and
the average attendance of pupils at the poor school reaches
the figure of 104 ; while in the select school it is as high as
forty-nine — a fact which speaks highly for the efficiency of
the Presentation Nuns as educators, since those who fre
quent their select school have ample means to enjoy the
advantages to be obtained at a boarding-school, if their
parents thought it necessary or expedient to avail of them;
In the centre of Ireland's great colliery district, at a
distance of nine and a-half miles from Kilkenny, stands
the small; but neat and thriving town of Castlecomer.
Owing to the number of labourers employed in the coal
fields, it was absolutely necessary that a branch of the
Presentation, or some similar Order should be established
here to rescue the poor children of the miners from the

232 Nano Nagle:
ignorance and vice which distinguishes that class in the
northern parts of England. Accordingly, on the 29th of
June, 1 829, three daughters of Nano Nagle, Mother Mary
Lewis Aylward (Superioress), Mother Mary Catherine
Aylward, and Mother Angela Feehan (stilly living) came
from Kilkenny to open schools for the instruction of the
poor of Castlecomer and the surrounding district. A small,
but neat and beautifully situated convent was placed at
their disposal by the Very Rev. Edward Aylward, P.P.,,
and the nuns having taken possession of it immediately
opened their schools to pursue their labour of love in the
training of God's little ones. Crowds flocked to them to
learn secular knowledge and Heaven's wisdom from their
lips ; but while the nuns laboured with unremitting zeal
in the discharge of their duties, it is to be regretted that
their schools were from the first, and are at the present,
totally inadequate to the requirements of the district..
The average daily attendance in the schools at present is'
125, biit the number of pupils would be much larger if the
sisters had more accommodation at their disposal. How
ever, we have sufficient confidence in the energy of the
present amiable and scholarly parish priest of Castlecomer,
Very Rev. J. Kelly, and in the generosity of his faithful
flock, to trust that the Presentation Nuns of his parish will,
ere long, have schools second to none other in any rural
district in Ireland.
In a picturesque valley on the old mail-coach road from
Cork to Bantry is situated the famous borough of Bandon-
Bridge, sometimes called " the Derry of the South." Some
forty-five years ago it was the hot bed of the worst type of
Orangeism, and one would have thought it the last place
in the world to select for the establishment of a convents
But for the very reason that there was danger in the enter
prise, and that its success would be productive of incalcu-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 233;
lable good, the heroic daughters of Nano Nagle would and
did establish themselves in " merry Bandon town," in the
year of our Lord, 1829. The instrument selected by-
Providence for the accomplishment of this happy design
was Miss Catherine O'Neill, the only daughter of a widow
lady then residing in Skibbereen. Miss O'Neill had for
many years been anxious to embrace a religious life and
devote herself to the service of the poor, but her mother-
would not entertain the project for a moment. Worried
at length by her daughter's importunity, Mrs. O'Neill said
one day, jestingly, that if Catherine would insist on being
a nun, she must found a convent in Bandon, where they-
had lately come to reside, in order that they should not
be separated. Miss- O'Neill eagerly accepted the proposal,
though it had not been seriously made, and set to work
at once to accomplish the foundation. To this purpose-
she devoted all her own fortune, and even solicited sub
scriptions from her friends throughout the county. Success
crowned her zealous efforts ; and having obtained from the
Duke of Devonshire a site for both convent and schools
on the Northern Hill overlooking the Bandon River, Miss
O'Neill, with four sisters from Douglas-street, floated the
standard of Nano Nagle over the walls of Orange Bandon
in the memorable year which witnessed the passing of the
Catholic Emancipation Act. Having thus far accomplished
Heaven's will, Miss O'Neill next gratified her aged
mother's wish ; for the old lady entered the convent as a
boarder, and remained in the society of her daughter
during many years, until she found a final resting place in
the quiet cemetery within the convent grounds. Meanwhile
the community increased and prospered ; the schools
were rapidly filled, and the attendance has ever since
steadily increased, so that it may be fairly stated that there
is not a Catholic woman in Bandon who has not in one

^234 Nano Nagle :
form or another experienced the gentle and beneficial
influence exercised by the presence of the Presentation
Nuns. For many years the accommodation both for the
nuns and their pupils was very imperfect. The religious
had no chapel attached to their convent until within the
last eighteen years ; and up to a very recent period, they
had absolutely no infirmary, no suitable novitiate, no
fitting apartment to serve as a refectory, and only a very %
confined and incommodious community- room. The four
school-rooms, too, were quite unsuited for the accommo
dation of the large number of pupils — often over 600 —
who avail themselves of the instruction of the nuns. All
these defects are, however, being remedied through the
.zeal of the parish priest of Bandon, and by means of the
liberality of the Catholics of the south.
The number of nuns at present in the Presentation
Convent at Bandon is seventeen ; and the daily average
number of pupils in attendance at their schools is about
400. On the 17th day of July, 1829, Mother Mary Francis
De Sales Devereux and Sister Mary Joseph Rossiter were
called on by Most Rev. Dr. Keating, bishop of Ferns, to
establish a convent of the Presentation Order in the town
of Enniscorthy. Immediately on the arrival of the sisters
the schools were opened, and were largely availed of by
the children of the poor artisans and labouring classes,
who in a very short time showed evident proofs of the
signal success which God vouchsafed to grant to the early
labours of the young community. As time went on the
numbers increased steadily both in the convent and the
schools, so that it was found necessary to afford the nuns
additional accommodation by the erection of new buildings.
The good people of Enniscorthy were not only willing,
but eager to contribute towards the expenses of the work,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 235
-and a truly beautiful' site having been -selected by Most
Rev. Dr. Keating, the foundation stone of the convent was
laid on the 16th of April, 1839; and so rapidly did the
works progress that the sisters were enabled to take pos
session of their new home on the Feast of the Visitation
•of our Lady in the year 1 840. The number of sisters still
continuing to increase, it was found necessary in course
of time to convert the modest little chapel into cells ; and
this step involved • the further necessity of providing, a
suitable structure for the due celebration of the Divine
Mysteries. To meet this want, the late Superior, Mother
Mary Teresa Kennedy, energetically undertook the erec
tion of a Gothic chapel, under the kind auspices of the
Most Rev. Dr. Furlong, who laid the foundation stone on
the 30th of May, 1858. The funds were raised by public
^subscription, and the generous people of Wexford were
so enthusiastic in helping on the good work, that a very
short time sufficed to see the completion of the convent
ohapel at Enniscorthy. There was still another want
which the zeal of Mother Kennedy would (and did supply.
"The schools were confined, and calculated to impair the*
^health of the pupils. To remedy this serious defect, the
zealous and energetic Superior undertook the erection of
new schools, and, aided by the contributions of many
.generous friends, brought the works to a successful termi
nation in the year. 1871. In these schools there is an
average daily attendance of 300 poor children, who share
an all the advantages to be derived from the teaching and
the example of the nuns, whose power of effecting good is
.greater than that of most of their sisters elsewhere, as
their schools are endowed by a bequest of .^300 left to
'them in perpetuity by the late Misses Redmond of
Enniscorthy. The number of nuns at present in commu
nity is twenty-one.

236 Nano Nagle:
The many blessings which followed in the train of the
Presentation Nuns were now so widely known and sb-
highly appreciated, that priests and people throughout
the length and breadth of the land were most anxious to-
secure their services in the education of the poor. They
were not only sought for by the inhabitants of the large
cities and populous provincial towns, but even the,
dwellers in the small hamlets by the sea-coast, and the
people of remote rural districts were eager to make any
sacrifice if they could only succeed thereby in establishing
in their midst the saintly daughters of Nano Nagle. The
nuns oh their part were always anxious to diffuse the
blessings of Cathplic education throughout our island, as-
far as circumstances would permit; and in choosing the
scenes of their future labours were guided by no mere
worldly consideration, but kept solely in view the greater
or less opportunities afforded them of spending them
selves in the service of God and of His poor. Hence
we meet them pursuing the" " noiseless tenor of their
way," now amid the ceaseless hum of the busy city, and
again by the wild cliffs that stud our shore, where silence
is scarcely broken save by the thunders of the ocean,,
or in some secluded rural parish where their labours arid
virtues are seen by God alone, and by those whom He
has favoured in bringing them within the reach of their
ministrations. The one guiding, all-regulating principle
of the Presentation Sisters was, and is, to go wherever
there was most work to be done ; and acting on this
principle two members of the Tralee community, Mother
M. Agnes Lonergan and Mother M. Teresa Fitzharris,
arrived in Dingle on the 20th of October, 1829, to estab
lish there a branch of the Order — a sum of ^1,300 having
been allocated for that purpose by the Most Rev. Dr.
Egan, late Bishop of Kerry. At some distance from the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 237
town the nuns were met by large crowds ofthe parishio
ners who gave them a most enthusiastic welcome, which
was not confined to mere external demonstrations of joy,
hut assumed a more practical form in the shape of
generous subscriptions which were handed in on the
following Sunday to the amount of £150 — a very con
siderable sum in those days— for the purpose of com
mencing the erection of suitable schools. On the morn
ing after their arrival — the Feast of St. Ursula — the new
foundation was formally opened with the celebration of
the Holy Sacrifice, and the nuns settled down to the
ordinary routine of their conventual duties as far as cir
cumstances would permit these to be discharged.
On the 2 1 st of November following they celebrated the
Titular Feast of their Order with great pomp and solem
nity. It was a day to gladden the heart of the poor
sorely-tried Catholic people of Dingle ; for then, for the
first time since the so-called Reformation, were witnessed
in that remote western town the grand and imposing
ceremonies of High Mass, Exposition, and Benediction
of the Most Holy Sacrament, carried out with all the
magnificence prescribed by the venerable liturgy of Rome.
The decorations surrounding the altar were as beautiful
as the skill of the nuns could make them ; and the bright
.flower?, the countless blazing lights, the sweet incense
curling heavenwards, the gorgeous vestments of the priests,
the melody of sacred song, and above all the, loving
presence of the Saviour, publicly exposed to the venera
tion of the children of his Irish martyrs, were to those
poor Catholic fishermen on that rock-bound coast as the
breaking of a bright morn after a night of tempest and of
gloom. Many an eye was wet with tears shed not in
sorrow but in joy ; and many a heart, full to overflowing,
would have cried out with Zachary : "Blessed be the Lord

238 Nano Nagle :
God of Israel : because He hath visited and wrought
the redemption of His people " (Luke i., 68). Even the
Protestants of the neighbourhood, many of whom assisted
on the occasion through motives of curiosity, were favour
ably-impressed, as well by the solemnity of the sacred rites,
as by the earnest, unaffected piety of the Catholic wor
shippers, to that extent that some of them, laying aside
old prejudices, became most kind and attentive to the
nuns while the Foundation was yet in its infancy.
The sisters were unable to commence their labours for
the instruction of the poor until the 2nd of February,
1830, when they opened schools in the parish church,
where they continued to teach until the following year
when the buildings intended for educational purposes
were completed. It is needless to say that the children
of the parish and the surrounding district were not slow
to avail themselves of the instruction imparted by the ,
nuns. Indeed the number of those who sought admis
sion was greater than the sisters could conveniently
receive; and from the very start their school-roll showed
a daily average attendance of 240 poor children. The
task of attending , to the instruction of so many was
manifestly beyond the power of two sisters, no matter how
zealous, able, and willing they might be ; but the want
which they had come to supply was urgent, and so they
laboured on as best they could, until in due time Godl
brought them other workers to assist them in discharging
the arduous, and important duties which they had under
taken solely for His sake.
For many years the Presentation Nuns of Dingle worked
quietly but successfully, without the occurrence of any
event of importance to vary the routine of their every
day life, if we except the departure from among them,
in the year 1840, of a young colony, with Mother M-

Her L ife, her Labours, and their Fruits. 23^
Joseph Mahony at its head, for the purpose of establishing-
a branch of the Institute at Cahirciveen. But it was
reserved for the dreadful famine year of 1 846-47, to bring-
before the world, and place in- their true light the merits-
ofthe daughters of Nano Nagle, whose spirit of retir
ing modesty would have made them shrink instinc
tively from public- notice, had they not been called upon
to come forward by the sacred voice of charity. The
memory of that dreadful visitation will not soon fade from.
the minds of the Irish people, for as the scourge passed
over the land there was scarce a family which it left ¦
untouched. Famine and pestilence were to be met with
in every province and in every parish of our island, but
nowhere were their terrible effects so severely felt as in
the South and West. It is not our province to enter into
the history of that period, but one or two facts drawn
from authentic sources may not be entirely out of
place. The Dublin correspondent of a London journal
records an average of eighty deaths per month from
starvation in one parish in Clare ; and the same unpreju
diced authority adds that "there is scarcely a house that isr
not a lazzaretto. Fever is in every cabin."* In a Dublin
paper of the same period the following suggestive item of
news appeared in the commercial intelligence : — " Up
wards of 150 ass hides have been delivered in Dublin
from the county Mayo for exportation to Liverpool. The
carcases, owing to the scarcity of provisions, had been.
used as food. But," adds John Mitchel after relating this
fact, " those who could afford to dine upon famished
jackasses were few ihdeed."f In the Report of the
Commissioners sent out by the Society of Friends in.
* Dublin Correspondent of DaHy News, March 3rd, 1847.
t "History of Ireland," by John Mitchel, vor". II., p. 452.

240 Nano Nagle :
London to inquire into the wants, and help to alleviate
the sufferings of the victims ofthe Irish famine, we meet at
every page with statements and narratives which would
seem incredible, if they had come to us from any less
trustworthy source. Thus Mr. William Edward Foster,
•one of the Commissioners, writing from the village of
¦Cleggan, nearClifden, on January, 25th, 1847, says> "The
distress was appalling, far beyond my power of descrip
tion. I was 'quickly surrounded by a mob of men and
women, more like famished dogs than fellow-creatures, whose
figures, looks, and cries all showed that they were suffering the
ravening agony of hunger  I went into two or three
of the cabins. In one there were two emaciated men
lying at full length on the damp floor in their ragged
•clothes, too weak to move — actually worn down to skin
;and bone. , In another a young man lay ill of dysentery ;
his mother had pawned everything, even his shoes, to keep
him alive ; and I shall never forget the resigned, uncom
plaining tone with which he told her that the only medicine he
¦wanted was food."* The same gentleman thus records a
visit paid to another village in the same month and year.
•" Bundorragha, the village of which we had heard so bad
an account the previous evening, being on* the other side
of the harbour, I took a boat to it, and was much struck
by the pale, spiritless look and air of the boatmen, so
different from their wild Irish fun when I made the same
¦excursion before. Out of a population of 240, I found
thirteeaalready dead from want. The survivors were like
walking skeletons ; the men stamped with the livid mark
of hunger; the children crying with pain ; the women in
* "Transactions of the Relief Committee ofthe Society of Friends
•during the Famine in Ireland," p. 156. Dublin, 1852.

Her Life, her Labours,, and their Fruits. 2^1
¦some of the cabins too weak to stand."* Not to multiply
quotations needlessly, Mr. Forster thus sums up the
impressions produced on his mind by the scenes wit
nessed during his melancholy tour through the western
•counties : — " When we entered a village," he writes, " our
first question was, how many deaths ? ' The hunger is
upon us' was everywhere the cry, and involuntarily we
found ourselves regarding this hunger as we should art
epidemic ; looking upon starvation as a disease- In fact,
as we went along, our wonder was not that the people died, but
that they lived ; and I have no doubt whatever that in any
other country the mortality would have been far greater ;
that many lives have been prolonged, perhaps saved, by
ihe long apprenticeship to want in which the Irish peasant
has been trained, and by that lovely touching charity which
prompts him to share his scanty meal with his starving neigh -
hour .... Like a scourge of locusts, ' the hunger' sweeps
over fresh districts, eating up all before it. One class
after another is falling into the same abyss of ruin."f
Another of the Commissioners, Mr. William Bennett,
after describing some revolting scenes of misery which
one cannot read without a shudder, sums up with
these terrible words : " similar scenes are occurring every-
¦where."X Terrible as was the havoc made in the western part af
Ireland by the famine, it would, perhaps, be no exaggera
tion to assert that its ravages were still more wide-spread
in the southern counties. Who has not heard of Skull and
Skibbereen ? — names which have almost become synonymous
* " Transactions of the Relief Committee of the Society of Friends
during the Famine in Ireland," p. 153.
f- Ibid, p. 201.
{ Letter of March 13th, 1847, ibid., p. 163.
K.

2-42 Nano Nagle :
with famine and pestilence, so terribly were the effects of
both felt in the southern districts during the terrible
visitation of 1846-47. Death numbered so many victims
in the latter town that so early as the first week in
February, 1847, a sufficient supply of coffins could not be
procured for the decent interment of the fever-stricken
corpses ; and as a last resource the parish authorities had
to provide a public coffin with movable sides for the
conveyance of the dead bodies to the graveyard.
This novel contrivance was in almost hourly requisition
among the poor; and as soon as the undertakers had
dropped from it some emaciated corpse into the trench
which had been prepared for its reception, they hastened
off to some other house of death where a luckless victim
of starvation or of plague was awaiting his turn to be
borne to his last resting-place. Appalled by the terrible
scenes of which they were constant witnesses in the
country, the people rushed panic-stricken into the cities
and large towns ; but so far from escaping death by this
means, they only hastened its advent, and multiplied its
horrors a hundred-fold. The late. lamented John Francis
Maguire graphically describes some famine scenes which
he witnessed himself at this period in Cork. Writing of
the funeral of a fellow-citizen which he attended, and,
which assumed the proportions of a public demonstration
of respect to the worth and memory of the deceased, Mr.
Maguire proceeds: — "As the procession reached the
church of St. Anne, Shandon, a cry of horror was raised
at the spectacle which was there beheld. Under a kind
of open shed, attached to a guard-house, which has since
been removed, lay huddled up in their filthy fetid rags,
thirty-eight or forty human creatures — men, women, chil
dren, and infants of the tenderest age — starving and
fever-stricken— -most of them in a dying state — some dead

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 243
— and all gaunt, yellow, hideous, from the combined
effects of famine and disease. Under this open shed they
had remained during the night, and until that hour —
about ten in the morning — when the funeral procession
was passing by, and their indescribable misery was beheld
by the leading citizens of Cork, including the Mayor and
several members of the Board of Guardians."* Further
on the same writer says : — " The public mind became
familiarised with the horrors which were of daily occur
rence  I have myself witnessed more than'one
awful occurrence of the kind. I have beheld women in
scanty rags, that did not reach much below the knee,
whose legs had no more flesh on them than there is on
the leg of a crane. From knee to ankle there was
nothing but bone and shrivelled skin, not the faintest
indication of the ordinary calf. Literally the streets
swarmed with walking skeletons. In every face was care,
on every brow was gloom, in every heart was sorrow
and depression. The healthy hue seemed to have been
banished from the countenance even of youth, the bright
ness of the eye was dimmed, and the once gay laugh of a
light-hearted people was hushed. The very atmosphere
was charged with sorrow, and suffering, and death. It
was indeed a sad time for that stricken people."f
It is easy to conclude from such descriptions as these .
that the number of deaths was something appalling. In
the brief space of three weeks — from the last week in
January, 1847, to the end of the second week of February,
in the same year — no less than 396 deaths were registered
in the Cork Workhouse. And we learn from official
* "Father Mathew: a Biography," by John Francis Maguire,
M. P., p. 393.
t Ibid., p. 394. R 2

244 Nano Nagle:
returns that 2,130 persons died in the same institution in
something less than four months, viz. from the 27th of
December, 1846, to the middle of April, 1847 ! It was no
unusual occurrence to see fifty, sixty, or even seventy
funerals wending their melancholy way to a single ceme
tery within the twenty-four hours. But to sum up all in a
few words, "a fact may be mentioned which renders
further description of the state of the country needless.
The Cork Patent Saw Mills had been at full work from De
cember, 1846, to May, 1847, with twenty pairs of saws con
stantly going from morning till night, cutting planks for coffins,
and planks and scantlings for fever sheds, and for the framework
of berths for emigrant ships."* With such facts before us
it is not difficult to explain why the population of Ireland
from being 8,175,124 in the year 1841, dwindled down to
the figure of 6,551,970 in 1851, showing over a million and
a half of Irish victims sacrificed in a single decade to
English misrule and newfangled theories of Political
Economy.j- * "Father Mathew: a Biography," by John Francis Maguire,
M. P., p. 390.
f It would be a mistake to suppose that the Irish people starved
and died in 1846-47 because of a scarcity of provisions in the country.
That no such scarcity existed, at least to such an extent as to produce
a famine, is easily seen by an inspection of the official returns of the
exports ofthe period in "Thorn's Directory," which are fully sup
ported by the trade reports in the newspapers of the time. Thus,
in the Daily News of October 3rd, 1847, we are informed that the oats
in the London market were principally the product of the preceding
harvest in Ireland. The Drogheda Argus tells us that in the week
ending the 3rd of October, there were exported from Drogheda, 1,200
head of cattle ; 3,500 sheep and pigs ; 2,000 quarters of wheat ; 130
cases of eggs; 211 tons of barley; besides butter, &c. We learn
from the Evening Post of the same date, that in the very same week
Waterford exported 250 tons of barley; 1,100 sheep and pigs; 5,400
barrels of oats ; and 7,700 firkins of butter. Captain Larcom (quoted

Hrr Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 245
In Dingle, as indeed in all towns situated on the sea-
coast, the horrors of the famine year were witnessed in all
their terrible reality. The inhabitants were unable Jo
pursue the fishing trade, from which they were accus
tomed usually to draw the means of- subsistence, and
having no other resource to fall back upon, were forced
either to die by the roadside or seek the asylum of the
over-crowded workhouse, which in the minds of most of
them was a lot almost as bad as death. There was indeed
one other course open to them — to sacrifice their souls that
they might preserve the life of their bodies ; for the agents
of proselytism were busy and active in their endeavours to
in " Thorn's Official Directory" for 1852), the Government Commis
sioner, estimated the products oflrelandin 1847 at 16,248,934 quarters
of wheat, and 8,785,144 tons of potatoes. With such facts before him
well might the great Bishop of Orleans, Felix Dupanloup, write :-,.
" Ce produit suffirait pour nourrir 1 6 millions d'hommes. Quelqu'un l'a
consomme, mais cen'etaient pas les Irlandais." (" Discours prononce
en faveur des pauvres Catholiques d'Irlande, dans l'eglise Saint-Roch,
25 Mars,'i86i. Pieces Justificatives," note 15). Moreover, large sup
plies of provisions were daily arriving from all parts of the world for
the relief ofthe famine-stricken Irish, but John Mitchel tells us how
the Government disposed of them in the interest of " Free Trade " : —
" The vast supplies of food," he writes, " purchased by the ' British
Relief Association ' with the money of charitable Christians in Eng
land, were everywhere locked up in Government stores. Government,
it seems, contrived to influence or control the managers of that fund.;
and thus, there were thousands of tons of food rotting within the
stores at Haulbowline, at Cork Harbour; and tens of thousands rotting
•without. For the market must be followed, not led (to the prejudice
of Liverpool merchants !) ; private speculation must not be disap
pointed, nor the calculations of political circles falsified !" (Mitchel's
" History of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 412). It is a notorious fact also, that
English merchants were in the habit of exporting some of the com
sent to Ireland, reshipping it, and selling it afterwards to the Irish,
thereby realising a handsome profit (See Mitchel, p. 407).

246 Nano Nagle:
induce the poor fishermen of Dingle to barter their souls
for bread. But their efforts were fruitless, for those true
Celtic hearts rejected all their proposals with indignant
scorn, and filled with the spirit of their martyred fathers
they were prepared to die, but would never apostatise.
In those dark days of trial the Presentation Nuns were
indeed " ministering angels " to the famine-stricken poor
of Dingle. Their usual qccupations were for the while
laid aside, and the schoolhouse assumed the appearance
partly of a hospital, partly of a cook-shop. There were
those devoted sisters day after day, striving to alleviate, as
far as their limited means would permit, the terrible suffer
ings which they saw around them. Some of them were
busy all day long kneading bread ; while others, exhausted
by the heat, stood at the ovens to superintend the process
of baking it. Others were engaged in ladling out large
cauldrons of hot soup to the famished creatures who had
hardly strength enough left to hold the vessels in which
they received it. Others dispensed medicines for the
relief of the poor victims who were lying fever-stricken in
their wretched cabins. Others were " plying their needle
and thread " all day long, and sometimes far into the
night, making such plain warm garments as they could
procure to shield the poor sufferers from the cold wintery
blast of the wild Atlantic. Others were engaged at their
desks writing appeals to their friends for help for the
famishing ; and such as were physically unable to work
poured forth their prayers to God, begging that He would
"spare His people," or sought to alleviate by the con
solatory maxims of Religion those sufferings which they
were unable to prevent. Right nobly did the daughters
of Nano Nagle discharge " Martha's part" in Dingle in
those days of sore affliction. Hundreds received food and
clothing, at their hands, and so self-sacrificing were the ¦

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 247
.good sisters that many of themselves were stricken down,
martyrs of charity, and suffered for long painful weeks
the agonies of a most malignant fever. But the Presenta
tion Nuns of Dingle did more than this. They deter
mined to make the poor as far as possible self-supporting,
and for this purpose they opened an Industrial School,
where they taught the children embroidery, knitting, plain
work, the manufacture of Honiton lace, and guipure. Over
700 girls were constantly employed in this school during
the famine years, and the nuns having solicited orders from
large manufacturing firms as well as .from wealthy private
individuals, these children were enabled to earn on an ave
rage five shillings a week, while those engaged at lace
work earned as much as ten shillings weekly. The estab
lishment of this school was, under God, the means of
saving the sbuls as well as the bodies of thousands of
poor creatures, as it withdrew them entirely from any inter
course with the agents of proselytism ; indeed it was the
.first and most effectual check which the agents of the
Bible societies received in Dingle.
An unprejudiced witness, Michael Lawler, Esq., Dis
trict Inspector under the Board of National Education,
¦writing in 1851, pays the following well-merited tribute to
the Industrial School attached to the Dingle Presentation
Convent : — " Many of the girls attending this school,
-where great attention is also paid by the nuns to their
literary and religious education, have during the past '
seven years been enabled by the employment here afforded
to them to save themselves, their aged parents, and young
helpless brothers and sisters from the dreadful necessity
of seeking admission into the over-crowded workhouse of
the town."*
* "Fourteenth Report ofthe Commissioners of National Education
in Ireland (for the year 1851) : Report of Michael Lawler, Esq., Dis
trict Inspector," p. 794.

248 Nano Nagle:
The schools built for the sisters in 1830 having become
insecure by reason of the combined action of time and
climate, it was found neces'sary to replace them by a more
substantial and commodious building. Accordingly the
foundation stone of the present splendid schools, which
rank among the finest of their class in Ireland, was laid by
the Most Rev. Dr. Moriarty in April, 1871, and classes-
were opened in the new and spacious halls on the Feast.
of the Immaculate Conception, 1872. In these schools
the nuns have an average daily attendance of about 3*50
pupils, who are thoroughly instructed in all the branches
usually taught in schools connected with the. Board of
National Education. Many of them are taught in addi
tion vocal and instrumental music, French, fancywork, and
drawing, in which accomplishments the general progress
is most satisfactory. Nor are the good sisters unmindful
of the corporal wants of their pupils of the poorer class.
"About 150 children," writes J. Percival Balmer, Esq.,
" get dresses, pinafores, and other wearables generally in
winter ;"* while between 70 and 80 of the poorest among
them are every morning provided with a substantial,
comfortable breakfast, by which means the regular atten
dance at school of those poor children who most need
instruction is secured.
The community of the Dingle Presentation Convent at
present consists] of nineteen members, whose labours are
unceasing in the education of the poor. -Their convent,
though old, is airy and commodious ; is built on a most
healthy situation, commanding a fine view of the Bay ; and
has spacious gardens attached, which afford the sisters
ample opportunities for taking exercise. Besides a very
•"Reports of Assistant Commissioners, 1870 : Report of J. Percival
Balmer, Esq.," sect. 135.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 249
handsome choir attached to St. Mary's Parochial Church,
the sisters have, also, within the enclosure a pretty
domestic chapel.
In the year 1829, the Rev. Nicholas Carroll, parish
priest of Mouncoin, a village prettily situated six miles
west from Waterford, on the road to Carrick-on-Suir, de
termined to hand over to the Presentation Nuns the edu
cation of the female children committed to his pastoral
charge ; and that no time might be lost in the execution,
of this laudable project, he purchased in that same year,
with the approbation of Most Rev. Dr. Kinsella, bishop of
Ossory, a suitable site for the erection of the new convent.
The members of his flock, most of whom had never seen
a nun, though they had heard enough of the blessings-
attendant on their labours to wish them a cordial welcome,
eagerly seconded the efforts of their zealous pastor, sparing
-neither their money nor their toil in erecting a residence
for the reception of those saintly ladies who were about
to devote themselves to the great work of Christian edu
cation in that extensive and densely-populated district.
On the ist July, 1830, Mother M. Teresa Cormack, and
Sister M. Magdalen Gore arrived from Kilkenny to open
the new foundation. The former was appointed to the
¦office of Superior, and two months later the little commu
nity was increased by the arrival of a newly-professed
sister, who still survives, and is the cherished connecting
link between the present and the past of the Mouncoin
Presentation Convent. As soon as the nuns opened their
schools, eager crowds of scholars flocked to them for in
struction, not only from the parish immediately committed
to their care, but also from the surrounding ones, so that in
a very short time the sisters could reckon on the school-
roll the names of over 300 pupils, varying in age from the
tender child of four years to the well-developed maiden of

.25° Nano Nagle :
eighteen. The external appearance of their pupils was not
perhaps, at first sight, calculated^ impress the good nuns
very favourably, or to render the duties which they were
•called upon to discharge inviting in any very high degree.
Their dress was poor, and in most cases ragged ; their
manners, though never rude, were far from being polished.
Yet, beneath this rough neglected surface, the experienced
daughters of Nano Nagle quickly discovered a rich mine
of Irish talent, and as they beheld the bright ore of genius
Sparkling in the eyes and gleaming on the expressive,
intelligent features of those peasant girls, they determined
to spare no pains in developing the rich resources which
Providence had so bountifully placed within their reach.
Their labours, in this respect, were rendered compara
tively easy by reason of the docility of the children ; for
they were quite as eager to receive instruction as the
•nuns were to impart it t© them, and the Mouncoin Con
vent School had not been many months in operation when
the beneficial results of a religibus education were visible
in a marked degree in almost every household in- the
parish. The cares and anxieties inseparable from the office of
Superior, as well as the fatigue occasioned by her duties
in the schools, soon affected the health of Mother M.
Teresa Cormack; and in the v year 1833 this perfect re
ligious passed quietly away to the enjoyment of that re
ward which has been promised to those who " instruct
many unto justice." After her death, Mother M. Magdalen
Gore was called to preside over the young community.
This lady was a fervent convert to the Catholic faith, and
when her intention of embracing the laborious and. self-
sacrificing life of a Presentation Nun became known to
her Protestant friends, she had to struggle for a long time
against their deep-rooted prejudices and strong aversion

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 25 1
to Catholic conventual establishments. Their opposition,
however, began in course of time to disappear ; to such
an extent, indeed, that her mother and her brother, Dr.
Gore, afterwards became generous benefactors of the
house over which their relative presided. Mother Gore's
' term of office was marked by a display of singular pru
dence and administrative ability ; her unaffected piety and
great zeal for the instruction of the poor children who
attended the schools made her a model which her sisters
might copy with much profit, while her humility, her gen
tleness of manner, and her naturally kind and winning dis
position secured her a place in the affections of all with
whom she was brought in contact. She resigned her
pure spirit into her Maker's hands, in September, 1866,
after having spent forty-seven years in the service of the
poor. The building which the nuns occupied during the first
seventeen years of their residence in Mouncoin, though
considered sufficiently commodious in those days and in
that locality, would not be judged in harmony with our
more modern ideas regarding conventual and school re
quirements. For the long period which we have men
tioned, one large parlour had to serve the double purpose
of chapel and school-room — an arrangement which must
have been equally inconvenient to the nuns and to their
pupils. However, in the year 1847, the Rev. David
Walsh, a newly-ordained priest who had been appointed
•curate in the parish, undertook, with the approbation of
the Very Rev. Dr. Nolan, P.P., the erection of new schools.
This resolution ofthe zealous young clergyman, if judged
bythe standard of mere human prudence, was, undoubtedly,
rash, and calculated in no small degree to involve himself
and his flock in very serious difficulties ; for Ireland was
then gasping in the agonies of pestilence and famine, and

252 Nano Nagle:
though the .people needed education, they stood in still
greater need of bread. But Father Walsh had unbounded
faith in Providence, and in the generosity of the Irish
Catholic people; and so he set about his work with a
brave and hopeful heart, never once flagging in the execu
tion ofthe self-imposed task, until he had the happiness of
bequeathingtothepeopleofMouncoinhandsome,spacious, '
and well- ventilated schools, in which their children and their
children's childreri might drink from an unpolluted source
the knowledge of Christian truth, united with the teachings
of a sound and liberal secular education. Further im
provements continued to be made as time went on, and
in 1 87 1, the sisters removed into their present charming
residence, which, together with the beautiful new church
attached, owes its origin to the zeal and energy of the
present parish priest, Very Rev. Canon Walsh. No artist
could select a- more beautiful and- picturesque site for a
convent than that occupied by the Presentation Commu
nity in Mouncoin. The buildings are situated on the top
of a gentle eminence, from which the eye wanders over a
singularly fertile plain, hemmed in by an amphitheatre of
blue mountains, and watered by the sparkling Suir;
while a view of Waterford harbour in the distance lends
an additional charm to the scene. But the chief charm of
the place is to be found in the school-room where, on an
average, 130 poor children are daily to be found storing
up that knowledge which is to sustain and help them on
in the battle of life, while it prepares them for the future
enjoyment of a blissful eternity. As evidence of the good
work which they have been doing for the last forty-four
years, the Mouncoin Presentation Sisters can point with
feelings of consolation and of legitimate pride to the his
tory of the children who have passed during that period
through their schools. Many of them have become inmates

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruitsl 253
Of the cloister at home as well as in America and in the
British Colonies ; others have been enabled to earn a re
spectable livelihood as teachers in public schools, gover
nesses in private families, organists, shop-assistants, &c. ;
while those who have settled down to discharge the' cares
of a household have, by their intelligence and many virtues,
¦become a centre of attraction and edification to all who
are brought within the reach of their influence. These
are surely blessed and consoling results, even though a
glance at the seven small black crosses which dot the
little cemetery tell us that seven precious lives have been
sacrificed to achieve them ; but the Mouncoin Presenta
tion Convent of to-day counts ten inmates clothed in the
habit of Nano Nagle, who, as their eyes wander over that
green sward which covers those dear sisters' remains, are
resolved to follow on faithfully in their footsteps, in the
hope of being yet sharers in their reward.

254 Nano Nagle :

CHAPTER XVIII.
The Ursuline Convent, St. Joseph's, Sligo. — Its schools, and the
course of instruction pursued in them.— Eight of its members
accompany Most Rev. Dr. Hynes to British Guiana, and found"
there a Branch ofthe Ursuline Order. — Success of that Mission.—
The Ursuline Convent at Charlestown, Mass. — What Father
Thayer, of Boston, told the Misses Ryan, of Limerick ; and what
the Misses Ryan did in consequence. — Foundation and prosperity
of the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown.- — How the Nuns made
the acquaintance of Miss Rebecca Teresa Reed, and what came
of it. — How the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers passed the-
night of August nth, 1834. — Dispersion of the Ursuline commu
nity of Charlestown. — The scene changes from Charlestown,.
Mass., to Charleston in South Carolina. — How Bishop England
found the diocese of Charleston, and what he made it. — Visits;
Ireland, and returns with Mother Mary Charles Molony and a
colony of Ursulines. — Splendid testimony borne by Bishop Eng
land to the merits of the new community. — Disturbances are-
apprehended, and the Bishop accordingly advises the Irish Catho
lics to be vigilant, and, above all, " to keep their powder dry." —
The storm blows over, and the Ursulines are unmolested. — "Hard
times." — Mother Charles revisits Ireland, and returns with two
subjects for the Charleston house. — Success of the establishment. —
Death of Mother Charles. — Bishop England's last words to the
Ursulines. — Further vicissitudes. — Retrospect.
We must now retrace our steps somewhat in order to
continue the history of the Ursuline institution, the first
fruit of Miss Nagle's zeal.
The fourth house of the Irish branch of the Ursulines
was founded in Limerick in 1826, by some sisters wha
had come from Waterford for that purpose. After a short

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 255
residence in the " City of the Violated Treaty," the nuns,
that they might consult the better for the advantage ofthe
young ladies confided to their care, removed their estab
lishment to the beautiful demesne of Dangan, near Galway,
where for many years they pursued, on an extensive scale,
the great end of the Ursifline Institute — the instruction of
youth. The Most Rev. George Joseph Plunkett Browne,
Bishop of Galway, having had abundant proof ofthe good
effected by the Ursulines in the old " Citie ofthe Tribes,"
earnestly pressed the nuns, on his translation to the See
ofElphin, to accompany him, and transfer the scene of
their labours to the large and important diocese which the
Sovereign Pontiff had entrusted to his charge. The sisters
found it impossible to refuse the request of one at whose
hands they had experienced many signal proofs of kindness ;
and, accordingly, after a temporary stay at Athlone, settled
down in Sligo, where they have ever since remained.
The Ursuline Convent in Sligo is second to no other in
Ireland, either in architectural beauty or as an educational
establishment of the very first rank. Situated in sufficiently-
close proximity to the town for every purpose of conveni
ence, it at the same time combines all the advantages to
be derived from the bracing air ofthe country, and from the
invigorating freshness of the sea breeze. Indeed, for the
purposes of health, it would be impossible to find any
more favoured locality, as is proved by the fact that a
doctor's bill, which may ordinarily be found in every large
community, would, we believe, be regarded somewhat in
the light of an interesting curiosity by the inmates of St.
Joseph's, Sligo. >
The thorough religious and moral training of their
pupils is, of course, the primary object of the good Ursu
lines at St. Joseph's ; but they are at the same time careful
to impart a secular education of the most approved and

2 56 Nano Nagle:
¦comprehensive class, so as to prepare the young ladies-
confided to their care to become afterwards accomplished
members of society. That this is so may be seen by a
glance at the course of instruction pursued at the convent,
which embraces, as we learn from a prospectus ..which has
fallen into our hands, the following subjects: — "The
English, French, and Italian languages ; Writing, Arith
metic, Geography, Astronomy, and the use ofthe Globes;
History, Ancient and Modern ; Botany, Mineralogy, Con-
chology, and the other branches of Natural History;
Lectures on the History of Architecture, Painting and
Sculpture, and those elements of Literature which serve to
cultivate and form the taste and style ; every variety of
Plain and Ornamental Needlework, with Vocal Music,
Drawing and Painting in Water Colours." This is, indeed,
a liberal education in the fullest sense of the word ; and what
is quite unusual in most boarding-schools, all these branches
are taught without any extra charge, the only accomplishments
involving additional payment being instrumental music
and dancing. The Ursulines at Sligo have three distinct
educational establishments under their charge, viz. the
Pensionnat, or boarding-school, which educates atpresent
fifty young ladies ; the Demi- Pensionnat, or day school (St.
Anne's), wherein an equal number of the daughters of the
more respectable townspeople receive a superior training;
and the free school, maintained at the sole expense of the
nuns, for the instruction of poor children. These three
•establishments, are separate, and perfectly distinct one from
the other, each having its own special teachers, class-
halls, and recreation grounds. Such manifold engage
ments demand, o'f course, a large and efficient teaching
staff, but the community at St. Joseph's counts thirty-two
members, who are found fully equal to the duties imposed
upon them.

' Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 257
The Ursulines of the Sligo foundation have already
been instrumental in diffusing in foreign lands those edu
cational blessings which attend their labours at home.
On the removal of the obstacles which impeded the pro
gress of Catholicity in British Guiana,* the colonists of all
creed's and classes were anxious to see established amongst
them a religious community who would undertake the
education of females, both rich and poor. The Most Rev.
Dr. Hynes, O.P., Bishop of Leros, in partibus, and Vicar
Apostolic of Guiana,, eagerly seconded the wishes of his
fldck, and judging no Order so well qualified for effecting.
the desired object as were the Ursulines, arrived in Ireland
in May, 1847, an<^ ma-de known the educational wants of
his diocese to the members of the community then tem
porarily residing at Summer-hill, Athlone. The success
which attended the good Bishop's mission far exceeded
his most sanguine expectations. Six choir religious and
two, lay sisters volunteered to accompany him to South
America ; and after a visit of three weeks to their
sisters at Blackrock, sailed from Cork for Demerara to
wards the end of June, 1847. -Dr. Hynes had previously
purchased for their use in Georgetown, the capital, one of
the most magnificent mansions in the entire colony. This
house was handed over to them on their arrival, and in
* The colony of British Guiana, in South America, is divided into
three counties, viz. Demerara, Essiquibo, and Berbice — so called from
the three principal rivers which flow through them to the ocean. The
population (including 17,000 aborgines) is estimated at 155,026, of
whom about 35,000 are Catholics. The country is peopled by repre
sentatives from almost every part of Europe, but principally from Great
Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, and Holland. At the time the
Ursulines arrived there the inhabitants included several aboriginal
tribes of idolaters, principally the Caribs, Warrows, Accaways, Arra-
wacks, and Macusi. These have gradually disappeared, but some tribes
of Indians still remain in the country. S

258 Nano Nagle :
memory of the old convent in the old land, where they
had pronounced their virgin vows, they called it New St.
Joseph's. For a long time the brave missionaries had up-
h ill work to do, struggling against fatigues and difficulties
innumerable; but the work of God has finally triumphed,
and the banner of St. Ursula floats as proudly and as peace
fully to-day over New St. Joseph's in Georgetown, as it
does over the old parent house on the shores of Sligo
Bay. Most persons have heard ofthe celebrated Ursuline Con
vent which once existed at Charlestown, near Boston. We
say once existed, for on the night of Monday, August 1 ith,
1 834, it was burned to the ground by the fanatical descendants
of the Pilgrim Fathers ; its valuables were plundered ; its
inmates, innocent and defenceless ladies, narrowly escaped
perishing in the flames ; and to this very hour its blackened
ruins remain an eternal blot upon the escutcheon of Mas
sachusetts. It does not enter properly within the scope
of this work to give the history of the Ursuline founda
tion at Boston, inasmuch as it was not a filiation from the
Irish branch of the Order, and, consequently, had no im
mediate connection with the labours of Nano Nagle. Very
close bonds of union and sympathy, however, existed be
tween the Ursulines in New England and their Irish
sisters. The two foundresses of the Boston house were
pupils of the Ursulines at Thurles ; a sister and a niece
of theirs were inmates ofthe convent on the night ofthe
terrible conflagration ; and another sister,* and two other
* The lady to whom reference is here made was Mrs. Anne Quirk,
in religion Mother M. Ursula, who died at St. Joseph's, Sligo, in 1865,
in the 79th year of her age, and the 41st of her religious profession.
Having been left a widow at an early age, she resolved to imitate the
example of her two sisters, who had gone to America, by joining the
Ursuline Order. That no time might be lost in the execution of her

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 259
nieces (one of whom still lives) became members of the
community at St. Joseph's, Sligo. It will thus be seen
that the Ursulines -at Boston were very closely connected
with their Irish sisters, and this fact must be our apology
for introducing here a brief notice of the Charlestown
convent. The Rev. John Thayer, a Presbyterian clergyman, of
Boston, having embraced the Catholic faith, and received
the Order of Priesthood, conceived an anxious desire to
see a community of Ursulines established in his native
city. In the hope of carrying out this cherished project,
he visited Europe in 1803 ; but for a long time it seemed
as if his zealous efforts were doomed to failure. About
the year 181 1, he took up his residence permanently at
Limerick, where he discharged the sacred duties of the
ministry with untiring zeal and with signal success. His
piety and attractive manners soon won him the esteem
and affection of all, and he was a frequent visitor at the
houses ofthe more respectable citizens. The family circle,
however, in which Father Thayer felt most at home was
that of James Ryan, Esq., 34, Patrick- street, where his
visits were always welcome, and his presence particularly
pleasing to the younger members, who would listen to the
good man for hours together as he told them the narrative
of his conversion; of his labours in Boston, and the spiri-
design, she placed her three daughters under the care of the Ursulines
at St. Mary's, Waterford ; and, having joined the community then re
siding in Limerick, remained with them until her holy death in the
convent of her Order at Sligo. On# of her daughters entered the Ursu
line Convent at Boston, and died from the effects of exposure to the
cold on the night of the great fire, and the other two joined
their saintly mother in the Ursuline Convent, Sligo. Of these1, the
elder, Mother M. Clare Quirk,Jdied in 1871, while the younger, Mother
Joseph Quirk, still survives. 2 s

260 Nano Nagle

&"

tual destitution of New England; of his continental travels,
and the wonders he had seen the Ursulines achieving in
their convent at Bologne-sur-mer ; and the sitting was
sure never to break up until Father Thayer had expressed
his longings for the establishment of the Ursulines in
Boston, and his firm conviction that that event would be
productive of incalculable benefits to America. Mr. Ryan's
two young daughters — Mary and Catherine — had listened
so often to Father Thayer's eloquent panegyric of the
Ursulines, and his equally eloquent descriptions of the
want of that Order in Massachusetts, that they found them
selves gradually possessed by the spirit of missionary zeal ;
and both, each without the knowledge of the other, pro
fessed their willingness to aid him in carrying out his pet
project. The joy of the good priest knew no bounds;
and he immediately wrote to Bishop Cheverus (afterwards
Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux), of Boston, conveying
to him the gladsome intelligence, and asking his co
operation. The Prelate's reply was eminently satisfactory ;
he invited the sisters to repair to Boston without delay,
and promised to make all necessary arrangements for their
entering on their novitiate at the house of Three Rivers,
in Canada. They would have started at once on their
holy mission, but were detained for a time by two melan
choly and unexpected events — the death of the good
Father Thayer, on February 5th, 1815, and that of their
father, which occurred in the year following. At last,
nothing further occurring to delay their departure, Mary
and Catherine Ryan sailed for Boston, in the ship Victory,
on the 4th of May, 1817, and having been most cordially
received on their arrival by Dr. Cheverus, proceeded to
spend their novitiate at Three Rivers. Having completed
the usual probationary term, they made the religious pro
fession under the names of Sister Mary Joseph and Sister

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 261
Mary Magdalen ; and the former having been appointed
superioress, they returned to Boston in 1818, where they
were soon joined by their youngest sister, Margaret, and a
cousin, Catherine Molyneux, a pious young widow.
The Boston foundation being thus opened, continued
to increase steadily in numbers, so that in 1822 the com
munity numbered seven professed sisters and two novices.
The fame of their schools was spread around on every
side ; pupils flocked to them in greater numbers than they
could conveniently accommodate ; and the first Protestant
families 'of Massachusetts, who, in the beginning, had
regarded the nuns with a feeling of aversion, began by
degrees to modify their notions of conventual life, and
even became anxious to secure for their children the edu
cational advantages which were nowhere to be found in
such perfection as in the halls of the Ursulines. The pre
mises upon which the convent was located at Boston were
soon found to be too confined and unhealthy; and the evil
effects were visible in the impaired constitutions of the
nuns. Sister Mary Angela (Catherine Molyneux) fell a
victim to consumption in 1823; and in 1825 the two origi
nal foundresses, Mothers M. Joseph and M. Magdalen,
who had been united on earth by the ties of a double
sisterhood, passed quietly to their reward. The commu
nity was now so diminished in number that they had to
ask the Ursulines of Quebec to send them one of their
sisters to fill the office of Superior, rendered vacant by the
death of Mother Mary Joseph Ryan, and, in compliance
with their request, Mother Mary Edmond St. George
arrived in Boston in April, 1824, to undertake the govern
ment of the, community. The necessity of removing to
some more healthful situation being painfully apparent,
a beautiful site was selected at Charlestown, outside Bos
ton, and a magnificent convent was erected on the exten-

262 Nano Nagle:
sive grounds of which the nuns took possession in 1826.
Everything now began to favour them ; their community
was daily increasing in numbers ; their schools were filled
with young ladies belonging to the best families in New
England; and even from the most distant states ofthe
Union, and from the British colonies of North America,
letters came pouring in from anxious parents, begging
that their children might be received into the now cele
brated academy at Charlestown.
Up to 1831 fortune smiled upon them; but an hour of
trial was at hand, and Mount Benedict (as their convent
was called) which had hitherto been their Thabor, was
soon to become their Calvary. In the year just mentioned
the Ursulines at Mount Benedict had the misfortune to
receive into their convent, through purely charitable mo
tives, a certain Miss Rebecca Teresa Reed. She was a
person of low birth, destitute of the very rudiments of
education, of a romantic and giddy disposition, fond of
the marvellous, weakf minded, and formed by nature to be
the tool of any designing persons who were sufficiently
acquainted with her character to employ her judiciously
in working out their plans. Having in her eighteenth year
lost her mother, this silly girl, who had been baptized and
reared a Protestant, conceived in one of her moments of
enthusiasm a desire to become a Catholic and a nun. The
clergyman to whom she applied for admission into the
Church caused her to defer that step for a long while,
both because he wished to make further trial of the mo
tives which influenced her, and because he well knew that
she was by no means sufficiently instructed in the Catholic
faith. The Superior of the Ursuline Convent explained
to her that she was too old to become an ordinary pupil ;
and that it was quite out of the question to think of
admitting a low-bred, uneducated girl, such as she was, to

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 263
membership of the community. But Miss Rebecca
Teresa Reed was fixed and obstinate in her resolve, and
with tears in her eyes, she represented to good Mrs. St.
George, the Superior, that if not admitted into the convent
she would die of starvation, as she had no means, and her
friends had cast her off because of her abjuration of Pro
testantism. Such appeals, repeated for weeks and weeks
together, succeeded finally in touching the heart of the
too-confiding and compassionate Mrs. St. George, and a
compromise was effected by which Miss Reed was to be
boarded and taught gratuitously in the convent for the
space of six months, in the hope that by the expi
ration of that time she would have acquired sufficient
knowledge to enable her to earn a livelihood as assistant
in some village school. On this understanding Miss
Rebecca Teresa Reed was admitted within the walls of
Mount Benedict as a pupil on charity ; and for about five
months was supplied by the nuns with books, clothes, and
everything she needed for her comfort and improvement.
She had not, however, resided, long at Mount Benedict
when she became dissatisfied. Convent life was too
monotonous for her irhpulsive and romantic nature. The
society of refined and educated ladies was wearisome to
one of her low tastes — in a word, she voted the convent
arid its surroundings a bore, and being ashamed to signify
her intention of departing (which she was free to do at
any moment) she absconded. Her return to the world was
hailed by low Protestant bigots, who pretended to see in
her another victim of Popish tyranny. She was induced
to throw out several dark hints about conventual life, arid
these were readily caught up by the Press, and commented
on from the pulpit in a fashion well calculated to stir up
all the bigotry and arouse the passions of an ignorant
Orange mob. It was publicly said that the convent was

264 Nano Nagle:
the scene of unmentionable abominations ; that murder '
was a crime of not unfrequent occurrence within the walls
of Mount Benedict ; that the house contained dark pas
sages and subterranean caves innumerable, where foul
deeds were done, of which the outer world knew nothing;
that some ofthe nuns themselves had died of ill-treatment,
and that there were actually at the time others pining
away their lives in chains within the convent dungeons.
Of course every person of sense knew all these statements
to be nothing more than silly, yet withal malicious and
atrocious falsehoods. The nuns afforded every facility
for a thorough investigation of their premises, their rule,
and their lives. An official investigation actually was held,
and the religious were acquitted of every charge against
them ; but all this could not control the blind fury of the
mob, hounded on to the execution of their fiendish design
by the inflammatory speeches and placards of their Orange
leaders. The night of Monday, August nth, 1834, was a
night of shame for New England. The mob surrounded
the convent of Mount Benedict, shouting like wild savages,
filling the air with demoniacal imprecations and blasphe
mies, and assailing the ears of the affrighted nuns with
the most filthy and disgusting language. They next pro
ceeded to demolish every window and door in the estab
lishment, using for this purpose whatever missiles chance
placed within their reach ; but while the rioters were
engaged in this chivalrous work the nuns and their sixty
pupils, who had retired to bed long before the advent of
the mob, were, fortunately, enabled to make their escape.
Having effected an entrance into the convent, the rioters
deliberately proceeded to ransack every room in the build
ing, rifling every drawer, and desk, and chest which came
in their Way, and breaking into a thousand fragments
every article of furniture on which they could lay hands.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 265
The broken furniture was next piled up in heaps in the
different rooms, and set on fire, " the Bible being cast with
shouts of exultation on the pile first kindled, and as upon this
were subsequently thrown the vestments used in religious service,
and the ornaments of the altar, those shouts and yells were re
peated." In a short while a devouring fire burst out in
every part of the doomed building, and the huge spiral
1 columns of flame, as they shot upwards, illumined the sur
rounding country for miles. The chapel was broken into,
the sacred vessels were, stolen, and their contents scattered
in the flames. The out-offices were also given over to the
all-destroying element ; and the Bishop's Lodge, in which
was a very valuable library, was, in a short time, reduced to
a heap of ruins. The miscreants did not even respect the
vaults that held the dead ; but breaking them open, in the
hope of discovering some hidden treasure, they wrenched
the plates from the coffins, and exposed the remains of
the departed members of the community to the public
gaze.* * The limits of our space have rendered it irripossible for us to give
anything more than the merest sketch of the outrage on the Ursuline
Convent at Boston. The subject, if treated in full, would furnish
matter for a very interesting volume ; but we can only refer such of our
readers as desire more ample information on the subject to Volume V.
of Bishop England's Works, collected by his successor, Dr. Reynolds
(Baltimore: John Murphy and Co., 1849), where they will find 115
closely-printed octavo pages, solely occupied with "Documents re
lating to the Charlestown Convent." As regards Miss Rebecca TereSa
Reed — the romantic young lady whose falsehoods caused all this
misery — it is enough to know that after leaving the convent she relapsed
into Protestantism, and became the petted child of a bigoted associa
tion of Orange fanatics. Under the patronage, and with the assistance
of these worthies, she published a romance entitled, " Six Months in a
Convent," which was entirely made up of stale calumnies, glaring
falsehoods, and monstrous absurdities. The book, however, had an

266 Nano Nagle:
It would be unjust to pretend that the wretches who
perpetrated this diabolical act of Vandalism, shared in
any way the sympathies of the educated and enlightened
portion of the inhabitants of Boston. Far from such
being the case, a number of Protestant gentlemen were
appointed at a public meeting, held next day in Faneuil
Hall, to investigate into all the circumstances of the
outrage, and to assist the authorities in obtaining such
evidence as would lead to the conviction of those who pro
moted or perpetrated it. These gentlemen — thirty-eight
of the most influential citizens of Boston — drew up a
report which is marked by singular ability and impar
tiality. In it they say of the outrage that " it has come
upon us like the shock of the earthquake, and has dis
closed a state of society and public sentiment, of which
we believe no man was before aware ;" they describe it as
"a cowardly and audacious violation of all that man
ought to hold sacred and dear," and as a triumph of " the
spirit of violence, sacrilege, and plunder ;" they acquit the
immense sale ; and its stories were, no doubt, believed by many silly
people. To counteract the effects which this book might produce, the
superior of the convent felt herself called on to reply, and published
"An Answer to Six Months in a Convent," ^ pamphlet of 103 pages,
including 37 pages of preliminary remarks in small type, We subjoin
the following passage from the introductory paragraph of the reply ; —
" It is a duty that I owe to myself, and the community of which I form
the responsible head, to assert before the world the falsehood and base
ness of Miss Reed, and to prove them to be so, as far as the nature of
the charges against us will admit of proof. Of herself, Miss Reed
is nothing ; as an instrument in the hands of designing men, she is
capable of extreme mischief and injury. Her falsehoods did us no
harm as long as they were circulated by her alone among those who were
acquainted with her character ; they become poterit only when adopted
by an irresponsible association, well known, however, as leading agita
tors and sectarians."

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 267
nuns of all the foul charges which had been made against
them, and speak of them as " inoffensive females, guilt
less Of wrong to the persons, property, or reputation '¦
of others, and reposing in fancied security under the pro
tection of the law ;" finally, they conclude their report
with the following sentence, which does them infinite
honour: — "If this cruel and unprovoked injury, perpe
trated in the heart of the commonwealth, be permitted to
pass unrepared, our boasted toleration and love of order,
our vaunted obedience to law, and our ostentatious proffers
of an asylum to the persecuted of all sects and nations,
may well be accounted vain-glorious pretensions, or yet
more wretched hypocrisy."
The Government could not of course overlook the
serious outrages which had been perpetrated, and several
persons were brought to trial ; but all, with one exception,
were acquitted, and the verdicts were in every case hailed
with shameful exhibitions of approval by the Know-nothing
fanatics of Boston. Nothing remained for the poor
Ursujines but to seek elsewhere the shelter of which
they' had been deprived in Charlestown. They remained
for a little while the guests of the Sisters of Charity, arid
afterwards settled down at Brinley Place, Roxbury, where
they resumed the practices of community life. Here it
was that the martyred Sister St. Henry (Catherine Quirk)
died on the 18th of October, 1834; her death resulting
from exposure for seven hours on the fearful night of the
fire. So worn out was she from suffering that she had to
be borne to her new home at Roxbury in the arms of her
sisters ; and as her dying glance passed from her cell
window to the blackened ruins of her loved Mount Bene
dict, her last words on earth were a prayer for the
wretched men who were the authors of her death. The
community did not remain long at Roxbury, but removed to

268 Nano Nagle:
Quebec, thinking themselves more secure under the folds
of the " Union Jack " than beneath the " Stars and
Stripes." Here they made an effort to restore their
convent, but the attempt proved fruitless, and leaving
Quebec on September 17th, 1838, they dispersed, and
sought an asylum in various houses of their Order,
principally in those of Three Rivers, New Orleans, and
San Antonio.
It is time that we should turn from the gloomy picture
presented by the Ursuline Convent at Mount Benedict to
the brighter scene of the establishment of the daughters-
of St. Ursula in Charleston, South Carolina*, which was an
Irish undertaking in every sense of the word. \
On the 30th of December, 1820, the Most Rev. John
England, a native of the city of Cork,* arrived in Charles
ton, having been appointed by the Sovereign Pontiff,
the first Bishop of that new See, which comprised within
its limits the two Carolinas and Georgia. The condition
in which he found the religious affairs of his diocese, far
from being cheering, was calculated to fill his mind with
the most gloomy apprehensions of the future which lay
before him. To begin with, the members of his flock
were few ; so few, indeed, that after he had laboured for
twenty years among them, they numbered scarcely 8,000,
and these were scattered over a territory vast in its extent,
and in many places difficult of access. He found before
him only two priests to assist him in his missionary labours,
and these might at any moment be stricken down by trie-
treacherous and deadly fevers which are of such frequent
occurrence in the Southern States of the American Union.
Churches, properly so called, he had none, and the only"
* For a brief sketch of Bishop England's life, see Appendix at the-
end of this volume.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 269
substitutes for them were two small, plain chapels ; one,
of brick, at Charleston, and the other, constructed of
wood, at Savannah. ^Whatever little Church property
there was, was in the hands of lay trustees who wished to
have the entire control of the funds, and were impatient
of episcopal interference. With the exception of a few 1
refugees from S. Domingo, the Catholics were almost
exclusively Irish by birth or by descent ; as poor as their
greatest enemy could wish them ; turbulent and disunited ;
ignorant, as a rule, of the doctrines of their faith, and in
many instances totally indifferent to its practices. The
very social atmosphere seemed unfavourable to Bishop
England's mission. The Carolinians were, it is true, a
hospitable, generous, and refined people ; but they were
highly sensitive, proud, traditional, and aristocratic to a
fault ; they cherished with the most tenacious conserva-
tivism the old orthodox Protestant principles which they
had inherited from their ancestors, the English cavaliers ;
and the name of Papist, and, above all, of Irish Papist,
grated harshly on their refined and evangelical Anglo-
Saxon ears.*
* With reference to the vexations to which Irishmen, and, above all,
Irish Catholics, were subjected in the United States, Dr. England
writes as follows to the Central Council for the Propagation of the
Faith at Lyons : — " Without some knowledge of this portion of
history, it is impossible to explain properly the difficulties which have
retarded the progress of the Catholic religion in the United States.
The true key to the explanation of many of these difficulties, which
bewilder the unobserving, is to be found in a history which is over
looked or undervalue'd. No one will venture to assert that a genera
tion is unaffected by the position of that which preceded it : and the
vast majority of the Catholic population of the United States are
descendants of those men, of whose struggles at home for the preser
vation of their religion and the defence of their country I have
endeavoured to trace an outline. England has, unfortunately, too well

270 Nano Nagle:
It required a master spirit to grapple with and sur
mount such difficulties, and even zealous men might be
easily excused for shrinking from the task. But John Eng
land was not a man to be easily frightened by difficulties,
no matter how great ; he was extremely anxious, it is true,
as to the issue, yet never for a single moment did he
despond, but applied himself at once, with all the
enthusiasm of his nature, and all the ardour of* his
apostolic zeal, to the discharge of the important duties
which had been assigned to him. His first step was to
call together the leading members of his flock, to whom
he imparted some of the spirit which animated himself;
he roused them from the lethargic sleep in which they
had long lain buried, reminded them of the grand tradi-
succeeded in linking contumely to their name in all her colonies ; and ,
though the United States have cast away the yoke under which she
held them, many other causes combined to continue against the Irish '
Catholic, more or less to the present day, the sneer of the supercilious,
the contempt of ~ the conceited, and the dull prosing of those who
imagine themselves wise. That which more than a century of fashion
has made habitual, is not to be overcome in a year ; and to any Irish
Catholic who lias dwelt in this country during one-fourth of the-
period of my sojourn, it will be painfully plain that, although the evil
is slowly diminishing, its influence is not confined to the American nor
to the Anti-Catholic. When a race is once degraded, however unjustly,
it is a weakness of our nature that however we may be identified
with them upon some points we are desirous of showing that the
similitude is not complete. You may be an Irishman but not a
Catholic : you may be Catholic but not Irish ; it is clear you are not
an Irish Catholic in either case ! ! ! But when the great majority of
Catholics in the United States were either Irish or of Irish descent,
the force of the prejudice against the Irish Catholic bore against the
Catholic religion in the 'United States ; and the influence of this
prejudice has been far more mischievous than is generally believed."
— Communication of Dr. England to the Central Council for the Pro
pagation ofthe Faith at Lyons, September, 1836.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 171
tions of their old faith which had been transmitted to
them through many generations of martyred ancestors,
rekindled in them the living fire of' religion, and bade
them arise from their present listless state of degradation
and take the proud position which befitted them as men,
as citizens, and as children of the Universal and Eternal
Church. The fruits of the Bishop's thrilling appeals were
soon visible in the many plain but suitable churches which
were springing up, as if by magic, in every part of his vast
diocese, where God's Word was preached, and the sacra
ments administered by a few faithful priests whom the pre
late's zeal and the fame of his virtues had gathered round
him. These stations he visited himself at stated periods,
travelling for the most part on foot, and at each visit
gathering into the fold Catholics who had proved tepid
and were lapsing into infidelity, as well as Protestants who
had never known the saving truths of the Gospel. At
home in his episcopal city of Charleston his polished
and brilliant discourses soon attracted to his pulpit not
only the members of his own flock, but Protestants of
every .sect, who were so charmed by his winning manner,
and overcome by the irresistible power of his logic, that
many who had at first listened to him from a mere feeling
of curiosity, and because of the rare- gifts with which the
preacher was endowed, were gradually convinced of the
errors of their ways, and became devoted qhildren of the
Catholic Church. His next care was to frame a consti
tution for his diocese, and have it incorporated by legal
charter, thus preventing any future misappropriation of the
ecclesiastical property by lay trustees, and rendering
impossible in Charleston those painful scenes of sacrilege
and schism which had for many years made the diocese
of Philadelphia a scandal and plague-spot in the'
American Church. In order to provide a sufficient

272 Nano Nagle:
number of native priests for the wants of his people,
Dr. England established an Ecclesiastical Seminary, in
which he himself, in addition to his many other duties,
filled the chairs of Philosophy and Theology; and in
connection with this institution he opened a purely secular
academy, in which the youth ofthe city, without the slightest
distinction of creed, might receive a first-class mathemati
cal and classical education. This step, though it excited
the jealousy of some, had, on the whole, the effect of
disarming prejudice, and of interesting in the success
of his undertakings the leading members of the commu
nity, who would have otherwise treated him with in
difference, or, not improbably, might have endeavoured to
thwart his plans for the advancement of religion in the
Carolinas. His labours in the cause of higher education
brought the Bishop, naturally enough, into contact
with most ofthe literary men in the State, and so highly
did they appreciate his scholarship, that he was before
long admitted to membership in their principal learned
societies. This was to him a matter of the greatest
importance, as it not only gave him a social position of
eminence, but, what he valued far more, an opportunity
of showing in his own person that a child-like belief in the
teaching of the Church was not incompatible with mental
culture of the very highest order; and the savans of
America discovered in a very short time that in the treat
ment of literary subjects, and in matters of philosophical
research, the Bishop of Charleston was equalled by few
among them, and surpassed by none.
When Dr. England assumed the reins of government in
the diocese of Charleston, he found the Press of the
United States bitterly hostile to the Catholic faith, which
was daily assailed with gross misrepresentations and long-
exploded calumnies, even in journals which might other-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 273
Tvi.se be regarded as respectable. In order to apply a
remedy to this serious evil, and supply a much-felt want,
the Bishop 'started a Catholic organ, which he called
The United States Catholic Miscellany, and which, in the
modest preface introducing it to the public, professed
to contain among other things — " the simple explanation
and temperate maintenance of the doctrine of the Roman
Catholic Church ; in exhibiting which its conductors are
led to hope that many sensible persons will be astonished
at finding they have imputed to Catholics dpctrines which
the Catholic Church has formally condemned, and ima
gined they were contradicting Catholics, when they held
Catholic doctrines themselves."
There was yet one project on which Dr. England had
set his heart, and to the accomplishment of which he
looked forward with more than ordinary anxiety — this was
to provide suitable means of education for the female
portion of his flock. True, he had already in his diocese
the invaluable Sisters of Mercy, but the hospitals shared
their attention with the school-roorh, and their pupils be
longed for the greater part to the humbler classes. The
Bishop wished to make provision for the education of
ladies of the upper ranks of society — a matter which he
wisely judged of the utmost 'importance. Addressing the
tenth convention of the Roman Catholic Church of South
Carolina, on Sunday, November 17th, 1833, he said : " The
education of females, especially of those whose station in
society demands a more than ordinary share of the accom
plishments befitting their sex, has long been with me an '
object, the .attainment of which was not only desirable,
but to try and secure which I felt to be a duty. Religion
•considers the soul of the female to be equally valuable as
that of the male : and the peculiar piety of their sex has
always led some of the most estimable women to devote
T

274 Nano Nagle:
themselves to unite the most sublime piety with a generous:
sacrifice of themselves, for the purpose of training up to
virtue, decorated by the accomplishments of polished
society, the young females who were likely one day to
occupy the important station of mothers of respectable
families. I have been successful in obtaining from an
institution of the highest standing the promise of a good'
colony, for the purpose of conferring this advantage upon-
our state."*
The " institution of the highest standing " to which the
bishop refers as having promised him a colony of nuns
for his mission, was no other than the Ursuline Convent,
Blackrock, Cork, whose members were well known to Dr.
England. Through the aid of some charitable persons,
he had been enabled, in 1832, to purchase near the cathe
dral a plot of ground on which he had erected a suitable
building for the reception of the nuns ; and, having occa
sion to visit Ireland two years later for the arrangement of
important matters in connection with his diocese, he seized
the favourable opportunity for urging in person the ex
pediency and importance of sending out the Ursuline
mission to Charleston with the least possible delay. It
certainly required no siriall amount of moral, aye, and'
even physical courage on the part of Irish Ursulines to en
tertain the. idea of sending out a colony to the United
States, while the failure of the New York mission Was stills
fresh in their memory, and the shrieks of their outraged
sisters in Boston were actually ringing in their ears. Still
they were ready to carry out the promise given to Dr.
England two years before ; and to render the mission as
effective as possible, it was resolved to place at its head
one whose superior prudence and abilities would ensure
* Dr. England's Works, vol, iv., p. 340. 'Baltimore (John Murphy
and Co.), 1849,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 275
its success, and make its failure all but impossible. For
tunately for the diocese of Charleston, there was just then
in the convent at Blackrock a lady eminently endowed
with every gift of nature and of grace which might be
desirable in the superioress of an infant colony going to
do battle with numerous and pressing difficulties. This
lady was Mother Mary Charles Molony, with whom our
readers have already become slightly acquainted in a pre
ceding part of this volume (see pages 208-10). To Mother
Charles, Dr. England laid open, in the convent parlour at
Blackrock, all his plans, his hopes, and his fears regarding
the establishment of an Ursuline Community in his dis
tant and extensive diocese, and asked her, at the same
time, to co-operate with him in carrying out his design.
Mother Charles told his lordship that, so far as her own
individual wishes were concerned, she was perfectly pre
pared to sever every tie which bound her to her country
and her friends, and would willingly go even to the fur
thermost ends of the earth, if it were necessary, provided
she might thereby be enabled to help on God's* cause.
But she at the same time represented to the good bishop
that he greatly over-estimated whatever powers she pos
sessed, and that her health, which was at best but very
indifferent, might render her rather an incumbrance than
a help to her sisters in the arduous mission which they
were solicited to undertake. Having honestly laid her
views on the subject before his lordship, and having
pointed out to him others whom she judged better quali
fied for the execution of his plans, she added that for the .
rest she would place herself without reserve at the disposal
ofthe chapter, prepared to go or stay as they should think
best. The members of the chapter could not possibly
have a second opinion as to Mother Charles's rare quali-

^%

276 Nano Nagle:
fications for the projected mission, and, accordingly, she
was named with Sister M. Borgia MacCarthy and M.
Antonia Hughes to accompany Dr. England to Charleston,
and these were joined by a postulant, Miss H. Woulfe, who
was afterwards professed in America. With full hearts and
streaming eyes they parted from their dear sisters on Sep
tember 27th, and after visiting the Presentation Nuns. in
Cork, and St. Mary's Ursuline Convent in Waterford, they
sailed from Dublin to Liverpool, where they took ship for
Philadelphia, and arrived safely at Charleston on Decem
ber 10th, 1834.
It must have been a great consolation to Bishop Eng7
land to see the wishes of so many long years at last
crowned with success. Two days after his arrival the .
good prelate in addressing the Eleventh Convention of
South Carolina, thus eulogises the nuns, and commends
them to the kind attentions of his flock. " A colony of
religious ladies of the Ursuline Order that has accom
panied me from Ireland, how occupies the dwelling-house
and premises which I have some time since purchased
adjoining this church  The convent from which
these young ladies has come, has long been favourably
known in Ireland as one of the best houses of female
education at the other side of the Atlantic, and one of the
best regulated religious communities. We have been
treated with singular favour in the selection of the ladies
who now form the Charleston community. I give this-
testimony upon my own knowledge, because, during several
years, I had the opportunity of personal acquaintance with
the greater number. They neither desire nor need eulogy;
they have made a great and painful sacrifice for the pur
pose of affording to the young ladies of our communion,
and to any others that might be entrusted to their care,

Her Life, her Labours, -and their Fruits,. 277
those blessings which I am confident will be found to
emanate from their institute. Nor have they been deterred
from their enterprise by the melancholy accounts of an
outrage upon their unoffending, useful, and meritorious
sisters near Boston. . . . .Of one consolation, however,
we are hot likely to be deprived. The character of our
fellow-citizens, however they may differ from us in reli
gious profession, is to us a guarantee that our establish
ments are safe, and that our city will not exhibit so foul a
blot as that which disgraces the vicinity of a monument
raised to commemorate a revolution, amongst whose re
sults were the restoration of religious liberty to Maryland,
and its establishment generally through the other states
of our Union." Notwithstanding the high estimate which,
if we may judge from the foregoing extract, Dr. England
had formed of the good feeling and tolerance of his fellow-
citizens, the Ursulines had not been long in Charleston
when ugly and disquieting rumours were afloat. The flame
of bigotry which had been kindled in Massachusetts had
gradually travelled southward, and dark hints were thrown
out that if the nuns would not depart quietly from the
soil of South Carolina, they might possibly find themselves
compelled to yield to force. Dr. England was not in the
least alarmed ; in his calculations of what might happen
he left a large margin for the "tall talk" which always
distinguishes fanatics ; but he considered it, at the same
t ime, his duty to take every precautionary measure which
prudence could suggest to prevent the destruction "of the
convent. He accordingly wrote a respectful but very firm
letter to the Governor, informing him ofthe reports which
had reached him concerning the probability of an at
tack on the nuns ; he claimed for the Ursulines and for
their property the protection of the state ; and he in-

278" Nano 'Nagle :
formed him, finally, that if the State authorities failed in
the discharge of their duties, the Irish Catholics would
defend the nuns, and would repel, by physical force, any
hostile demonstration on the part of the Orangemen. The
Bishop, at the same time, assembled the Irish members of
his flock ; told them to be cautious in giving no offence to
their enemies, but at the same time to see that their rifles
were in good condition ; to "keep their powder dry," and
if the convent were attacked, to give its assailants a tho
roughly warm reception. Dr. England was an eminently
practical business man, and, had the attack taken place,
there is not the slightest room for doubting but that he
would have been found " as good as his word," and would
have taught the Orangemen a lesson which they would
not readily forget. The authorities knew this well, and
the Ursulines were, consequently, unmolested. Had
Bishop Fenwick displayed equal spirit and resolution in
Boston, their sisters would probably be at this moment in
quiet possession of Mount Benedict.
Notwithstanding the combined talents of Dr. England
and Mother Charles, the Charleston foundation had in the
beginning a terrible struggle for existence. Indeed, at
one time, matters had gone so far that the sisters at
Blackrock contemplated recalling Mother Molony and her
associates, and giving up the foundation in despair, as they
had formerly done in the case of the house in New York.
To avert this terrible catastrophe, Mother Charles accom
panied the Bishop to Europe, in 1836, and visited the
various houses of the Order in Ireland in the hope of ob
taining subjects for her distant mission. She remained
with the nuns in Cork from June to November in that
year, when she returned to America accompanied by her
sister — a member ofthe community at Blackrock — and by

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 279
a young lady who joined her as a postulant for the Charles
ton foundation. The return journey to the States very
nearly cost good Mother Charles her life. The vessel in
which she sailed encountered fearful storms which kept her
fifty-two days at sea, during all which time the brave
superioress of the Ursulines was desperately ill, and in
hourly expectation of her summons to eternity. Her work
on earth, however, was not yet quite, done; and, landing
in New York on the 30th of December, she proceeded to
Charleston, where she arrived about the middle of Janu
ary to the intense delight of her anxious community. She
set to work with renewed vigour to build up her institute,
and establish it on a secure and firm hasis ; and to this
end she undertook labours which seem almost incredible,
though she was all the while suffering from physical infir
mities which caused her most excruciating pain. But she
little heeded pain so long as the plant which God had
.given her to tend was thriving under her care. And it did
thrive until it grew up to be the fairest flower that bloomed
in all the Carolinas. Obstacles vanished, and difficulties
were smoothed away; old friends became still more friendly,
new friends were made, an<J opponents were, by degrees,
won over; pupils were multiplied, and postulants sought
admission to teach them ; in short, everything went "merry
as a marriage bell " with the Ursulines at Charleston. The
work for which God had summoned Mother Charles to
America had been done, and done successfully^ Her
hour of rest had now come, and the Master sweetly sum
moned her to her reward. Her feeble frame became each
day more enfeebled; and feeling the near approach of
death, she asked to be fortified by the last Sacraments of
her Church. She received them with the Faith and Hope
and Charity of a dying saint, and after addressing a few

280 Nano Nagle:
words of exhortation to her sisters, and craving pardon of
them for any evil example which she might have shown
them during life, she died as she had lived, on the 28th of
July, 1837— " A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood."
Though the Ursuline community at Charleston felt
acutely the great loss which they had sustained in the
death of their beloved foundress, they did not on that
account give way to any cowardly feelings of despondency,.^
but resolved rather to improve their exertions in the sus-
tainment of a cause so noble and meritorious in itself, and
which had been so dear to her heart during her long life
of laborious self-sacrifice. Their first step was to elect.
one of their number to the vacant office of superior, and.
their choice fell on Mother M. Borgia MacCarthy. The
result proved that their selection was a wise one; for
under the firm, but gentle and prudent rule of that good
religieuse the community increased in numerical strength,.
and the schools maintained successfully the high repu
tation which they had already won as an educational
establishment. It was, however, decreed by an all-wise
Providence that they should not long experience the
sweetness of prosperity without tasting the bitterness of
affliction, and after a few years God tried them again —
this time by the death of Dr. England, who had ever been
their firm friend, their trusted counsellor in moments of
perplexity, their comforter in the hour of suffering, their
shield and protector in the time of danger, their loving
father always and under every circumstance. This great
prelate died on April nth, 1843, and almost the last.
thought given by him to the things of earth was bestowed.
upon his dear Ursulines who surrounded his death-bed-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 28 r
We shall place the scene before our readers in the words
of an eye-witness who wrote an account of the last
hours of the Bishop's life for The United States Catholic
Miscellany. "He likewise desired," writes this gentle
man, " the satisfaction of once more inspiriting the Ursu
lines, for whom he felt a peculiar sympathy and concern.
 Calling them unto him as an anxious parent
gathers her offspring when dangers threaten, he discoursed!
eloquently, though silently — with the eye, with all the
features. 'Twas a time when mind communicates with
mind independently of language. A glance conveyed a.
lesson — a look imparted instruction — a gesture signified
warning or encouragement. Words were superfluous ; yet
that ' swift and.ready tongue' likewise vindicated its func
tion, uttering the following beautiful and delicate exhor
tation, ' Observe that rule, which, with the blessing of
God, will enable you to attain the perfection at which you.
aim. Ruin — ruin of no ordinary description is on the one
hand ; knowledge, literature, virtue, modesty, all the
graces which become the sex of the Blessed Virgin, are
on the other.' "
The Ursulines found in Bishop Reynolds, who suc
ceeded Dr. England, a warm friend and supporter. In ¦
the very first Pastoral which he addressed to his flock after
his appointment, he makes a special and graceful allusion
to their worth and efficiency. " What shall I say to you,
chaste virgins of Christ — daughters of the pure and saintly
Ursula ? Yours is the pleasing task to cultivate the mind
and heart of female youth, and rear the young daughters
ofthe south to science and refinement — to virtues bright
as our vernal skies — and manners as bland as our evening
breeze." * The nuns were not disappointed in receiving
•"Lives of Deceased Bishops ofthe United States," by Richard H.
Clarke, A.M., vol. ii., p. 298. New York (P. O'Shea), 1872.

t$82 Nano Nagle :
from Dr. Reynolds that active support which such words
would naturally lead them to expect ; and, under the rule
of Mother M. Joseph de Sales (Woulfe), who succeeded
Mother Borgia MacCarthy in the government of the house,
they continued to work out with marked success the great
end for which their Order had been instituted. Anxious to
widen the circle of their usefulness they removed, in 1847,
to Covington, Kentucky, but in the following year crossed
over to Cincinnati, where they established, and for many
years conducted, an academy for young ladies, which
gained a deservedly high reputation, and rendered most
important services to the cause of religion and education.
In 1849 three of the Irish sisters returned to the land of
their birth, and have since been summoned to their reward.
The sisters who remained in America continued to pro
secute, with diminished numbers but with undiminished
zeal, the glorious work in which they were engaged, until
they found it necessary, from a variety of circumstances,
to break up the convent at Cincinnati, which they did in
1854, the community consisting at that period of twelve
sisters. Of these, some dispersed and joined other houses
of their Order, while others returned to the diocese of
Charleston, where they had been originally established,
and pursued under the present distinguished Bishop, Most
Rev. Dr. Lynch, the same career of usefulness which had
been followed by Mother M. Charles Molony and her first
companions. During the great civil war the Ursulines at
Charleston were unfortunate enough to lose their convent
and schools by fire ; and Congress refused to indemnify
them for the losses thus sustained, alleging in justification
that the conflagration was not the result of any act com
mitted by the Federal soldiers, but was occasioned by fire
communicated by a large quantity of cotton which had
been stored in the city, and burned by the Confederates.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 283
But the good work was not on this account abandoned, by
<the devoted daughters of St. Ursula. They resumed their
labours as soon as circumstances would permit, using a
private house as a convent, until such time as they might
be enabled to replace the buildings which were destroyed in
the civil war. The Charleston convent, despite the many
trials it has passed through, has sent out two colonies ;
one to Columbia, presided over by Mrs. M. B. Lynch; the
other to Springfield, Sangamon, Co. Illinois, of which
Mother M. Joseph de Sales (Woulfe) one ofthe ladies who
.accompanied Mother Charles and Dr. England to Charles
ton in 1834, is the present worthy superior.
We have now done with the Ursulines, having given the
history of the Irish branch of the Order, and of the filia
tions therefrom, as faithfully as the materials at our disposal
would permit. We have seen the daughters of St. Ursula
Introduced into Ireland in dark and troublous times by the
•efforts of the heroic Nano Nagle ; we have seen those de
voted ladies struggling for years with adversity and perse
cution, the while they were performing untold deeds of
¦charity in educating the young, both rich and poor; it has
been to us a delightful task to record their early triumphs,
the first bright beamings of the sun of prosperity upon
their dark night of sorrow ; we have witnessed the gradual
extension and firm establishment of their Order in the
Island of Saints ; and we -have seen Christian bishops
from far-off lands crossing the ocean at the peril of their
lives that they might transplant to another hemisphere
those children of religion and science. What a glorious
.record is the history of the Irish , Ursulines ! What a
monument to the memory of Nano Nagle ! Well, indeed,
may she say, as she gazes from heaven upon the good
-which she has wrought through them, " Exegi monumen-

284 ' Nano Nagle :
turn cere perennius." Their Past has been a glorious one j-
their Present shows no signs of decay, but rather of increas
ing vitality; and we are keeping quite within the bounds of
legitimate probability in anticipating for them a brilliant
Future, eclipsing the glories of their Present and of their
Past. Such, at least, is the cordial wish of the writer of
these pages ; and in now taking leave of the Irish branch
of the Ursuline Order, the prayer which: fills his heart and
rises to his lips is — " ESTO PEK.PETTJA."

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 285

CHAPTER XIX.
The Presentation Order enters on the Second Half-Century of its exist
ence. — Establishment of a branch at Cashel. — St., Francis's In
dustrial School, Cashel.— Reports of Government Inspectors on
its efficiency. — Present condition of the Cashel Convent. — The
Presentation Order in Newfoundland. — Most Rev. Michael An
tony Fleming, O.S.F., Vicar-Apostolic of Newfoundland. — In
teresting sketch of the religious condition of the Island at the
time of his Appointment. — Resolves to introduce the Presenta
tion Nuns into his Vicariate, and visits Ireland for that purpose.
— Correspondence. — Succeeds in his mission, and returns to
America with Four Sisters from the Presentation Convent, Gal
way. — The Sisters open their first School at St. John's, near
their temporary convent, at " the sign of the Rising Sun." —
Testimony borne by Bishop Fleming to the usefulness of their
labours. — Dr. Fleming applies to Galway for more missionaries,
and his appeal is responded to by two nuns. — The new Presen
tation Convent at St. John's burned to the ground, and the nuns
left houseless. — Noble generosity and sympathy of the Islanders.
— The Convent rebuilt on a grander scale. — Extraordinary suc
cess of the Presentation Order in Newfoundland. — List of the
Twel-ve Houses of the Order now existing on the Island, with the
date of foundation and the names of the Foundresses. — The Pre
sentation Order in Youghal. — Mother M. Magdalen Gould again.
— Gerald Griffin's sister enters the Youghal Convent. — Death of
Mother Gould. — Her Conventual Life. — New Schools and Con
vent, 5Toughal. — Success of the Schools.
We have already traced the history of the Presentation
Order from its birth to the close of the year 1829, and in
that period of little more than half a century we have seen
twenty-seven houses of the institute established on a firm
basis in twelve different dioceses of Ireland. This was,

286 Nano Nagle .-
indeed, a rapid growth ; but it appears insignificant when
viewed beside the marvellous development which has
marked the extension ofthe Order in the second half
century of its existence. Heretofore the labours ofthe
daughters of Nano Nagle were confined to Ireland, where
the soil was already prepared to receive the good seed,
and to bear abundant fruit ; henceforth we shall not only-
find them toiling zealously as before in their native land,
but going forth with the spirit of the Apostles to. distant
countries beyond the seas, where a wide field and an un
congenial soil awaited cultivation at their hands.
Co-extensive with the charity which gave it birth,- we
shall find the Presentation Order carryingthe twin blessings
of religion and education over the stormy Atlantic to the
children of the hardy fishermen of Newfoundland ; we-
shall find its members working silently amid the busy
hum and bustle ofthe great " Empire City," and away be
yond the almost limitless prairies of the Young Republic
we shall see their convents springing up in stately gran
deur by the waters of the Pacific ; we shall meet the
children of the Irish exiles in Australia and Tasmania
learning the faith of Patrick from the lips of those Irish
nuns ; and where a tropical sun burns up the soil of
India we shall hear the voice of Nano Nagle's daughters
speaking of the Gospel preached by Thomas and by
Xavier, and training up the aged and the young in the
practice of its saving maxims.
Cashel, the ecclesiastical capital of Munster, received
a colony of Presentation Nuns in 1830; but for many
years Fortune withheld her smiles from them ; their house
was far from being in a flourishing condition, and it
seemed doomed to share the fate ofthe noble pile of ruins
which overshadowed it, until the accession of the Most
Rev. Dr. Leahy to the archiepiscopal chair dated a new

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 287-
era in its existence. Immediately after his consecration,
in 1857, his Grace sent Mother M. Joseph Ryan, and some-
other sisters from Thurles to support the tottering estab
lishment of their Order in the old " City ofthe Kings ;"
and ever since the house at Cashel has been so uniformly-
prosperous as to be at this moment one of the most
flourishing of the Presentation foundations in Ireland.
The community, which at that period was very small, has
since then rapidly increased in numbers, so that to meet
the pressing demand for further accommodation anew wing
had to be added to the convent. To provide for the-
fittrng celebration of the ceremonies of our holy faith.
there has also been erected, on the site of one of the
old Franciscan abbeys, a new Gothic church, which Was
completed in 1865 ; and which, with its exquisitely-carved
altar in white marble and Caen stone, is justly regarded as-
one of the architectural gems of Catholic Ireland. The
spacious and beautiful buildings allocated to school pur
poses are situate at a short distance from the convent,.
but are connected with it by a splendid conservatory ;
while surrounding all are eleven acres of ground tastefully
laid out, and contributing, in no small degree, to the health
and comfort ofthe nuns and their pupils. On the 8th of
December, 1869, St. Francis's Certified Industrial School
was opened under the charge ofthe nuns, and we cannot.
better convey to our readers an idea ofthe working of
this establishment than by subjoining the Report of the-
Government Inspector for the year 1870 : —
"St. Francis 's Industrial School for Roman Catholic Girls,
Cashel.
" Under the Nuns ofthe Presentation,
" Certified December 8th, 1869. Inspected October nth, 1870...
" Average number of inmates under order of de
tention in 1870, , * . . . . 54.

-288 Nano Nagle
" Voluntary inmate, . . . _ . . i
" Average number of extern pupils on roll attend
ing the school, ,  542
" State of Premises. — This school is situated in the city of
Cashel on eleven acres one rood and fourteen perches of
rich land, held in fee, and twenty-five acres three roods
and twenty-six perches, held under lease, outside the
town. lb consists of a large block of buildings, on which
^~i,2i6 was spent during 1870 in the erection of a new
dormitory, with suitable appliances, workroom, and refec
tory for the accommodation of the industrial school chil
dren. A quantity of stock — cows, calves, pigs, and poultry
— are kept on the farm, which is managed by lay sisters,
with the assistance of the girls who attend the school.
The want of farm-offices, constructed on the most ap
proved principle, is much felt, and the managers applied,
to the Commissioners of Public Works for a loan of
^~i,ooo, under the provisions of the Landed Property
Improvement Acts, to enable them to erect'the necessary
buildings ; but the Commissioners have hitherto refused
' to entertain the application, which is much to be regretted,
as, I believe that, with suitable appliances this would be
a model-farm equal to any in the district.
" The health and condition of the inmates on the several
occasions when I visited were good ; no serious illness
occurred during the year ; the children are well looked
after — bright, cheerful, and intelligent
" Educational state. — The national school belonging to
this institution educates the greater part of the children of
the surrounding district. The school consists of two de
partments — a higher and av lower school ; the former of
those girls whose conduct and superior manners entitle
them to rank as a superior class. In this school are taught
the industrial school children as well as the daughters of
the more respectable inhabitants of Cashel, who freely

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 289
associate with them; friendships are formed between
these girls, and not unfrequently the industrial school
child is received into the houses of the parents of their
class- fellows as their equal, to which she is entitled from
her conduct, manners, and tidy habits.
" Industrial training. — In this school the industrial train
ing of the children is most carefully attended to. In the
agricultural classes, the rotation of crops, dairy, and farm
yard husbandry, the cultivation ofthe finer garden vegeta
bles are taught ; and I have seen seakale and cauliflowers
grown here by the girls which might compete for a prize
in an exhibition of agricultural produce. At the same
time some very fine needlework, exhibited at the South
Kensington Exhibition, London, for 1871— the work of
these girls — is evidence that the finer branches of female
industry are cultivated by those whose tastes and feelings
render them suited for such a work. There is an excel
lent oven on the premises, and baking and cooking in its
various branches, as well as laundry work, are taught.
'* Staff. — The school is managed by . a large class of
Sisters of the Presentation Order, whose special duty con
sists in the conducting of primary schools for the lower
and middle classes. Some sisters are always with the
girls, and instruct them in the various outdoor works at
which they are employed.
"Total receipts in 1870, £53% 14s. 6d.
"Average number maintained, 54. Expenditure
^"2,183 gs. $d., £1,216 of which was expended in build
ings during the year. Average cost per head, £15 is. 3d.,
on ^933 gj. $d., the expenditure on ordinary charges.
Although not two years in existence, girls have already
been placed on licence in respectable situatipns, where
their knowledge of milking cows, making butter, &c,
combined with the knowledge of the work of household
u

290 Nano Nagle :
servants, makes them peculiarly useful in an agricultural
district."* The foregoing report speaks sufficiently for the good
effected by the Presentation Nuns in Cashel. Even were
their labours confined exclusively to the industrial depart
ment, it would not be easy to estimate at its proper value
the advantages which they confer upon society by training
properly those poor children who are rescued from a not
improbable career of crime, and are afterwards sent back
into the world thoroughly imbued with the spirit of reli
gion, models of every womanly virtue, and experts in every
branch of knowledge suited to their position in life. Our
readers will bear with us for supplementing the report
which we have just given by the additional testimony of
John Sheridan, Esq., Head Inspector of National Schools-
"A short time ago," he writes, " I visited the Cashel
Industrial School. I went over the whole establishment,
its dormitories, refectory, school-rooms, play-ground,
laundry, dairy-farm, &c. I saw large numbers ofthe poor
children associated with the day pupils in the national
school connected with the establishment. I found them
all remarkably clean, tidy, cheerful, hopeful, and intelli^
gent, standing in the same class wilh the day pupils and
competing with them, the tout ensemble presenting one of
the most gratifying pictures I have ever seen. This, too,
was the ordinary daily routine of the school ; for my visit
was wholly unexpected, and I was an absolute stranger."
Since these reports were drawn up, St. Francis's school
has made very great progress, the number of children at
present sheltered within its walls being as high as 120;
while there are in daily attendance at the ordinary schools
conducted by the nuns, no less than 500 poor "little
• " Report for 1870," p. 70.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. ,291
ones," many of whom are not only educated, but also
partly fed and clothed by the charity of the sisters.
It would be unjust to dismiss the Cashel branch of the
Presentation Order from our notice without observing that
the various magnificent works which are connected with
the convent were raised without any government assist
ance; and owe their existence to funds provided by means
of bazaars, or the voluntary contributions of the faithful,
or the donations of a few wealthy and charitable indi
viduals. Surely, the Catholics of Ireland have had to
fight in the past, and are still fighting an unequal battle
in the cause of education. Protestants have provided for'
them by the State the machinery of a first-class secular
education, but the unfortunate Catholic inhabitants of
"the poorest country in Europe" are refused a system of
denominational education in harmony with their religious
belief; and because they refuse to do that which their
conscience forbids them, are forced to build and support,
out of their poverty, schools and colleges and an univer
sity in which their children may receive that training
which they desire. This is not just, nor is it politic. The
Irish Catholics contribute their share to the State fund
allocated for educational purposes ; and they claim, not as
a favour, but as a right, that in the disbursement of that
fund due regard shall be paid to their wishes and con
scientious feelings respecting the system of education to
be pursued in regard of their children.
Among the principal patrons and benefactors of the Pre
sentation establishment at Cashel the name of the vene
rated Archbishop Leahy deserves the foremost place, as
the convent may be said to owe in a great measure its
existence to the zeal and administrative ability of that dis
tinguished prelate. Much of its success is also due to the
exertions of Dean Cantwell, V.G., the late Rev. John
u 2 j

292 Nano Nagle:
O'Dwyer, and the Rev. D. Ryan, D.D. Nor can the
sisters readily forget the kindnesses shown them by their
many lay friends, among whom the Hon. Mr. and Lady
Ffrench and John Lentaigne, Esq., K.C.B., deserve special
and honourable mention, With such an extensive field
inviting their zeal and labour at home the Presentation
Convent at Cashel has not as yet sent out any foundations,
and the community is consequently large, numbering at
present thirty members.
There does not exist, probably, at this moment a single
British colony in which the Catholic Church has made
more steady progress than in Newfoundland ; due regard, ,
of course, being had to the smallness of the population,
and to the persistent hostility with which, in times past, the
profession ofthe Catholic faith was regarded by the Govern
ment of England. When, in accordance with the provisions
ofthe Treaty of Utrecht, the island passed into the hands of
the British in 17 13, a large proportion of the inhabitants
consisted of French and Irish Catholics ; but the former,
findingthat religious toleration existed only in name under
the British flag, left the colony and settled in Canada ;
while the Irish, who remained behind, were doomed to
experience all the terrible severity of the Penal Laws,
which ground down their countrymen at home. People
less Catholic or less persevering than the Irish, would,
probably, either have apostatized from the faith, or would
have emigrated in disgust after the example of their French
co-religionists. ' But the children of St. Patrick did neither
the one thing nor the other; they clung to the land of
their adoption with all the tenacity of the Celtic race, and
they adhered to the faith of their fathers with all the spirit
and devotion of martyrs. Growing weary, at length, of
fruitless persecution, and actuated, moreover, by considera- ¦
tions of State policy, the government proclaimed religious

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 293
freedom in Newfoundland in 1784; and availing themselves
ofthe coveted privilege, the Irish Catholics at once came
to the front, and have ever since been unremitting in their
efforts to promote the cause of religion in that land, which
they have adopted as their home. The Catholics were
themselves sufficiently earnest in the good work, but their
endeavours were so prudently directed, and so zealously
seconded by'Dr. O'Donnell, who was appointed First Vicar-
Apostollc ofthe diocese in 1794, and by his two immediate
successors, Bishops Lambert and Scallan, that before the
' lapse of a quarter of a century, religion, though still in a back
ward condition, had already made considerable progress.
But it was reserved for Michael Anthony Fleming, of
the Order of St. Francis, Bishop of Caparia, in partibus,
and Vicar- Apostolic of Newfoundland, to impart such an
impulse to religion in that island that it has gone on
steadily advancing ever since.* That great and, good prelate,
* Dr. Fleming was born at Carrick-on-Suir, county Tipperary, in
1792. Owing, probably, in no small measure to the intercourse which
subsisted between himself and his uncle, Rev. Martin Fleming, a
Franciscan friar, young Michael conceived at an early age a desire to
embrace the religious state, and in his sixteenth year was admitted a
novice into the Franciscan Convent, Wexford, by the Rev. Dr. Scallan,
then Superior of that house, and at a subsequent period Vicar-Apos
tolic of Newfoundland. Having completed his ecclesiastical studies, and
received the Order of Priesthood, Father Fleming was sent to the con
vent of his Order 'at Carrick-on-Suir, where he discharged jnissionary
t duties for eight years, with great advantage to religion, and to the entire
satisfaction of the people. On his appointment to theSee ofNewfound-
land, Dr. Scallan wa,s most anxious to secure for his distant mission the
services of Father Fleming ; but his wishes were not gratified until 1823,
when the young missionary arrived in that distant island, and was ap
pointed to the pastoral charge of the district attached to St. John's. In
1829, Dr. Fleming was, at the request of Dr. Scallan, consecrated bishop,
and appointed his coadjutor. This office he did not continue to fill
a very long period, as he succeeded to the sole administration of

294 Nano Nagle :
writing on the 2 1 st of May, 1838, to the President ofthe
Committee for the Propagation of the Faith at Paris, gives
the following interesting accountof the religious condition
of the island at the time he was elevated to the episcopacy,
and of the position to which it had been brought, in a
period of nine years, under his administration : —
"At the period of my elevation to the episcopacy," he
writes (October, 1829), "the mission of Newfoundland had
been established for near half a century, and the whole of
the island was divided into three districts — that of the
centre, that of the north, and that of the south : the latter
the diocese on the death of his venerable superior, which occurred
soon after.- In his new capacity, Dr. Fleming worked unceasingly for
the social, moral, and religious improvement of his flock. > He was the
first to point out to the colonists the folly of confining their labours to the
development of their fisheries , neglecting , meanwhile, to improve the soil
which a bountiful Providence had given to them for their support. His
zeal for the beauty of God's house is attested by the splendid churches
at Pouck Cove, Saint Mary's Bay, Killagone, Petty Harbour, Portugal
Cove, Torbay, Brigus, Bray Bulls, and other parts of the island ; but,
above all, by his greatest work, the magnificent Cathedral of St. Joan's."
This truly noble structure was erected at a cost of nearly ^126,000,
contributed by the 60,000 or 70,000 colonists who formed Dr. Fleming's
flock ; and the good prelate, who often worked as an ordinary labourer
while it was building, had the happiness of seeing it all but finished
before his death. The bishop's anxiety for the secular and religions
education of his faithful people is seen in the many convents ofthe
Presentation and Mercy Orders scattered over the colony ; and some
idea of his activity and zeal in the interest of religion may be formed
from a knowledge of the fact that he crossed the Atlantic eleven times
on business connected with his diocese. Having procured the appoint
ment of Dr. Mullock as coadjutor, Dr. Fleming spent the last years of
his life in preparation for death, which relieved him from his labours
in 1 849. His death evoked the expression of universal regret. Every
tribute of respect was paid to his memory, and his obsequies were
attended by the Governor, Sir G. Le Marchant, and the inhabitants of
all creeds and classes.

Her Life, her Labour s^ and their Fruits. 293
subdivided into two parts; The extent of the mission
altogether was about 250 miles in length by 200 in breadth ;
a few priests scattered over so vast a surface could not
have sufficed for so many wants.
" On the arrival of Dr. O'Donnell, first Bishop of New
foundland, there were only two ecclesiastics in the diocese,
charged with the administration ofthe Sacraments. To such
a pitch was sectarian rage then carried, that the houses
which it was suspected served for the celebration of our holy
mysteries, were burnt to the ground by order of the local
authorities. There are many still living who witnessed
these excesses, and some whose houses were reduced to
ashes. Dr. O'Donnell brought with him five additional
priests ; and some years later, his coadjutor, Dr. Lambert,
brought with him a similar supply. But a variety of
circumstances, which it would be too tedious to enumerate,
checked this happy commencement, and reduced to two
the clergy of Newfoundland. When it was entrusted to
Dr. Scallan, seven missionaries accompanied him, though
when I was raised to the honour of co-operating with him
I found only three remaining. Of nineteen ecclesiastics,
four had died, one was infirm, and eleven had successively
withdrawn from the severity of the climate and the hard
ships of the ministry.
" For a long time I desired to see the districts sub
divided. I had the advantage over my predecessors of
being able to see the possibility of supporting a greater
number of priests, for Dr. O'Donnell and Dr. Lambert
were not acquainted with Newfoundland before their
consecration, and Dr. Scallan had arrived only a short
time before he became bishop. - On the contrary, I had
resided on the island for seven years as missionary, and had
visited various parts of it. I was aware that it was easy to
make an impression on the inhabitants, that a lively faith

296 Nano Nagle:
was concealed in their hearts, and that the presence alone
of a priest was required to call it forth. I observed that
they were favourably disposed to receive religious instruc
tion, and was therefore anxious to have it given throughout
the island ; from my appointment as Vicar Apostolic, I
began to see the wishes realised which I had so long
entertained. " During the few years which have elapsed since I was
named to my present dignity, I have been four times to
Ireland, and have eight times crossed the Atlantic on
business connected with my mission. I was scarcely con
secrated, when I obtained four additional priests. Towards
the end of 1830, six more arrived, and a similar number
followed them in 1833. The years 1835 and 1837 added!
each a missionary to the number, and five others- have
just arrived.
"Thus whilst, during half a century, only nineteen priests
exercised the ministry in Newfoundland, I have brought
twenty-two Into the country, during the short period
which has elapsed since 1829, and am expecting the im
mediate arrival of another."*
Thus far Dr. Fleming had procured' what may be con
sidered, under the circumstances, a fair supply of priests
for Newfoundland ; but that experienced prelate well
knew that, to diffuse the spirit of religion and Christian
piety throughout his diocese, something more than the
presence and labours of priests was required. The clergy
may preach, and the people may be willing and attentive
listeners ; but the practical fruits of religion must be looked
for outside the church door, permeating the ordinary ac
tions, and visible in the every-day life of those who make
•"Annalsofthe Propagation of the Faith,"Vol. II.,No.IX.,May, 1839.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 297
profession of the pure and holy Evangel of Christ. In
securing this immediate and constant action of religion
in the domestic circle, a good woman is the most powerful
ally of the missionary ; for it is she who, by her counsel and
example, shapes the course of her husband's life, and
moulds and fashions the hearts of the rising generation,
whether it be for good or evil. Convinced of this truth,
Dr.' Fleming resolved to bring a colony of Presentation
Nuns from the " Island of Saints," and to place in their
hands the education of the young daughters of Newfound
land. For tins' purpose he visited Ireland in 18*33, an(I
made known the pressing wants of his flock to the devoted
sisters of the Presentation Convent, Galway. The result
is disclosed in the following correspondence : —
" Adam and Eve Chapel House, Dublin^
"fuly ijlh, 1833.
" My dear Rev. Mother — You must, I am sure, feel not.
a little surprised at not hearing from me before this. The
only apology I can offer is, that the absence of Doctor
Murray from Dublin rendered it impossible for me to have
any conversation with his Grace on the intended Nunnery
of St. John's ; and with this, the press of duties connected
with the spiritual retreat and ordination of the young men
who volunteered for the North American Mission, so occu
pied every hour, that I really had not a moment to devote ta
any other business. I had the pleasure of a long conversa
tion with Doctor Murray yesterday, on the subject of
establishing a branch of the Presentation Convent in St.
John's. I .informed his Grace of the hundreds of poor-
children there exposed, by a perverted and anti-Catholic
education, to the danger of being lost to religion, to their
parents, to themselves, and to their God. I stated to him
the cheering prospect which the Almighty has been

sg8 Nano Nagle:
pleased to display before me, by inspiring some ladies of
the Presentation Convent of Galway to break asunder
every worldly tie, and by the most noble and disinterested
sacrifice of country, connections, and friends, secure to them
selves that reward which a good God has promised to
those who abandon all for His sake. His Lordship rejoices,
and thanks God with me, and for me, for this particular
favour. With respect to the means which I have to look to
for the support of these ladies, I mentioned to his Grace
that '^1500 were lodged in the funds by my predecessor
for the benefit of that mission,' and that this sum I intended
should be appropriated to that especial purpose. He pointed
¦out to me the steps to be adopted for its better security, and
kindly promised to do the needful for me, and to identify
himself in the transaction, by becoming one of the trustees.
So far I feel secure and perfectly satisfied. I also stated
to his Grace the pledge which I had the pleasure of
making to you in Galway, ' that I should build a suitable
dwelling-house with a school for their use and ac
commodation, without any infringement on this funded
property; and that, until such an establishment would be
ready for their reception, a comfortable dwelling, &c,
should be immediately on their arrival provided for them,
Jree of any expense or trouble to them, with £100 per annum
for their support, which annuity shall continue until their own
Junds will be adequate to all their domestic wants! But
when I speak of £ 100, I must take leave to observe that,
when I consider that these, my dearest sisters, are to be
my co-operators in the works of religion, in promoting
the glory of that beneficent Redeemer we are destined to
serve and adore, they may rest satisfied that my most
anxious desire, my most strenuous exertions will not be
wanted to contribute, not only what I consider the paltry
sum of one hundred pounds, but all and everything in ray

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 290
power, to promote their happiness. Such, I believe, was the
.substance ofthe conversation I had the pleasure of holding
with you. I repeated nearly the same to Doctor Murphy, of
Cork, to Doctor Crotty, and to many of the clergy, and all
universally declared that it was worthy a Christian bishop,
and worthy the generous and zealous individuals who ac
cepted the terms of it. And indeed, my dear Rev. Mother,
had I no prospect in these tangible resources, for the
support of such an institute, my confidence in God is too
.strong to doubt for a moment in the want of means to
make them comfortable. The same voice that summons
these ladies to rescue hundreds of poor perishing souls
¦will awaken many a heart in their favour. When the poor
people of that country, who know nothing of nuns but by
name, will have an opportunity of learning by their own
observation the advantages to religion, to society, to them
selves, to God, to all, in the introduction of a religious
community amongst them ; when they seethe crowds of des
titute female children, rescued from crime and misery by
the benefits of a religious education, could they remain
insensible to the goodness of God, or refuse to extend every
aid within their, power to foster, encourage, and protect so
holy and meritorious an undertaking ? No ; my deaf sisters
would receive from them the just tribute of their merits
here on earth, while the Author of Grace would requite
them with immortal glory in heaven. And here I must
observe, that, of this they must have the most holy confi
dence, by the very act of obeying the call of God, in
¦quitting all things for the sake of Jesus Christ. How con
soling to them to be enabled to express themselves thus :
' I covet nothing but Jesus Christ crucified ;' or with St.
Matthew to say — ' Behold we have left all things to follow
you.'

300 Nano Nagle:
"Ihave been greatly disappointed in the vessel I intended
to take passage by. She arrived here on Saturday, and I
find on examining her that she is rather small to make
comfortable accommodation in her for the ladies.. I go
this evening to Liverpool, to seek for a good vessel, and
I expect to return here by Monday evening. I shall then
know more about my movements. I am all anxiety to
Teturn to Galway. My prayers, my heart, my soul, are all em
ployed in the cause. If these dear sisters feel as I do, and
unite with me in earnest in promoting the cause of religion,
I hope, in the mercy of God, that our labours will close by
an everlasting recompense.
" Soliciting your prayers, and those of your community,
I beg to subscribe myself, with the greatest respect, your
much obliged and very devoted humble servant,
" 4* Michael Anthony Fleming."
" P.S. — I hope my dear Rev. Mother, that you will do all
in your power, when the time of our departure arrives, to
give every assistance to help us on in our infant establish
ment." To the foregoing letter of most Rev. Dr. Fleming,
the Superior at Galway sent the following reply,, officially
authorising her sisters to proceed on the Newfoundland
mission, but stipulating that they should be sent back to
their own convent whenever a just reason for their return
should present itself: — '
" To Right Rev. Dr. Fleming, St. fohn's, Newfoundland.
" Presentation Convent, Galway \
" 22nd July, 1833.
"My dear Lord — I received your letter of the 17th,
which contains everything that my greatest solicitude for
the happiness of my dear sisters could desire, with the

Hrr Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 301
exception of what I now mention, and to which I know
your Lordship will not object. It is that this community
shall have it in their power to recall our sisters at any time
after six years, should -the convent at Newfoundland be
then sufficiently established ; or should the present flatter
ing prospect of promoting the great end of our holy
institute, by co-operating in the instruction of the poor
female children of St. John's, not succeedto their satisfaction,
or should they wish to return for any other particular
cause, which they may deem necessary, that in that case your '
Lordship would have them safely conducted back to their
own convent in Galway. I would not have thought it
necessary to insert this latter condition only for the un
certainty of life ; for if the Lord spares you, as your
Lordship promised it, I feel confident you would faithfully
fulfil that promise. Though we, the sisters of this com
munity, deem it necessary to make this stipulation, those
sisters who, with God's assistance and under your Lord
ship's protection, are undertaking this arduous but gratify
ing task, unite with us in hoping that it may not be
necessary to recur to any such expedient.
"With sentiments of esteem for, and confidence in your
Lordship's paternal" tenderness and protection, J, with the
sanction of our good bishop, Dr. Browne, resign to your
care our dear sisters for the great work, earnestly soliciting
for them a continuation of the kind interest which you now
profess to take in their every happiness. I trust those
sisters will not disappoint your most sanguine wishes, but
that, faithfully co-operating in your zealous efforts for the
welfare of the establishment and the greater glory of God,
your Lprdship with them shall have the consolation of
seeing it perfectly consolidated. To obtain from heaven
this blessing, the prayers of this community shall not cease
to be offered.

302 Nano Nagle:
" I remain, my dear Lord, with great respect and earnest
wishes for your every happiness, and begging a remem
brance in your prayers, " Sr. Mary John Power, Superioress.
" The stipulations contained in the Right Rev. Dr.
Fleming's and in the above letter, are unanimously ap
proved of, and accepted by the chapter of Discreet).
"Sr. M. Joseph Nolan, Assistant.
" Sr. M. Bernard Kirwan, Bursar.
" Sn M. Aloysius Joyce, Mother of Novices.""
All preliminaries being thus arranged to the mutual
satisfaction of the parties concerned,, the Bishop set about
making arrangements for his return to Newfoundland ac
companied by his nuns. A safe and quick passage across
the Atlantic was not at all so easily obtained in those times.
as in our own days, when the application of steam
has minimised, danger and all but annihilated space ; so<
that while the sisters in Galway were anxiously awaiting
their departure for the new scene of their labours, Dr.
Fleming was consuming a good deal of time in fruitless
efforts to obtain a suitable conveyance, much to the worry
and annoyance of the good prelate, as may be judged from
the following letter : — "Adam and Eve, Monday, 12 o'clock,
"5th August, 1833.
" My dear Rev. Mother — I am but just arrived from
Liverpool, and although not a little fatigued from a dis
agreeable passage, I hasten to reply to your kind letter of
the 4th, which I had the pleasure of receiving. Since I
did myself the favour of writing to you until this moment
was a continued round of uneasiness and disappointment.
Three or four different engagements I entered into with
ship-owners, and scarce had two days elapsed with either

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 303,
when these engagements were broken. On Friday even
ing last I took my departure for Liverpool for the second
time within these ten days, and have, I hope, finally and
effectually concluded the matter, as far as a written docu
ment between the ship-owner (Mr. Brocklebank) and me
can bind. By this agreement the vessel is to put into
Waterford early next week to take us up. I cannot, of
course, withdraw from this contract, as by doing so L
should not only be bound to pay the contract money, but
be liable for any consequences attending the vessel on the
passage to Waterford. I cannot, therefore, think of any-
other vessel unless Brocklebank would be satisfied in.
rescinding the contract At. all events, I strongly suspect
that the vessel in your port, to which you allude, is one
employed in the timber trade, and in such a vessel I should
not like to make passage. And though many persons-
may take passage by these ships, and be fortunate enough
to arrive safe at their destination, in general thanks is due
to the weather and not to the vessel. They are princi
pally ships that are fit for no other work, being old and
infirm ; but, whether old or new, they get so strained by
the very first cargo of timber that they are never after
sufficiently staunch to make them seaworthy for my choice.
"When I take a day or two's rest, for indeed I. require
it, I shall go direct . to Galway ; on Thursday morning I
intend leaving this. I hope then to have the pleasure of
seeing you. Make immediate arrangements for our de
parture. Will you tell my own dear sisters how distressed
I have been that the many unforeseen difficulties which L
had to meet should for a moment give them any uneasi
ness, which they necessarily must ; but now that a better
prospect is opening, and every hope of our being in St.
John's before the middle of September is displayed before
us, I feel a load of cape and trouble fall from my shoulders.

304 Nano Nagle:
and, inspired by the most lively confidence that God will grant
me now that favour which I humbly and fervently pray for,
"¦every opportunity of contributing to the spiritual and temporal
happiness of these, my dear sisters, for His greater honour
and glory.' '
"With the hope that you will excuse the many blunders
of this letter, which could not be avoided from the state of
my head and hand after the severe passage of last night,
I shall close this with many thanks to you for your kind-'
ness, and most affectionate regards to all the sisters of
your community.
" Your much obliged and very grateful humble servant,
" Michael Anthony Fleming.
"The Rev. Mother Superior,
" Presentation Convent, Galway."
Mr. Brocklebank was faithful to his engagement ; and
all difficulties being now overcome, Dr. Fleming sailed at
the appointed time for Newfoundland. He was accom
panied by four nuns from the' Galway Convent, viz. M.
Bernard Kirwan (who afterwards died atFerryland), Mother
Xavier Molony (who founded the house in Harbor Maine,
and afterwards died at' St. John's), Mother Xavier Lynch,
sister to the present coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and
Leighlin), and Mother Magdalen O'Shaughnessy.* The
little colony arrived at their destination after a passage
marked by no circumstance of more than ordinary occur-
* Mother M. Magdalen was a native of the County Galway, and was
born in 1796. Having joined the Presentation Order, she pronounced
her solemn vows in 1823, and was consequently in the tenth year of her
religious profession when she volunteered for the distant mission
Newfoundland. This venerable lady still lives, and had the happiness
of seeing her jubilee celebrated at St. John's with great pomp on Satur
day, December 6th, 1873, the Bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Power, being
celebrant of the Pontifical High Mass, assisted by as many ofthe dio
cesan dignitaries as could conve niently attend.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 305
rence, and were .welcomed by every demonstration of
heartfelt joy by the good islanders, who had for many a
long day been anxiously awaiting their advent. There
were no magnificent cloistered halls prepared for their
reception, but the nuns did not miss them, for they came
in the true spirit of missionaries to labour for God in the
face of difficulties, and so they cheerfully took up their
abode at "the sign ofthe Rising Sun," a tavern situated
on what is called the King's Beach. There was, under
the circumstances, something singularly auspicious in that
name of " the Rising Sun," for from that humble tavern,
tenanted by the daughters of Nano Nagle, came forth the
dawning light of religion — the bright sun of Christ's truth,
which has since darted its rays through every portion of
the island.
Although it had been arranged that their stay at " the
Rising Sun " was to be brief, the nuns would not consent
to remain inactive even for a short while, but hiring a
neighbouring slaughter-house they converted it into a
school, and were soon busily at work instructing the
children of the hardy fishermen of the North. As soon as
it was practicable, a more commodious abode was provided
for them on, probably, the most picturesque site in all
North America. " Its position is magnificent," writes Dr.
Fleming, " commanding a view of the city, the harbour,
the ocean, and a vast extent of the country round "
("Annals of the Prop, of the Faith," September, 1838).
Attached to the convent was a splendid school, capable of
accommodating 1,200 children, of which the people of
Newfoundland availed themselves so eagerly and with
such good results that the Bishop, writing eleven years
after the introduction of the nuns, was able to make this
proud statement: — "Upwards of 4,000 children have
already passed under their hands ; there is scarcely a dis-
x

306 Nano Nagle:
trict in the island where may not be found virtuous and
religious females diffusing by their example the greatest
edification." These were, indeed, blessed and consoling
results ; but there still remained much more to be done.
The spiritual harvest in Newfoundland was great ; but the
labourers were not many. In this emergency Dr. Fleming
bethought himself of applying once more for aid to his
good friends in Galway, and in order to interest the Bishop
of that diocese, Most Rev., Dr. O'Donnell, in his favour,
addressed to him the following interesting letter: —
" Episcopal Residence,
" St. fohn's, Newfoundland,
" 2nd March, 184.6.
" My dear Lord — Although I had neither the honour
nor happiness of enjoying your personal acquaintance, your
name and distinguished merits had reached even to our
remote isle, and I felt all the solicitude of an old friend to
present you my warm and sincere congratulations on your
elevation to the episcopacy, using the same opportunity
to solicit the aid of your lordship's influence with the good
sisters of the Presentation Convent, Galway, to induce
three or four of the professed religious to join the Convent
of St. John's ; but the receipt of a letter from the Supe
rioress, in reply to one' addressed to the house by the nuns
here, making no reference to mine, I have come to the
conclusion that it had in some way failed to reach your
lordship, and therefore I again take leave to trespass on
your leisure.
" In this colony, my lord, our population being drawn
from almost all parts of Ireland, particularly of the sea
board, and so. many of your subjects reside amongst us
that I have some title to claim a spiritual kindred With your
lordship, but in an especial manner do I owe to your lord-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 307
ship's diocese, the most useful, the most zealous and
efficient co-operators in the holy work of imparting a
knowledge of the Most High to my poor people in the
pious sisterhood of the Galway house, who, nearly thirteen
years since, in the plenitude of their zeal, volunteered to
bear the Cross to our bleak shores ; and for all these reasons
do I feel the interests of this mission peculiarly interwoven
with, or at least greatly aided by your lordship's.
" In addressing your lordship upon this subject, I enter
tain a conviction that, to awaken your lordship to a sense
of our wants, and to induce a determination to relieve
them, it is only necessary you should know them and be
aware of your ability to serve, in order to insure success.
" Before I had introduced the Presentation Sisters, the
state of education for all, but particularly for females, was
sad in the extreme in this island. I know not how it was,
but even respectable ladies were not encouraged as teachers ;
the girls almost invariably were sent to men's schools ; but
for the poor, there was no alternative — there was no female
poor school in existence, unless one, a proselytizing
establishment, where boys and girls were huddled together,
so that the Catholic females were surrounded almost from
their infancy by every peril. I sighed to revolutionize
the system, and (blessed be God !) succeeded. And now,
after almost thirteen years' toil, the Presentation Convent
has sent into the world as wives, as mothers, and servants,
not fewer than five thousand young women, who may now
be met through the neighbouring colonies, and along the
coast of Labrador, and through the lonely and isolated
coves and harbours of this island, in many places where
the visits of a priest can scarcely be said to be ever made,
imparting to those" around them the good things of which
they had received. x 2

308 Nano Nagle:
" Until last year their school was seldom less than 600,
and their average was 900, but this was owing to the in
sufficiency of accommodation in their school-room. But
during the last year, as they had removed to a new convent
that I had erected for them, on ground the fee of which
I had purchased, they were compelled to be content with
teaching as many as can be assembled in a few rooms and
the basement hall of their house. I am engaged now in
the erection of an extensive school-house to correspond
with the dwelling-house, and as, by the census taken last
year, the population of St. John's exceeds 20,000, 1 have
made arrangements for the accommodation of 1,600
children at least; but as the labour of instructing so many
will be far more than could be expected, or ought to be
required of the few professed religious we have, and as I
have little hope of obtaining assistance here, I have prayed
our lordship to interest yourself in our behalf.
" I have already adverted to the disappointment I felt at
the evident failure of my letter, yet how very much was
that annoyance mitigated by the truly gratifying tidings
imparted in the letter of the Galway Superior to our nuns.
There I find that the Spirit of God has already inspired
the gifted Superior herself, the Mistress of Novices and
Mother Assistant to express a wish to join us ! May I, my
dear lord, for the love of God, implore of you to strengthen
their resolution by your lordship's influence. Be
lieve me, though great their talents, though high their
endowments, though eminent their virtues, they could not
select a mission where their labours and sacrifices would
bring a richer reward, for we have a people docile in
the extreme, and amongst whom there exists an eager
appetite* for learning the things of God ; but there are diffi
culties, too, the result of by-gone systems, where sexes and

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. ,309
.religions were indiscriminately blended, where the Catholic
father or mother would attend at early Mass, and perhaps
at Communion, and at the noontide Church service,
and at the evening Methodist sermon — and this was
liberality. "We still feel the evils of this, and hence it is, that the
more distinguished our auxiliaries are the greater will be
their influence, and the more extensive their usefulness.
Judge then, my dear lord, of my happiness in hearing of
the prospect of so great and eminent an accession to our
house ; and excuse me, if again and again I respectfully
and humbly pray your lordship to encourage the ac
complishment of our wishes.
" I have also established a Convent of Mercy which
supplies the lamentable deficiency of religious instruction
amongst the wealthier classes of the community, whose
females were subject to the educational inconveniences
that beset the poor, so that I have every hope that . by
strengthening the force of the Presentation Convent we
shall lay a sure foundation for the permanent instruction
of all.
"With great respect and sincere regard, believe me, my
dear lord, your faithful brother in Christ,
" »J" Michael Anthony Fleming.
"To the Right Rev. Dr. O'Donnell,
Catholic Bishop of Galway.'"
The appeal made by Dr. Fleming was successful, and
two more sisters left their convent home in Galway to
carry on the good work in Newfoundland.
The Presentation Nuns at St. John's were now supremely
happy ; they had a bishop who was to them more than a
father, and were surrounded by a faithful people who

310 . Nano Nagle :
literally idolized them, and strove to anticipate their slightest
wish. They took a legitimate pride in their schools, which
in point of neatness and architectural beauty far surpassed
anything that their fancy had ever been able to picture ;
they were proud^very proud — of their pupils, too, whom
they describe in their letters to Galway, as " the sweetest,
brightest, merriest, and most intelligent little beings you
ever laid eye upon ;" but the culminating point of their
pride was in their convent — that glorious structure looking
out on the boundless waves of the wild Atlantic, and far
away over the valleys and primeval forests of Newfoundland.
To use an ordinary and expressive Irish phrase, their
happy condition was " too good to last," and one night
in 1846, a destructive fire broke out in St. John's, which
reduced the greater part of the city to ashes, and left the
palatial residence and magnificent schools of the nuns a
blackened heap of shapeless ruins. The following extract
from a letter, addressed by one of the sisters to a re
lative in Cork, will give some idea of the wretched
ness to which the good nuns were reduced in a few
hours : —
"The poor priests were horror-stricken at the news;
one of them fainted off; hardly could they approach the
awful scene. One who had got into the chapel through a
window, in order to remove the most holy Sacrament, had
his hands burned, for the altar was in flames. What a sight
was now before us. Our convent, for whose establishment
we had sighed so many years, and which was just at the point
of flourishing — those schools which we used to look on
with such pleasure, in hopes of being soon surrounded
with our little flock— in a moment we were deprived of all.
The Sisters of Mercy made their way over to us, and
endeavoured to comfort us. Nothing could equal the kind--

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 3 1 1
ness of the people ; Protestants and Catholics came to
offer us their houses. The dolonel who was in the town
rode up in haste when he saw the convent on fire, to
render what assistance he could, but he was too late ; he
then most kindly came to us, spoke with our Reverend
Mother, and offered his apartments in the barrack ; and as
we would not accept of them, he offered to erect a tent
where we were, for our use, and to place a guard over the
few things saved. As soon as we were able to walk we left
the scene of desolation for the Convent of Mercy, where
we remained until evening, and then went in the Bishop's
carriage to his cottage, a mile out of town, where we are
sleeping on the floor, four in a room ; but we are fortunate
to have a rojf over us, for that calamitous night there were
11,000 souls houseless ! If anything could afford us consola
tion at such atime, it is that we have the hearts of thepeople
with us. Nothing can equal the general feeling and sym
pathy of all classes at our unexpected affliction ; to use
their own expression, the ruins of our convent were well
watered with their tears. Allclassesandpersuasions lamented
the fate of that beautiful edifice. The tradespeople' and
the poor in general were in transports of grief, and the
poor men wept and sobbed like children, saying they did
not care for their own losses if the convent had been spared.
As our provisions were gone, they feared we were in want,
and came with eagerness to share their mite with us ; in fact,
if the Bishop can rebuild the convent, we shall never want ;
for if these people had but one loaf they would divide it with us.
I believe a more grateful or more generous people could
not be found on earth. We are no longer Sisters of
Mount Carmel, but the Children of ihe Cross. May we get
grace and strength to make good use of our suffering, and
drink of the chalice sent us, however bitter it be." , Dr
Fleming was not the man to be easily cast down by afflic-

312 Nano Nagle:
tions no matter how crushing they might seem. It was
resolved that the convent and schools should be rebuilt
without delay ; and from what the extract just quoted has
told us of the generosity of the people and their love for
the nuns, we can readily imagine that willing hands and
open purses were not wanting to help on the good cause.
The work of reconstruction went on with marvellous
rapidity, until in a very short period there arose above the
ruins of the old convent one, if possible, more beautiful
still — " Matre pulchra filia pulchrior" — perfect not only in
its external proportions, but in its every detail. We have
before us, as we write, a letter addressed to Galway in 1850
by one of the nuns at St. John's, and in it we find mention
of "stained glass windows" (one , of them appropriately
having for its subject " the Resurrection"), " rich Brussels
carpet," "rriarble altars," a choir made of choice wood
and "carved in the romanesque style," a crib, with splendid
wax figures imported from abroad, and surrounded with
real " forest trees," together with many other articles whose
existence would go far to prove that even within four years
from the date of the fire, the work of reconstruction had
so far progressed that the nuns felt themselves justified
in furnishing their convent with what would be considered
" objects de luxe " by many an Irish community.
Since then the Presentation Order in Newfoundland has
experienced nothing but prosperity. From the parent house
at St. John's colonies have gone forth in rapid succession,
carrying the twin blessings of religion and education to
every corner of the island ; and if it be allowed to forecast
the future from our knowledge of the past, we do not
hesitate to affirm that, after Ireland, Newfoundland, is
destined to be the greatest stronghold of the daughters of
Nano Nagle. We subjoin a list of the houses of the
Presentation Order at present existing in Newfoundland,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 313
with the name of the foundress of each house, ,and the
date of its establishment : —

Name of Convent.

Date of Foundation.

Name of Foundress'.

St. John's (Parent

October 21st,. 1833,

M. Bernard Kirwan.

House),

Harbor Grace,

July 1st, 1851,

M. Xavier Lynch.

Carbonear,

May 2nd, 1852, :

M. Ignatius Whelan.

Harbor Maine,

July 10th, 1853,

M. Xavier Molony.

Fermeiise,

Sept. 23rd, 1853,

M. Bernard Kirwan.

River Head,

January 10th, 1856,

M. Clare Waldron.

Ferry Land,

October 2nd, 1858,

M. Ignatius Quinlan.

St. Mary's,

August, 9th, 1859,

M. Patrick Maher.

Witless Bay,

June 3rd, 1860,

M. Bernd. O'Donnell.

Placentia,

August 1st, 1863,

M. De Sales Conran.

Torbay,

October 8th, 1865,

-M. Clare Waldron.

Harbor Breton,

tQ-t

M. Bernard Greene.

, ift, 1,

.Mention has been already made in these pages (190-195)
of Mother Mary Magdalen Gould, and our readers have
learned how this wealthy heiress, while yet in the bloom
" of early womanhood, abandoned the world ;' handed over
to trustees her immense fortune of more than _^"bo,ooo to
be expended for religious purposes ; and finally, assuming
the veil and coarse serge habit of a Presentation Nun in
the convent at Doneraile, vowed to devote her life to the
religious education of the poor. The first Presentation
Convent established out of the funds provided by Miss
'Gould was opened in Youghal, in 1834, a sum of ^2,000.
having been allocated for that purpose by the trustees ;
and a variety of circumstances combined to point out
Mother Mary Magdalen as the person best fitted to under
take the new foundation. Accordingly the good religieuse,

3 14 Nano Nagle:
with two companions, Mothers M. Joseph Lloyd and M.
Francis Hynes, left Doneraile for Youghal, on August
1 8th, 1834, being accompanied on their journey by Rev.
Morgan O'Brien (afterwards Dean of Cloyne) and
the Rev. Henry Power. It was originally intended that
these three sisters should return to Doneraile on the com
pletion of the task which had been allotted to them, but
God willed it otherwise ; Mother Joseph Lloyd alone re
turned, and the convent cemetery at Youghal holds the
honoured remains of the other two foundresses.
MotherGould'slittlecolonyhad not been long established
in Youghal when it began to gain strength by the accession
to its numbers of several young ladies who were anxious
to embrace the religious state. Amongst those first sub
jects of the new foundation must be mentioned Miss Lucy
Griffin — called in religion, Mary Evangelist — sister to the
good and gifted Gerald Griffin. She possessed no small
share of the literary talent for which her brother was dis
tinguished, and her sweetness of disposition, united to
other amiable and attractive qualities, endeared her to all
with whom she came in contact. Her rapid proficiency'
in the science of the saints was such, that, after Mother
Gould had completed her first term of six years as Superior,
the sisters unanimously selected as her successor Mother
M. Evangelist, then only in the first year of her profession
— a thing which the rule does not permit except in the
case of new foundations. During the brief remainder of
her life, Mother M. Evangelist devoted herself with unre
mitting zeal to promote the happiness as well as the
spiritual and temporal interests of her community, and was
especially remarkable for the pleasure which she seemed
to take in instructing the very lowliest and most repulsive
of the poor. Her virtues and talents caused her to be

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 315
regarded as one of the chief props of the new foundation,
and, had God spared her, she would doubtless have con
tributed largely to the advancement of His glory. But He
had decreed otherwise, and called her to Himself, before
these bright hopes could be realized. After many years of
suffering from consumption, she died on the 23rd of
August, 1844; and we may not inappropriately apply to
her the words of the poet Young: —
" Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew,
She sparkled, was exhal'd, and went to heaven."
The buildings which at first served the Youghal Presen
tation Nuns for conventual and school purposes were
very confined, and quite unsuited to the requirements
ofthe community and their pupils ; nevertheless, the sisters
continued for many years to work on quietly and cheer
fully, consoled by the remembrance that " Rome was
not built in a day," and buoyed up with the hope that
future times would bring with them brighter prospects.
That their labours were duly appreciated by the poor of
Youghal is evident from the fact that Lewis, writing in 1 837,
sets down the number of girls attending their schools at
six hundred,* and the same large average attendance con
tinued, until famine and emigration reduced the population
to a very small figure as compared with that of forty years
ago. During the dark and trying years 1846-47-48, the
Youghal Presentation Nuns distinguished themselves by
their deeds of charity ; for not only did they distribute
among the poor whatever food, and money, and clothes they
could afford, but they actually retrenched their own meagre
meals that thereby they might have the more wherewith
to aid the famishing creatures by whom they were sur-
* " Topographical Dictionary of Ireland " — Art. "Youghal."

316 Nano Nagle:
.rounded. They also established an industrial department
in connection with the school, in which young girls were
taught all kinds of plain and ornamental needlework, and
were thus enabled to support themselves and to contribute
to the support of their families without being dependent
on the bounty of others. The evils arising from the limited
accommodation afforded by the convent buildings began
to be more severely felt each succeeding year, as the
numbers of the community increased, and the subject
having been brought under the notice of the eccle
siastical superiors of the house, it was decided that a new
convent should be erected. Accordingly, nearly three-
fourths of the entire sum necessary for the projected build
ing having been provided through the indefatigable
labours of the very Rev. Canon Murphy, P.P., the founda^
tion stone was laid on July ioth, 1866, by the late Most
Rev. Dr. Keane, in the presence of a number of clergymen
from Cork, and Cloyne, and a large assemblage ofthe laity.
The new c6nvent, occupying part of the site of the old
South Abbey, is built in the romanesque style, from
designs furnished by Mr. J. P. Hurley, of Cork, and is 142
feet in length, 37 feet in width, and three stories in height.
It is constructed of red sandstone, is surrounded by a
pretty and well proportioned Ave-Maria tower, and is con
nected by spacious corridors with the former residence of
. the sisters, a large portion of which is now availed of for
school purposes. Owing to the difficulty of procuring
the sums requisite for so expensive an undertaking, the
building did not reach completion until July 22nd, 1872/
when it was solemnly blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Keane, in
presence of a large concourse ofthe clergy and laity ; and
on the 27th of the following month the nuns were enabled
to take possession of their a bode, which is in every respect

N % N*.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 3 1 7
admirably adapted to the requirements of a religious
community. It pleased God that the good, heroic woman to whom
the convent and schools of Youghal owe their existence,
should be denied the happiness of seeing them completed
before her death. After haying filled the office of Supe
rior in her community for the lengthened period of twenty-
four years, during which she displayed wonderful zeal,
prudence, charity, impartiality, and administrative ability,
Mother Mary Magdalen Gould was summoned to her reward
on the 5th March, 1869, being then in the seventy-seventh
year of her age, arid the fortieth of her religious profession,,
It would be a very difficult task to convey, in a necessarily
brief sketch, anything like an adequate idea of the many
splendid virtues which adorned the life and character of
Mother M. Magdalen Gould. In _a preceding portion of
this work (pp. 190, et seq.) the graceful pen of one who
knew her well has told us how generously she offered up
herself and her immense fortune in sacrifice to God, while.
yet she was in the. full bloom and freshness of early
womanhood, and the world's most inviting prospects lay
unfolded to her view. But this after all was as nothing when
compared with the daily sacrifice of every human feeling
which she continued to offer on the altar of God's love
during the forty years of her religious profession. Her
religious sisters, when they speak of her, employ language
which would seem mere extravagant exaggeration to any
one knowing her less intimately than they did ; and yet we
are assured that the picture which they would paint, far
from been overdrawn, is defective, for one of Mother
Gould's greatest efforts in life was to conceal her perfec
tions from the eyes of men, content that they should be
seen only by God, whom alone she wished to please.
Humility is. a virtue which all persons find more or less

3 1 8 Nano Nagle :
difficult to practise ; and the difficulty becomes the
greater when persons find themselves undeniably pos
sessed of advantages, whether natural or acquired, which
usually command the respect and esteem of the world.
From her cradle to her grave, Mother Gould was ' sur
rounded by many incentives of pride, and yet she was ever
the humblest of her cloistered sisters. This humility was
seen in the little account which she made of all she
had done for God. Allusion having been made to this
subject on one occasion, she replied thafr-she had merely
given what she possessed, which she found easy to do, but
that the person who had begged one penny for the love of
God had done more than she had ever attempted. It was
always a matter of positive pain to her to be made the
object of any attention, and she was never so embarrassed
as when she was forced to receive the visits, and listen to
the complimentary remarks of those who were anxious to
form the acquaintance of one whose services to the cause
of religion and charity were spoken by every tongue.
Mother Gould's humility was genuine and profound ; but
it was nowise obtrusive. Like all truly humble persons,
she did not seem conscious of the possession of this sweet
virtue, and its most amiable and attractive form was to be
found in her extreme dislike of everything which savoured
of singularity.
Mother Gould's charity towards her neighbour in thought,
and word, and deed was the perfect fulfilment of the
Redeemer's golden precept. We would fall far short of
the reality to say that she was incapable of thinking evil
of anybody. She even seemed to entetain an exalted
opinion of the merits of all, and this served as an incentve
to many to become more deserving of her good esteem.
Pure, high-minded, and honourable herself, she readily
gave others credit for the same good qualities, and no one

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 319
who knew her would dare to utter in her presence a single
word which could affect her neighbour's name injuriously.
Her deeds of charity can never be fully known until God's
great book is opened on the last accounting day ; but the
poor of Youghal could tell many a tale to prove that to
them Mother Gould was in truth the Good Samaritan.
Many a time might the broken-hearted wife of a spendthrift
husband, or the famishing mother of a helpless family be
seen hurrying to the convent gate to see " Mrs. Magdalen," ¦
and pour the tale of long bitter suffering into her ear; and
never did she leave without being comforted and aided by
pecuniary assistance, when such relief was necessary. In
the dreadful famine visitation of 1 847 her charity knew no
bounds. She begged assistance for the poor suffering
victims from all her relatives and acquaintances. She used
all her influence to procure employment for such as were
able to work. She limited the expenses of her community
to the bare necessaries of life, that she might thereby have
more means at her disposal for the relief of the starving
people ; and when the worst had come, she converted the
convent kitchen into a soup kitchen, where she and her
sisters, forgetting their own comforts, and even their own
wants, laboured from morning to night in endeavouring
to provide some palatable and' sustaining nourishment for
the famine-stricken wretches who were dying at their
doors. Mother Magdalen's love of charity followed her
even into the school -room ; for her sisters remarked that,
where all were poor, the saintly Superior always selected
for her own especial charge the poorest, the most ne
glected, and the most repulsive class of little ones which
the school contained. There was another class which
shared her sympathies and profited largely by her love of
the lowliest of God's creatures — the outcast daughters of
sin and shame. For these she established a Magdalen

320 Nano Nagle :
Asylum, which she supported without any Government or
external aid whatever, and where she had the happiness
of winning back to God and to society very many frail and
erring ones who would have, otherwise, been lost in time,
and for eternity.
What shall we say of Mother Gould's extraordinary
spirit of prayer ? The anecdotes which her sisters treasure
on this subject seem like passages culled from the lives of
those holy penitents who peopled theThebaid in the early
ages of Christianity. AVe are told that when duties did
not call her elsewhere she was always to be found in the
presence of the Blessed Sacrament, where she evidently
sought comfort in her afflictions, and found a sustaining
power in her moments of trial. Her devotion was not in
dulged in by fits and starts, as occasionally happens even
in the case of religious persons ; it never relaxed ; it was
always the same — quiet, steady, persevering. She seemed
particularly careful to ayoid any external manifestation of
what she felt interiorly ; she never gave way to any in
voluntary gestures, or unusual elevations of the voice.
She regarded all such singularities as unseemly, and incon
sistent with the respect which we owe to the presence of
God. Yet, with all this, her manner of reciting the public
prayers of the community could not fail to inspire those
who heard her with devotion, there was such deep reve
rence — a something so truly devotional — in the tone of
her voice, which was very low, yet full of expression, clear,
rich and musical. Her communings with God seemed as
it were written on her very countenance, which always
produced a singular impression on those who beheld it ;
for it possessed all that spiritualized beauty which distin
guishes the saints, and was, as it were, a mirror reflecting
the loveliness of her soul.
From our knowledge of her early history it would be

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 321
only natural to infer that Mother Gould was distinguished
in an eminent degree by her spirit of mortification and
self-denial. Indeed, having at the very outset of her career
sacrificed on the altar of the cross every tie which bound
her to . earth, was it likely that she would shrink back
affrighted from the lesser trials which afterwards presented
themselves ? She had her trials, and she bore them with
patience, and even with joy ; but interior mortification was
what she prized most ; and though she set gapat value on
the exterior practice of this virtue* she would always fore
go an act of this kind rather than be guilty of the least
singularity, or do anything that might attract the notice of
others. Yet, jealously as she guarded this virtue from the
observation of those around her, it might be seen in her
every action from morning till night. It was particularly
visible in her correspondence and interviews with the
members of her family, so deservedly beloved by her, and
by whom she was almost idolized in return. On these
occasions she curbed and restrained her natural feelings for
the love of God to a degree almost bordering on coldness,
though it must have cost her many a hard struggle, and
many a bitter pang to do so. The last years of her life
proved how thoroughly she had brought her body under
subjection to the spirit. Silently and patiently she bore
the pains and infirmities of those closing years, and though
she made no parade of asking for suffering, she was
always prepared for it, and accepted it with resignation
when it came, bearing uncomplainingly to her last hour
that portion of the cross which it pleased God to lay upon
her shoulders.
The spirit of poverty goes hand in hand with the spirit
of mortification, and it was so' in the well-regulated and
singularly holy life of Mother Magdalen Gould. Every
one knows how she, who possessed such wealth as falls to
Y

322 Nano Nagle:
the lot of only the very few, became of her own choice a
pauper, signing with her own hand the deed which made
her penniless. Not even in favour of the convent which
she had herself founded would she make any exception in'
the, general distribution of her property. She transferred
the uncontrolled management of it to others, and would
have regarded it a violation of the virtue of poverty to re
tain any voice in the matter. It pleased God that she
should live to experience the effects of poverty; and she
who had expended over ^"60,000 in the erection of con
vents elsewhere, was compelled before the close of her life
to solicit alms for the completion of the house which she
had founded herself.
We will not attempt to describe the angelic modesty of
Mother Gould's deportment, where everything was so well
regulated, so absolutely faultless, and yet where all was
but the simple reflection of what reigned within — a purity
of heart and innocence of mind rarely met with in those
who have had long intercourse with the world, and a
thorough knowledge of its ways. She seemed unacquainted
.with evil, and such was the delicacy of her tone of mind
and feeling that it was necessary to be extremely guarded
in speaking on the most innocent topics in her presence,
lest some word or allusion should drop which might pos
sibly give offence. Indeed, some persons think that in
this respect Mother Gould was over-squeamish, and carried
the matter to extremes ; nor was it always possible to re
press a smile at the manner in which, when reading, she
would stammer and blush at some word which would not
have shocked the modesty even of Aloysius Gonzaga.
Those who are accustomed to command are not always
the most ready to obey. To this rule, however, Mother '
Gould was' a very remarkable exception. Having been
elected to the office of Superior*on every occasion that the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. ,323
rule would permit, and having thus been almost constantly
in authority, we might be tempted to suppose that she had
but few opportunities of practising obedience. But the
holy ingenuity of Mother Magdalen discovered a means
by which she might not be deprived of the merits of this
virtue, and, at her own express request, the Bishop appointed
one of the sisters, to whom she was to refer in all matters
of obedience. Most edifying and touching instances
might be related of the manner in which she availed her
self of the opportunities thus afforded her of putting the
practice of this virtue to the test — the child-like submis
sion with which she asked for a dispensation when she
was unable to fulfil any duty, no matter how unimportant,
and the humble manner in which she would seek permis
sion to make use of the most trifling article she required.
She even sometimes submitted her conduct to the criticism
of this sister, desiring to know whether on certain occa
sions there may not have been something to find fault
with, or something to correct : whether, on meeting the
beloved members of her family, she had not exhibited too
much natural feeling, or given over-much expression to
sentiments of joy. And all this was done with such
genuine simplicity," and in such a child-like spirit of sub
mission and obedience, that it would be difficult to picture
anything more charming or more edifying.
Finally, Mother Magdalen's observance of rule was
proverbial, her punctuality and rigid exactness in this re
spect having earned for her from her religious sisters the
title of the " Living Rule." The bell was for her, indeed,
as the voice of God, and nothing but necessity or duty
ever prevented her from obeying its first sound. When
the moment arrived for performing any duty, she inT
stantly hastened to fulfil it ; at the stroke ofthe bell she
Would leave the parlour in obedience to its summons, no
Y 2

324 Nano Nagle:
matter who or of what rank her visitors might be; in the
same manner she would break off her occupation, no
matter how engaging, allowing nothing to interfere with
her punctual attendance at the common exercises when
ever it was in her power. In this matter she showed her
self particularly devoid of human respect, as indeed she
was accustomed to do on all occasions, looking at things
from a single point of view — their relation to God — and
being perfectly indifferent to the approval of men, so long
as her actions were calculated to please Him, When any
of her sisters failed in the least point of duty through
complaisance towards herself, she would be sure to remind
them of it, and make them feel that they could not
please her better than by being punctual and exact in the
discharge of every duty. t
Mother Magdalen's death was in keeping with her holy
life. Modestly and quietly she passed from her sisters'
arms to the embrace of God. It never once occurred to
her that words of blessing and of counsel were expected
from her by those she was leaving behind, and who had
so long been accustomed to look up to her as their Supe
rior, their guide, their model, and their friend. No such
thought entered her mind. When she spoke at all, it was
to ask them to pray for her or with her. She told the
least perfect of her community that they were better pre
pared for the great passage than she was. She feared
with a gre"at fear the judgments of God, for her profound
humility would not permit her to see anything meritorious
in her long life of virtue and heroic sacrifice ; but her fear
was tempered with a humble, but hopeful trust in the
goodness and mercies of her Redeemer, and with a smile
of happiness playing round her lips, she closed her eyes
on earth to open them in heaven.
The schools of the Presentation Nuns at Youghal, like

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 325
those of their sisters elsewhere, are remarkable for the
sound practical education imparted to the children of the
poor ; but there is one branch of industrial knowledge in-
which they stand unsurpassed — the manufacture of Irish
point lace. The perfection to which this delicate fabric
is brought by the cunning fingers of the Youghal Convent
children is now well known not only in Ireland and Eng
land, but even on the Continent. In support of this
statement we may mention that the lace presented by the
ladies of Ireland to H. R. H. the Princess of Wales on the
occasion of her marriage was executed in the Youghal
Convent ; and the inmates of that institute had also the
honour of working a magnificent rochet presented by some
noble French ladies to our Holy Father Pius IX. in 1864,
and which so pleased his Holiness that he sent a special
benediction to the workers. The high reputation of the
Youghal lace is mainly due to the industry, perseverance,
and ingenuity of the late Mother M. Anne Smyth, under
whose instruction the children attained such skill in the
manufacture, that the demand for the article from large
millinery establishments far surpasses the supply. For
many years the school-girls have thus earned on an ave
rage about £1,200 per annum, and in 1873 the receipts
amounted to/~i,66o 16s. 8d.
The Youghal Presentation community numbers at pre
sent twenty-two professed sisters, two novices, and two
postulants. The average daily attendance of pupils at the
schools for the year 1874 was two hundred and eighty.

326 Nano Nagle :

CHAPTER XX.
Establishment of a Presentation Convent at Midleton, Co. Corkv —
Sisters from Midleton open a House of their Order in San Fran
cisco. — Early struggles and ultimate success of that Mission. —
The Presentation Nuns in. Tuam. — Four hundred poor children
fed daily during the Famine year. — The daughters of Nano
Nagle in Manchester. — Severe and continued trials which they
have had to endure. — They open an Orphanage. — They attempt
a Foundation at Salford, but are unsuccessful. — High praise
awarded by Government Inspectors to the Manchester Presenta
tion Schools. — The "Presentation Order in Lismore. — Kindness
shown to the Nuns by the Abbot and Monks of Mount Melleray. —
Present condition of the community at Lismore. — The daughters
of Nano Nagle in Limerick — Miss Maria Catherine King. — The
Limerick Sisters send out a Mission to Melbourne  .Excellence.
of the Presentation Schools at Limerick. — Establishment of the
Presentation Order at Milltown, Co. Kerry, and at Bagnalstown.
" Quod enim munus reipublicaa majus meliusve afferre possumus quam
si docemus atque erudimus Juventutem ? his praesertim temporibus,
quibus ita prolapsa est, ut omnium operS refrenanda atque coercenda
sit."— Cicero.
The Presentation Convent at Midleton, county Cork, owes
its origin to the zeal of the Rev. Stephen William Cop7
pinger, a holy young priest who, being prevented by
extreme delicacy from discharging missionary duties,
resided with his family in that town. The religious
education of the poor had a special attraction for Father
Stephen, and having heard of the disposal made of her
property by Miss Gould, he applied to the trustees for a
portion of it to enable him to establish a convent in his

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 327
native parish. The trustees were unwilling to comply
with his request, thinking Midleton too insignificant a
place for a conventual establishment, and judging that
they would consult better the interests of religion by
opening a convent in some more populous town.
Wearied, however, by the constant importunities of the
good priest, they at length consented to give him ^1500
towards the furtherance of his pet project. This sum
they afterwards supplemented by an additional donation
of /"500, and the balance of £ 10 00 which was required to
complete the buildings was contributed principally by
Father Coppinger himself, and by the members of his
family. Having procured from Lord Midleton a grant of three
acres of land as a site for the new convent, Father Stephen
set about the building without delay ; and so interested
was he in the speedy completion of the works, that he was
frequently known to take his, poor, comfortless dinner in
the sheds used by the masons, not allowing himself time
to repair to his own house for a more comfortable meal.
When the necessary preparations had been made for their
reception, Mothers M. Francis de Sales O' Flaherty,
(Superior), M. Charles O'Sullivan, and M. Yincent Can-
tillon, accompanied by Most Rev. Dr. Murphy arrived
from the North Presentation Convent, Cork, on 29th of
April, 1834, to open the new foundation; and on the
following day the Bishop of Cork offered up the Holy
Sacrifice for the first time in the convent chapel. The
schools were, opened on the 12th of May, and so great
was the influx of poor children that the nuns, finding it
absolutely impossible to attend to such numbers, had to
request the Superior of the mother house to send one of
her advanced pupils to their assistance. At the end of
three years the first Superior returned to Cork, and

328 Nano Nagle:
Mother M. Charles O'Sullivan was nominated to fill her
place. She too on the expiration of her term of office
returned with Sister Vincent Cantillon to her own con
vent, and Sister M. Teresa Moloney was appointed to
preside over the new community at Midleton. This lady,
who was a native of Rosscarberry, secured for the infant
colony the special good- will of the Most Rev. Dr. Crotty,
himself belonging to West Cork, who while visiting them
one day a short time before his death said, apparently in
joke, " Rev- Mother, I shall be one of these days sending
you my old bones. Will you receive them ?" Of course
the nuns did not refuse ; and accordingly on the 5th of
October, 1846, the remains of Bishop Crotty were laid
within the sanctuary of the Midleton Convent chapel.*
* The Most Rev. Bartholomew Crotty, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross,
was one of the most distinguished prelates of the Irish Church in the pre
sent century. Born in Clonakilty in the year 1769, he was sent in 1794
by Dr. McKenna, then Bishop of Cloyne, to pursue his ecclesiastical
studies at the Irish College in Salamanca ; but in passing through
Portugal, on his way to Spain, he fell in with Dr. Daly, Rector of the
Irish College, Lisbon, and was by him prevailed upon to make that
house his Alma Mater. After having prosecuted his studies with
marked success, Dr. Crotty succeeded Dr. Daly, as President of his
College; and continued to fill that important post until 181 1 when he
returned to his native land, after an absence of seventeen years.
Amongst Dr, Crotty's successful pupils during his stay in Portugal
may be named Most. Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cork, who removed
from Paris to the College at Lisbon in 1 798, and between whom and
his former master a warm friendship existed in after-life. Only two
years had elapsed after Dr. Crotty's return from the Peninsula when he
was called upon by the Irish Bishops to assume the exalted, and most
responsible position of President of the Royal College of Maynooth ;
and in this capacity his learning, prudence, and piety won him the re
spect and esteem of all with whom he was brought in contact. On the
death of Bishop Collins in 1833, Dr. Crotty was elected to succeed
him as Bishop of Cloyne and Ross, and continued to administer the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 329
The same chapel soon after (October 22, 1851) received
all that was mortal of another who had been indeed a
friend to the Presentation community — the good Father
Stephen Coppinger, to whose exertions the convent owed
its existence, and in whom the nuns had found a tried
counsellor and a generous benefactor up to the close of
his useful life. At his death he bequeathed to the sisters
the sum of /"400 to be put at interest as a fund for
clothing the most destitute of the poor children attending
the convent schools.
The ever increasing number of their pupils rendered it
imperative on the nuns to provide additional school
accommodation, and accordingly in March, 1852, the
foundation stone of the new building was laid after plans
prepared by Father Coppinger before his death. These
magnificent schools, which cost over £1 000, were built at
the sole expense of the sisters, who received no external
aid, except /^i6o subscribed by the people of Midleton.
Within the last seven years the nuns have opened at an
expense of nearly ^300 an infant school for boys ; and
have made additions to the other schools involving an
outlay of some hundreds more, which the nuns will have
soon paid off by the " Result moneys " obtained from the
Board of National Education for their success in the train
ing of their pupils.
affairs of these extensive dioceses with great advantage to religion
until his death, which took place at Cove (Queenstown) on Saturday,
October 3rd, 1846. Dr. Crotty had been remarkable during life for
his charity towards the poor, and at his death he left them by his will
all that he possessed (^2,000), with the exception of a sum of £y>or
given in trust to his executors (Very Rev. Messrs. Morgan O'Brien
and David Walsh) for the benefit of the fund for the sick and super
annuated curates of the Diocese of Cloyne and Ross. — See Dublin
Gazette, Deeember l^th, 1846.

330 Nano Nagle :
The Midleton Convent School is celebrated for the
beautiful muslin embroidery executed by the children.
During the famine years, and for a long while after, the
nuns received such large orders for work of this descrip
tion that they paid away several hundred 'pounds annu
ally as wages to the poor children ; but of late years the
industrial school does not claim the same amount of
attention from the pupils, the scarcity prevailing in the
labour market rendering it necessary to employ females
more extensively than heretofore on farm and country
work. However,, the industrial department is still in a
very flourishing condition, and is largely patronised by
ladies of the first Irish and English families. It is pre
sided over by a work-mistress who is paid by the Board of
Education ; and as embroidery and fancy needlework is
now much encouraged by the Commissioners, who very
wisely see in it a means of livelihood held out to many
poor girls who would be otherwise helpless, the Midleton
nuns hope that in a short time their industrial school
will recover the very higlr reputation which it admittedly
enjoyed a few years ago.
On the 8th of .September, 1854, four sisters of the
Midleton Presentation Convent, viz. M. Joseph Cronin
(Superior), M. Francis Xavier Daly, M. Augustine Keane,
and M. Clare Duggan, left to found a branch of their
Order in San Francisco, and jwere joined in Dublin by
Sister M. Teresa Comerford of the Kilkenny convent, who
had volunteered for the same glorious mission. On their
arrival on the Pacific coast of North America, the sisters
were most cordially welcomed by the ecclesiastical autho
rities, and by the laity of San Francisco without distinc
tion of creed ; but were somewhat disheartened at finding
that there was no suitable conventual establishment
prepared for their reception. After a year of trials and

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 331
sufferings Mother M. Joseph Cronin, broken down in
health, returned to her own convent, accompanied by
Sister M. Augustine Keane. Sister M. Teresa Comerford
was then appointed Superioress. She was joined in the
following year by Mothers M. Magdalen Gore and M.
Ursula O'Callaghan from Kilkenny, and a little later by her
own sister, M. Bernard' Comerford, from the convent at
Midleton. The Californian Presentation Sisters on opening their
schools in a little " shanty" found that their pupils had
very few opportunities of education ; nor need this sur
prise us when we reflect that at the period of their arrival
the city had not yet been regularly laid down, and that
the gold mania engrossed all the thoughts of the settlers.
The children were, however, truly promising, intelligent,
docile, and very anxious to receive instruction ; and in a
short time a great change was visible not alone in them,
but likewise in many of their parents, who began to ac
company their little ones to Mass on Sundays, and even
to the confessional, thus reviving the faith which had
hitherto lain dormant in their hearts. The numbers
received at first continued to increase so rapidly that
additional accommodation became an absolute necessity ;
and after many difficulties and delays a fine convent and
schools, three stories high, and measuring 130 x 40 feet,
were erected through the exertions and generosity of the
Catholic gentlemen of the city. After a few years, the
school-roll numbered 800 pupils; so that it became neces
sary to erect another building of similar dimensions, in
order that the nuns might be enabled to carry on their
system of education with greater efficiency.
In the year 1868, D. T. Murphy, Esq., a wealthy citizen,
long distinguished by his devotion to the Holy See and
his princely liberality towards every religious and chari-

332 Nano Nagle :
table work in San Francisco, gave the munificent sum of
20,000 dollars to purchase a most eligible site for a second
convent of the Presentation Order in that city. The new
house, situated in the centre of the city at the corner of
Taylor and Ellis-streets, is built in L form, measuring 137
x 40 feet on each side, and is three stories in height.
This splendid building was opened in May, 1869, and the
success attending the schools may be best estimated by
the fact that there are 900 names on the school-rolls.
As far as concerns the system of education pursued by
the Presentation Nuns in San Francisco, and the future of
their Order on the North American continent, we cannot
possibly do better than transcribe the words of the dis
tinguished lady who presides over the Taylor-street Con
vent, Mother Teresa Comerford*
" At the period of opening our first convent," writes
Mother Teresa, "no opposition arose from the public
schools, of which there were but few, and our friends urged
us to accept payment from those pupils who could afford it.
Wishing, however, to keep to the spirit of our holy rules,
and fearing that such a distinction would alienate the less
wealthy in this country, where equality was the watchword
of the day, we struggled on through all difficulties, and
still retain our schools entirely free, with the exception of a
small charge for music lessons.
"The system ofthe public schools being now matured
with a very high standard of education, we are obliged to
* The Author cannot allow this opportunity to pass without record
ing his sense of special gratitude to Mother M. Teresa Comerford of
San Francisco for assistance rendered to him in collecting materials
for this work. Among other favours she copied, and forwarded to
him over a distance of more than 6,000 miles, the MSS. " Life of Nano
Nagle," by the late Mother de Pazzi of Cork, which has been so largely
used in the earlier part of this volume.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 333
embrace the same sciences in our teaching, in order to
compete with them, and be enabled to save the children
from the destructive influence of a godless education.
As the attraction of science seems to be a principal weapon
in the hands of the enemies of the faith here, we endea
vour to have our schools progress so as not to be behind
them,- but rather in the advance ; and thus we have been
enabled to, keep our schools in good repute, and gain
youth to God.
" There is indeed a grand prospect of our Order in the
American mission ; but it requires much activity and un
ceasing self-sacrifice on the part of the religious. The
children being naturally intelligent, and precocious beyond
their years, wish to analyse everything ; and for this reason
their teachers must possess much energy and a great fund
of information that they may labour successfully in the
schools." The Presentation Order has indeed prospered wonder
fully in San Francisco, there being now in that city two
convents with sixty nuns (thirty-two in Taylor-street and
twenty-eight in Powell-street) who are labouring most
successfully in the education of one thousand seven hundred
children. Nor are the labours of the sisters confined to
the young alone, as they have also established several
sodalities for adults, which they have placed under the
spiritual direction of the Jesuit Fathers.
The Midleton Convent, which was instrumental in
founding this grand mission in California, is itself in a
most flourishing condition, and possesses abundant mate
rial for a few other missions, as there are at present no less
than thirty-eight sisters in the community. ,
Those who are acquainted with the views of the illus
trious John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam, on the subject
of education, will not -be surprised to learn that that great

334 Nano Nagle :
prelate lost not a moment after his translation to the
Archiepiscopal See in introducing the daughters of Nano
Nagle into the old city of St. Jariath. Mr. William Burke
of Currylea, county Galway, having bequeathed funds for the
foundation and endowment of a conventual establishment
in Tuam, the Archbishop made application to the Superior
of the Presentation Convent in Galway for some sisters to
open a branch of that Order in the capital of his diocese,
and in compliance with this request, Mothers M. de Sales
Coppinger, M. Ignatius Blake, and M. Louis Tighe arrived
in Tuam for that purpose on the 9th of May, 1835 — the an
niversary of Mr. Burke's death. On the following day(May
1 oth), Dr. MacHale celebrated the first Mass in the con
vent chapel ; and as the date of this auspicious event hap
pened to coincide with the celebration ofthe Feast of the
Patronage of St. Joseph, the convent was called "St.
Joseph's," in honour of that great patron of the universal
Church. The nuns opened their schools immediately after
their arrival, and about 300 children presented themselves
for instruction. It was indeed a meritorious, but a terribly
trying task for the good sisters to set themselves to educate
these poor children of the Celt. They were, it is true,
very talented, very docile, and very deeply imbued with
the spirit of the faith ; but they were, on the other hand,
repulsive in appearance, poor, and often filthy in dress,
and extremely ignorant ; for the Penal Laws, which had
caused poverty and ignorance amongst Irish Catholics in
all parts of the island, had exercised their baneful influence
with tenfold effect in the wild and remote districts of the
far West. Such circumstances, which would have been
regarded as insurmountable obstacles to the exercise of
their zeal by persons animated in a less degree by the
spirit of the Gospel, only served as additional motives to
stimulate the daughters of Nano Nagle to extraordinary

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 33,5
endeavours and more heroic sacrifice's in the cause of
charity. They devoted themselves unsparingly day after
day to the instruction of those poor children who were
intrusted to them, first grounding them thoroughly in the
principles of their faith, and then imparting to them
such secular knowledge as would be afterwards useful in
that humble sphere of life in which they had been des
tined by Providence to move. ¦ The education thus imparted
by the nuns has been, and is, in the widest acceptation of
the term gratuitous, as their schools have no connection
with the Board of National Education, and do not receive
aid from any Government funds whatever.
.During the terrible famine years of 1846-47-48 the Pre
sentation Sisters at Tuam had, as may easily be conjectured,
quite as much work on their hands as they were able to
accomplish. Their educational labours were, for the
time, partially suspended, and all their energies were de
voted to the discovery of some new means for the allevia
tion of the terrible misery which they saw around them.
Many large sums of money were intrusted to them for
distribution by charitable persons, among whom may be
mentioned Most Rev. Dr. MacHale ; Most Rev. Dr. Ken-
rick, Archbishop of Baltimore, U. S. ; Cardinal Bonald,
Archbishop of Lyons ; Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of
the Congregation de. Propaganda Fide ; Most Rev. Dr.
Briggs, Bishop of Beverley; Monsignor Kirby, Rector of
the Irish College, Rome ; and Mr. George, a Scotch gentle
man. The nuns also received for distribution among the
starving poor a large quantity of meal and clothing, sent
in 1847 ^y tne charitable people of Boston and Charleston ;
clothing and money from the committee at Calcutta ; and
various sums contributed for the relief of their suffering
•fellow-countrymen by the poor soldiers serving in India
and China ; so that from all these sources combined they

336 Nano Nagle:
were enabled to feed daily 400 children until the famine
had partially disappeared, and its sad effects had 'begun to
be less severely felt. In a poor district, however, as is
that of Tuam, the nuns will be always sure to find a good
many outlets for their charity, and so their spirit of bene
volence is always active. When the pupils have received
that amount of secular instruction which fits them for
their state in life, the sisters spare no efforts to get them
respectable situations, or to have them apprenticed to some
trade which will make them self-supporting. Two hun
dred of them receive annually, on the Feast of the Presen
tation, through the bounty of the Archbishop, a supply of
warm clothing; and the very poor are supplied all the year
round with aplain,but comfortable and substantial breakfast.
The religious instruction of adults commands the special at
tention of the Presentation Nuns at Tuam. On Sundays and
festivals over one hundred poor aged women may be seen
in one of the convent schoolrooms receiving, with eager
attention depicted on every feature, the instruction which
one of the sisters gives them, not in the language of the
stranger, but in their own grand, harmonious, and expres
sive Gaelic tongue, while similar instruction is given at
the same time in other class halls to numbers of women
and young girls, who never fail to assemble for that holy
object. Although the Tuam Presentation community has not,
owing to the smallness of its numbers, sent out as yet any
foundations, it has aided somewhat the mission to New
York, of which mention will be made later on, by permit
ting Sister M. Aloysius Talbot to accompany the colony
which left Terenure for the "Empire City" in 1874.
There are at present in the Tuam Convent twelve professed
nuns, three novices, and two lay sisters. The average
daily attendance at the schools is three hundred.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 337
The first, and, up to the present, the only house of the
Presentation Order in England, was opened in Manchester
in the- year 1836. This foundation owes its origin to the
pious zeal of Mr. Patrick Lavery, of Navin, county Down,
who, having amassed a large fortune in the silk trade in
Manchester, determined to devote a portion of his wealth
to the establishment of a convent in his native town in
Ireland. . Having, however, witnessed for many years the
spiritual destitution which existed among the children of
the Catholic poor in the large English towns, he altered
his first resolution in their favour, and as the greater part
of his money had been made by the labours of the factory
girls in Manchester, he set aside a very handsome sum for
the purpose of founding a convent in that town. The
building having been completed in 1835, the ecclesiastical
authorities were most anxious that it should be handed
over to the Sisters of Mercy, as these religious, not being
bound by the law of enclosure, were judged more useful
in a- place -where there was much work to be done in the
hospitals, and by private visits to the houses of the poor.
But it seemed as if Providence had a special design in the
introduction of the daughters of Nano Nagle into the
sister island, for Mr. Lavery, notwithstanding the great
pressure brought to bear on him, would never consent
that the convent should be tenanted by any nuns other
than those of the Presentation Order, and threatened to
devote his money to some other work of charity if his
wishes in this matter were not respected. The authorities
were reluctantly forced to yield ; and, accordingly, on
February ist, 1836, Mrs. Sargeant, accompanied by two of
her religious sisters, arrived from the Clonmel Presentation
Convent to establish a branch of their Order in Man
chester. On the following day, the Feast of the Purifi
cation of the Blessed Virgin, they opened their schools',
z

338 Nano Nagle:
and never were schools more urgently needed, or more
eagerly availed of. Before the arrival of the nuns there
was no Catholic school for girls in Manchester, so that
those of the poorer classes were forced either to grow up
in ignorance, or to seek instruction in places where both
their faith and their morals were exposed to many and
serious temptations. The opening of the Presentation
Schools was therefore justly hailed as a priceless blessing,
and numbers of grown girls and women came for instruc
tion at various hours of the day, so that in a short time the
nuns were enabled to form a regular class for the evening
instruction of adults, and this they have kept up continu
ally to the present time. The sisters also established a
Sunday school, which attracted hundreds, who came for
the purpose of learning the Christian doctrine, reading,
writing, cyphering, &c. ; and this the nuns still find of the
greatest possible advantage to those who, having spent a
short time in the ordinary day-school, are forced to leave
it at an early age, in order to earn their livelihood by work
ing in the factories.
There are few, if indeed there be any, houses of Nano
Nagle's glorious institute which have suffered more in the
cause 6f the poor than that of Manchester. From the
hour when the sisters first arrived there from Clonmel —
now nine and thirty years ago — up to the present time,
their life has been one of patient endurance under con
stant trials. Owing to the dampness of the convent, and
to over-exertion on their own part, the foundresses were
attacked at a very early period of their residence with.
rheumatism, pleurisy, and a variety of other maladies,
and one of them died in March, 1837. It was evident
that their survivors should either get help from Ireland, or
give up the good work altogether ; but the latter catas
trophe was averted by the arrival of two members of the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 339
Carlow community, who had generously volunteered to
come to the aid of their afflicted sisters in Manchester.
The Carlow nuns remained in England for two years and
eight months, and before returning to their own convent,
had the happiness of seeing the newcommunity strengthened
in numbers by the profession of four novices. • Affairs
now looked somewhat better than before, but were still in
a condition far from satisfactory. The promises of sup
port which had been made to the nuns remained unful
filled ; all the arrangements regarding the convent pro
perty were, to use a very homely but expressive phrase, in
*' a muddle," and the cross was stamped hourly upon the
existence of the patient and devoted daughters of Nano
Nagle, whose lot had been cast in Manchester.
In .1844 the nuns were requested to take charge Qf some
orphan children, who had been gathered together by some
charitable gentlemen of the city, and placed under the
care of paid nurses, by whom they had been grossly
neglected. The good sisters gladly undertook this addi-
tionallabour, and an orphanage having been erected adjoin
ing their convent, received into it, in 1 845, twenty helpless
poor children — the "waifs and strays" of society. Since
1845 the number of children annually supported in the
orphanage has been thirty-six, and their career in after
life has, as a rule, been such as to afford the greatest
satisfaction to the nuns, who always continue to manifest
a lively interest in their welfare. Many of these have
married, and settled down in the vicinity of the convent,
that ^ their children might avail themselves of the advan
tages with which they had themselves been blessed in the
teaching and direction of the nuns ; many others have
emigrated to America and to the colonies with their hus
bands or their relatives, and whatever may be their lot in
the battle of life, they can scarcely fail to derive much
z 2

340 Nano Nagle:
benefit from the religious training of their early years. In
addition to the ordinary day-school and the orphanage,
the Manchester nuns have also established an infant
school for girls only, which they find of the greatest
advantage, as by imparting the elements of knowledge to
the children in infancy, it facilitates their education after
wards, when they are admitted to the day-school.
In the year 1857 the Bishop of the diocese wished the
Presentation Sisters to take charge ofthe poor schools at
Salford, and, in compliance with his lordship's request,
three of the nuns went there to make a foundation. As
their numbers were too small to continue this work, the
Clonmel community sent over one of their members to
assist them ; but in less than twelve months the funds at
their disposal were found inadequate to the support of the
establishment at Salford ; the premises were utterly un-
suited to conventual life, and the foundation being, conse
quently, abandoned, the sister from Clonmel returned to
Ireland, and the three foundresses to Manchester. In
1863 the nuns added, at their own expense, to the build
ing already existing a new school, with large and well-
ventilated class halls. The number of pupils is quite as
large as the nuns can conveniently attend to, the names
entered on the rolls amounting to 1,350, with an average
daily attendance of from 600 to 700. One of the greatest
sources of annoyance to the sisters is the irregular attend
ance of the children at school, which is in a great
measure attributable to the carelessness of parents, and in
part to the many inducements to idleness which a large
and busy city holds out to thoughtless childhood. Ofthe
former pupils trained by the Presentation Sisters at Man
chester, nine have embraced the religious state, and are
themselves zealous and efficient instructors of youth.
Very many more are employed as teachers in elementary

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 341
schools ; and the remainder are discharging respectably
various other duties of civil life.
The Manchester schools have been under Government
inspection since 1850, and the good sisters have the grati
fication of finding them favourably reported on each
succeeding year, and of receiving large grants, because of
the proficiency of their pupils. Mr. Scott Nasmyth Stokes,
her Majesty's Inspector of Roman Catholic Schools in
the north-west division of England, in his official report,
includes the schools of the Presentation Nuns at Man
chester among those, which, "considering the class of
children to be dealt with, cannot anywhere be surpassed
for efficiency."* The same gentleman gives to the Man
chester Presentation Schools the fourth place out of seven
establishments of" the first rank ," among infant schools,
" under very successful mistresses. ,"f He then proceeds : —
" I do not think it possible that public elementary educa
tion should accomplish more than is effected in these
schools, and in others like them. Any one acquainted
even superficially with the daily life ofthe children attend
ing them, and with the influences habitually offered by
home example and street companionship, will be'filled with
admiration of the teachers, whose labours have achieved
so much."J Assuredly, even the most friendly pen could
hardly add one word of praise beyond what is awarded
here by an unbiassed Government official ; and yet Mr.
Stokes did not witness one half of the good effected by
the Presentation Nuns of Manchester, through the agency
of their schools. To appreciate, it properly he should
follow those children taught by them to their own homes,
* "Report of the Committee of Council on Education, i870-7i,M
p. 284.
fliid, p. 285.
J Ibid, p. 285.

342 Nano Nagle:
which their taste makes clean and orderly, where their
very presence inspires, virtuous thoughts, and serves as an
antidote to vice ; he should follow them into the work
rooms and the factories, where they are forced to earn
their bread, and where he might pick one of them out of
a thousand ordinary girls, because ofthe maidenly modesty
and bashful reserve which distinguishes her ; finally, he
should be an acute observer of their conduct in every
relation of after-life, whether as daughter, wife, or mother,
in order to estimate at its proper value the immense
blessedness in time as well as for eternity of the early
training imparted by the daughters of Nano Nagle to the
children of the poor in Manchester, and wherever else
they have been established. Indeed, it is somewhat strange
that the Presentation Nuns have not been more extensively
established in England. There are in London, Liverpool,
Sheffield, Leeds, and other large towns thousands of poor.
children, mostly born of Irish parents, to whom the early
training of the Presentation Sisters would be a priceless
treasure, and if the project were favourably entertained by
the authorities of the Catholic Church in England, there
would be no lack of brave Irish nuns to volunteer their
services for the good work. Let us hope that as England
has for nearly a century refused this gift, which faithful
Erin offers her, she may at last take better counsel,
and invite the devoted sisters of this thoroughly Irish
Order to labour for the regeneration ofthe outcast children
of their race, who pine away in crime and ignorance in
her cities and large towns.
A branch of the Presentation Order was established in
Lismore in the year 1836, the foundress being Mother M.
Francis Keating, who had joined the Waterford commu
nity three and thirty years before, and had made her
solemn profession on the 15th of August, 1806. Mother

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 343
Francis and her two companions, Sisters Mary Paul and
Mary Aquin Kenny, were escorted from their own convent
to Lismore by the Bishop of the diocese, Most Rev. Dr.
Abraham, and his Vicar-general, Very Rev. Dr. Foran ;
and were welcomed by the people with such demonstra
tions of evident delight as proved that the modern inhabi
tants ofthe old city of St. Carthage loved and prized the
presence of the monastic orders among them as much as
did their fathers, in the golden age of Ireland's history.
For some years after their arrival the foundresses had
to endure very many hardships and privations, owing to
the want of sufficient foresight on the part of some, whose
duty it was to arrange the temporal -affairs of the new
foundation, and to the unexpected death of others, who,
had they lived, would have been bound to make provision
for the sisters. However, they bore every trial bravely,
always cherishing a firm trust in Providence, and hoping
and praying for the advent of better days. Brighter visions
began gradually to break in upon them,, until at length,
encouraged by the worthy parish priest, Very Rev. Dr.
Fogarty, V.G., they became sufficiently bold to resolve on
building their present convent. For this purpose the
Duke of Devonshire generously gave them, rent free, a
grant of two acres of land,, picturesquely situated on the
banks of the Blackwater, andfcommanding a view of the
ancient church of St. Carthage. The foundation stone of
the new building was placed by Most Rev. Dr. Foran on
the 1 6th of August, 1842, and in less than four years from
that date (June 5th, 1846), the nuns had the satisfaction of
finding themselves at, length lodged in an establishment
admirably suited in every respect to the requirements of
conventual life. In connection with the building of the
Lismore Convent, it may not' be out of place to mention
an act of fraternal charity on the part of the monks, of

344 Nano Nagle:
Mount Melleray, which bears a striking resemblance to
some things which we read in the lives of the early Bene
dictines. The abbot of Mount Melleray, Right Rev. Dr.
Ryan, had, with his community, become sufficiently ac
quainted with suffering and poverty to feel deeply for all
those whose fate it was to find themselves similarly
circumstanced. Suspecting, therefore, that the exchequer
ofthe poor Presentation Nuns in Lismore was not exactly
in that condition which is described as " flourishing," he
resolved to give them every assistance in his.power towards
the completion of their convent. Anything in the shape
of pecuniary aid was simply out of the question, for the
child of St. Bernard might have truly said with the Prince
of the Apostles, " Silver and gold I have none ;" but he
had among his monks many skilful artizans, and these the
good abbot sent every day from their monastery to Lis-
more, a distance of more than five miles, to complete the
interior of the convent, thus saving to the nuns a very
considerable sum of money, which, otherwise, they would
have had to expend in paying hired tradesmen.* Such
* It may not be out of place to mention here that, in their kind treat
ment of the Lismore Presentation Nuns, the good monks of Mount
Melleray were after all only paying back a debt of gratitude which they
owed to the daughters of Nano Nagle. For when the Trappists, on
their arrival in Ireland from France in 1830, sought a home in Kerry,
they were dependent even for their daily sustenance on the charity of
the people, and the first to stretch out a helping hand to them in such
distressing circumstances was Mother M. Teresa Kelly, of the Presen
tation Convent, Killarney. She induced a near kinsman of hers to give
them a shelter in his house, and to permit them to settle on a portion
of his land. She and her religious sisters worked with their own hands
to supply the fugitive monks with such necessaries as it was in their
power to bestow. She solicited alms for them among her relatives,
and often placed money in their hands when they actually were desti
tute of the price of a single meal. The monks on their part did not

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 345
delicate and touching acts of kindness are very rare,
indeed, in the cold, calculating and pre-eminently selfish
age in which we live ; but, even though the promptings
of humanity and the instincts of Christian charity should
die within the breasts of men, we may ever hope to find
them in a state of vigorous vitality among the humble and
deeply-wronged inmates of the cloister.
It is almost superfluous to say that as soon as the PresenT
tation schools had been opened in Lismore they were
eagerly availed of by crowds of poor children ; and though
the task of instructing such is always more or less irksome,
the labours of the sisters were considerably lightened in
the present instance by reason of the docility and gentle
¦disposition of their young charge, as well as by the cheer
ing marks of approbation and encouragement which they
received alike from the priests and from the people. Ofthe
former, the community still hold in grateful remembrance
the names of the Very Rev. Dr. Fogarty, the Rev. Patrick
Meany, and the Rev. Michael O'Donnell ; while the
favours which they received at the hands of his Grace the
Duke of Devonshire, and of his agent Colonel Curry, were
prove ungrateful. Even at the present day the visitor to Mount Mel
leray may hear the monks praying publicly for a lady who was a great
benefactress to their house ; and many ask " who was she ?" Few, even
•of the religious, can tell, for the old fathers who came from France are
all dead; and as the rule enjoins perpetual silence, and forbids the ask
ing Of curious questions, few of the present community know who the
;kind lady is for whom their prayers are daily offered up to God. But
we may be permitted to enlighten our readers on the subject by inform
ing them that the lady in question is Mother M. Teresa Kelly, who was
a member of the Killarney community in 1 830, when the first Trappists
¦experienced her sorely-needed assistance. This great and good nun,
of whom we shall have more to say later on, founded the Milltown
Presentation Convent in 1838, and that at Listowel in 1844, where she
died in 1864.

346 Nano Nagle :
both numerous and liberal. The present representative
of the noble house of Cavendish rivals in generosity his-
kind-hearted predecessor ; and among his many charities
allows an annual grant of .£"20 to the schools conducted by
the ¦Presentation Nuns. These schools, which are spacious
and well ventilated, are frequented daily by 200 children;
while the adjoining convent is tenanted by twenty-five nuns,
of whom twenty-one are devoted to the great work of
educating the offspring of the poor.
The same year which witnessed the establishment of the
Presentation Order in Lismore and in Manchester, also-
dates its introduction into the old city of the "Violated
Treaty"— the Sexton-street Presentation Convent, Limerick,
which is a filiation from the parent house in Cork, having
been founded on the 8th of May, 1836, by Miss Maria
Catherine King, a young lady of the highest respectability.
Miss King was daughter of Captain John King, of
Waterford, who professed the Protestant religion, and
brought up his children in the same faith. Her father
dying when she was only nineteen years of age, she left
Waterford, and came to reside in Limerick with her uncle,
Captain Moore, R.N. Mrs. Moore being a most zealous
and fervent Catholic, lent her niece several controversial
works of merit, from the perusal of which she soon became
convinced of the truth of the Roman Catholic faith, which
she embraced with feelings of heartfelt gratitude to God,
and of deep regret for having spent so many years of her
life a wanderer from the one true fold. Being now resolved
to devote'the remainder of her life solely to the service of
her Maker, she forsook the world in the 28th year of her
age, and entered the monastery of The Visitation,, at
Shepton Mallet, England ; but her health becoming greatly
impaired, she was in a short time forced to abandon the
resolution she had taken, and, returning to Ireland again.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 347
took up her residence with her aunt and uncle in Limerick.
Here, on the partial restoration of her health, she under
took the superintendence of St. Michael's Female Parochial
School, in which she manifested the most lively interest,
sparing neither pains nor money, in her anxiety to promote
the spiritual and temporal improvement of the poor chil
dren. She had the good sense, however, to perceive that
her labours would be partially fruitless so long as they were
dependent for success on her individual exertions ; and she,
therefore, resolved to establish in Limerick a community of
Presentation Nuns, who might perpetuate the good work
which she had herself inaugurated. She lost no time in
confiding her project to her particular friend and director,
the Very Rev. Dr. Hogan, P.P. and V.G., who readily
assented to her proposal, and assured her of his most
cordial co-operation. He promised to give heir as a con
vent a house adjoining the Presbytery of St. Michael's
parish, on which he had expended the sum of ^"3,000 ;
he set about erecting schools at an estimated costof£~i,300 ;
and when all the buildings required for the projected
foundation had been completed, he transferred them,
together with the extensive pleasure-grounds on which
they stood, to Miss King, who was already negotiating
with the Parent House at Cork, for a colony of Presen
tation Sisters for Limerick. Meanwhile Captain and Mrs.
Moore had died, leaving Miss King sole heir to their
property, which was considerable ; and this event made her
the more anxious to see the arrangements for the establish
ment ofthe nuns speedily concluded. After some unavoid
able delays, everything was most satisfactorily arranged
with the community of the Parent House at Cork, and on
the 6th of May 1836, Mother M. Joseph Harnett (Superior),
Mother M. Stanislaus Drinan (Assistant), and Mother M.
Francis Cantillon (Bursar), arrived in Limerick to com-

348 Nano Nagle:
mence the new foundation. They were most heartily
welcomed by the people of all classes, but more particularly
by their good friends Miss King and, Dr. Hogan, who had
now the happiness of seeing their yearnings of many
years finally gratified by the establishment in Limerick of
the invaluable Presentation Order, which was to impart the
blessings of a religious education to so many thousands of
poor girls. The nuns opened their schools op the 29th of
May, and the first pupils admitted into them were 150
poor girls, to whose education Miss King had devoted her*
self for nine years before the sisters arrived.. The good
foundress might now well say in the- words of the Psalmist,
"The lines have fallen unto me in goodly .-places"
(Ps. xv. 6); for, prosperity, such as seldom attends first
beginnings, smiled upon the institute which she had
established on the banks of the lordly Shannon. The
schools were filled in a very short time, and the teaching
in them was eminently successful ; several young ladies,
also, sought admission into the community as postulants;
and, to crown all, Miss King herself, after having for a few
years tested her strength, entered the novitiate, and at the
end of one year's probation, had the great happiness of pro
nouncing her solemn vows, on the 8th of September, 1841.
In making preparations for the reception of the nuns,
Dr. Hogan omitted to make provision for a suitable chapel,
and the sisters were consequently obliged to appropriate
one of the large rooms to religious purposes. This defect
was however remedied in the course of time, by the
generosity of the citizens, and particularly of James F.
Carroll, Esq., M.D., who gave the sum of/~soo for this
purpose. The new chapel, which is very beautiful, is built of cut
limestone, and in the interior there is a pretty marble tablet,
to the memory of Dr. Carroll, who contributed so muni-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 349
ficently towards its erection. The building was solemnly
dedicated to the Divine worship by the late, most Rev.
Dr. Ryan, on the 7th of July, 1841, the sermon on the oc
casion being preached by the late lamented and highly
gifted Dr. Cahill, then in the zenith of his reputation as a
pulpit orator.
So rapidly had the Sexton-street community increased
during the first ten years of its existenc®, that we find
Mother M. Joseph Harnett, with two professed nuns and a.
postulant, leaving Limerick on the 6th of October, 1846,
for the purpose of establishing, at the request of the Rev.
Mr. O'Leary, P.P., a branch of the Order in Castleisland,
county Kerry. The time, chosen for their departure was
the commencement of a period of great trials and ad
ditional labours for the nuns in Limerick, who, like their
sisters elsewhere, were forced to exhaust their ingenuity
in devising means to supply with food the unfortunate.
children whom they saw daily famishing at their door during
the winter of 1846-47. During this period of sore distress
the good nuns were enabled to supply food every day to
150 poor children, and also, to clothe very many of them,
through the generosity of some charitable persons, among-
whom Most Rev. Dr. Briggs, Bishop of Beverley, and Miss
Wallace of Cecil-street, Limerick, were particularly dis
tinguished by their liberality.
Up to the year 1848, the Sexton-street Presentation
Schoqls received no State aid whatsoever ; but the great
difficulty of obtaining sufficient funds for the efficient
working of such a large establishment at that period of
almost unprecedented poverty and depression in Ireland,
induced the nuns to accept the Government grant, and
place their schools in connection with the Board of
National Education. The success attending the edu
cational labours of the sisters has ever since been uni- <

350 Nano Nagle;
formly of the most gratifying description. Of the
many witnesses who might be cited in support of this state
ment, one deserves special notice, because of the high
official position which he held, as also because he cannot
be possibly suspected of any partiality to conventual in
stitutions. The Right Rev. Dr. Higgin, Protestant Bishop,
first of Limerick and afterwards of Derry, and a Com
missioner of National Education, thus recordsjin the book
kept for the purpose, the impression produced upon him
by a visit to the Sexton-street School : — " I have this day
visited this school, and have great pleasure in recording
my complete approbation. The order, attention, cleanliness,
and proficiency of the children reflect the highest credit
on its manager and superintendent ; and it cannot fail to
impart the greatest advantage to the community at large''* We
shall trouble our readers with only one other testimony on
this head, and we extract it from a source above suspicion
— the ' ' Reports of the Assistant Commissioners on the Royal
Commission of Inquiry into Primary Education (Ireland).''
James Stuart Laurie, Esq., one of the commissioners, re
porting on six convent schools visited by him in the
Limerick district — one of them being the Sexton-street
Presentation School — writes thus : — " I may here state,
once for all, that, notwithstanding their special character,
these schools are doing a good work, and amply justifying
the Board's concession in their favour. The general
character of the premises, the management, the prevailing
tone of the pupils, the self-sacrificing and well-directed
.zeal of the sisterhood, and the aggregate results of instruc
tion, all gave me the utmost satisfaction. Even supposing
I had all the required data at hand, I should probably de- .
oline to institute any comparison, in respect of technical
* See " Mixed Education — the Catholic Case Stated : by a Catholic
Layman." Dublin (John Mullany), 1859, p. 241.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 351
proficiency between these and other more general schools.
I will merely record that they are free from the blemishes
of the ordinary National School, to which I have already
adverted. The points of superiority — which is, after all,
a proof of culture on the part of the managing staff — are
manners and discipline, organization, cleanliness, venti
lation, sprightliness, and cheerfulness. All branches of hand
work, »such as sewing, drawing, penmanship, and parti
cularly exercise-books, &c, are carried out on the most
correct plan, and with the most gratifying proficiency."*
Perhaps, however, one of the best tests of the value of the
training given in the Sexton-street Presentation Schools is
Mhe success which attends their pupils in after-life. Besides
very many who are comfortably and respectably married,
numbers of them are at present filling offices as gover-
nesses,teachers or assistants in schools, telegraph and post-
office clerks, &c. ; while no less than ninety of them have
been received as choir sisters in different religious. Orders
They are to be met with in every quarter of the globe, and
are found to give everywhere the most unqualified satis
faction. The late Bishop of Limerick, Dr. Ryan, left to the Sexton-
street community at his death a sum of ^2,000 ; and having
received another bequest of £1, 800 from the brother of
one of the nuns, they determined to make some improve
ments in connection with the convent. On the4th of August,
1864, was laid the foundation stone of a new school, which
was completed in the following year, at a cost to the sisters
of over /400. The holy foundress, Miss King, had the
happiness of seeing this latest addition made to' her con
vent before her death, which occurred on the 2nd of No-
* " Royal Commission of Inquiry into Primary Education (Irel and) :
Reports of Assistant Commissioners. Report of J. S. Laurie. Esq."
paragraph 120. \

352 Nano Nagle:
vember, 1 866, in the 8oth year of her age. The Presentation
Sisters at Limerick have on their school-roll at present
1,300 names, though the average daily attendance" of
children does not exceed 500, in consequence ofthe large
number of other schools in the city. The very poor chil
dren are clothed, and are daily supplied with bread, funds
for these purposes being partially derived from the proceeds
of a collection, which is annually made in all the city
churches in support of the convent schools. Not con
tent with their labours among the juvenile population of
Limerick, the zealous Presentation Sisters have also
established a female branch of the Sodality of the Holy
Family, corresponding with the society for men which is
under the direction of the Redemptorist Fathers. The
branch in charge of the nuns is as yet only in its infancy,
but, even in the present early stage of its existence, it
numbers among its members 200 women, rich and poor,
who are a source of edification to the entire city, by their
charitable offices towards their neighbour, and the holiness
of their own lives.
The Presentation Nuns have been now nearly forty
years established in the old city of the " Violated Treaty,'*
and it would indeed be difficult to estimate properly
the immense good which they have achieved within
that period. The matrons of the Limerick of to-day were
their pupils forty years ago, and their pupils of to-day will
be the mothers of the next generation of Limerick men.
And who shall venture to measure the powerful influence
of those thousands of religiously-educated young Irish
women, on their own domestic circle and on society
at large, not in Ireland alone, but in all those vast
countries to which the Irish emigrate ? Truly may we
bless the hour when Nano Nagle first saw the light

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 353
by the banks ofthe Blackwater, and the moment when God
inspired her to give to her native land the glorious Order
of Presentation Nuns.
Far from exhibiting any symptoms of decay the Sexton-
street community has very lately given a proof of active
vitality, having sent out on October 22nd, 1873, a colony
of seven sisters to labour in the far-off land of Australia.
Of these, however, we shall have to speak later on. The
Presentation community at Limerick numbers at present
twenty-two choir nuns, four postulants, and one lay
sister. A branch of the Presentation Order was established
in Milltown, County Kerry, in the year 1838. The late
parish priest, Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald, bequeathed at his
death, in 1835, to the Most Rev. Dr. Egan, and to. his
successors in the See of Kerry, a sum of ^4,000, the
interest on which was to be applied to educating and
clothing the poor of the united parishes of Milltown and
Listry. Bishop Egan judged that he could not more
effectually carry out the wishes of the testator than by
establishing in the parish, a foundation of the Presenta
tion Sisters ; thus securing permanently to the female
children of the poor the blessings of a good secular
education combined with a thorough religious and moral
training. The building of the new convent was, accor
dingly commenced in 1836, and on the 23rd of April,
1838, five members of the Killarney community, viz.
Mother M. Teresa Kelly (Superioress), with Sisters M.
Clare Barry, M. Regis Lombard, M. Ignatius O'Sullivan,
M. Baptist Sewell, [and a young postulant, arrived in
Milltown to begin their glorious mission of love. They
were accompanied by Most Rev. Dr. Egan, who was very
much surprised and annoyed at finding the new convent
in a still unfinished state, while the portion of the
2 A

354 Nano Nagle :
works which had been completed had been badly de
signed, and still more wretchedly executed. The Bishop,
therefore, felt no hesitation in allocating out of the funds
left by Father Fitzgerald, £1,006 for the proper comple
tion of the convent buildings, and to this sum his Lord
ship generously added a donation of ^500 from his own
private purse. The good prelate gave further proof of
his munificence and of the interest which he felt in the
nuns by giving them on the'same day a sum of £200 for
the erection of a small chapel in connection with the
convent. It will thus be seen that prospects of a very
bright future were held out to the little colony at Mill-
town, but whatever they might be inclined to think of
that future, they could hardly fail to see that their actual
present condition was uncomfortable and disheartening
in the extreme. There being no cells ready for their
reception, they were forced to crowd six bedsteads into
one small apartment ; and this great inconvenience had
to be endured by the sisters for more than twelve months.
What was still worse this same room had to serve, even
during the warmest days in summer, the different pur
poses of kitchen, refectory, and dormitory, as there were
several tradesmen at work in all the other apartments of
the house, not one of which was completed until a long
time after the arrival of the nuns. But great as was the
personal inconvenience of the sisters, their thoughts were
less occupied about themselves than about the prepara
tion of their schools for the great work which they had
come to perform ; and after many exertions they finally
had the happiness of opening the schools on the 2nd of
July, 1838, which they did in the presence ofthe Rev. Mr.
Quill, P. P., by publicly reciting with the assembled
children the Litany of Our Blessed Lady, and imploring
through her intercession the blessing of Heaven on their

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 355
future labours. On the opening day there were more
than three hundred children present, and the attendance
increased so rapidly that before the end of the first month
there were 700 names on the school-roll. The sisters had
not proper accommodation for more than half this
number; it was, moreover, impossible for sp small a
community to bestow the necessary attention on so many
children ; yet what was to be done ? To refuse admission
to any ofthe little ones who sought it was simply out of the
question, as there was, right opposite the convent, a
school superintended and taught by some Protestant
ladies of the locality, who held out many dazzling allure
ments to the poor Catholic children with a view to their
ultimate perversion. In this emergency the brave nuns
determined at all hazards to save the little innocents of
Milltown from the grasp ofthe proselytisers, and so, forget
ful of their own wants, resolved to give up the eight cells
which had been at length provided for their accommodation,
in order to convert them into a second school-room. The
Most Rev. Dr. Egan refused for some time to consent to
this arrangement, as he thought the sisters would, thereby,
be subjected to too many privations ; at the earnest
solicitations of the community, however, he ultimately
acceded to their wishes, but directed that the sum of
£2 00 which he had originally given towards the erection
of a small chapel, should now be appropriated to the
enlargement of the convent. The proposed addition was
immediately commenced, but alas for human resolves ! —
" The heart of man disposeth his way ; but the Lord
must direct his steps " (Proverbs, xvi. 9). The new
building had just been roofed in, and the sisters hoped
soon to take possession of it, when, on the night ofthe
28th of November, 1838, a fearful storm from the Atlantic
swept the coast of Kerry, carrying off the roof and level-
2 A 2

356 Nano Nagle:
ling to the ground the walls of the Milltown Presentation
Convent as well as of many other more pretentious
edifices. This was indeed a crushing blow to the poor
nuns, but it was to them some consolation that the entire
convent had not been destroyed, and that a portion still
remained to afford them even a miserable shelter. Mis
fortunes, it is saidf never come singly ; and the Milltown
Presentation Sisters found this verified in their case, for
in the following January (1839) there burst forth a still
more terrific and memorable storm, which destroyed their
belfry, and swept away whatever of the building had been
left standing after the former gale. This was a new and
almost overwhelming trial, but the sisters knew that it
came direct from God, and they received it, accordingly, in
humble submission to His Divine Will, and with a feeling
of firm hope that though He might chastise them for His
own wise ends, He would never entirely abandon them.
Nor were their hopes disappointed. On the Sunday
which succeeded the storm, the Rev. Mr. Quill, P. P.,
made a touching appeal in favour of the nuns to the
people of his parish, who responded by contributions
amounting to about £1 00, which were immediately con
veyed to the sisters to supply their more pressing
necessities. The Bishop of the diocese with his priests
and many wealthy lay persons next came forward to the
assistance of the nuns, so that they were in a short time
enabled to commence the rebuilding of the convent on a
scale of much greater grandeur than they had ever
ventured to hope for. The new house was soon com
pleted, and was perfect in almost every respect, the only
drawback being the want of a chapel. The choir served
this purpose for many years, but the nuns never aban
doned the design of erecting a suitable chapel as soon as
circumstances would permit. This they were enabled to

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 357
do in course of time, through the generosity of the Rev.
Mr. Buckley, who contributed £do towards this laudable
object, and found many imitators among the clergy and
laity of Kerry ; so that the Milltown Convent now possesses
a small, but pretty chapel which permits the various
ceremonies of the Church to be carried out with befitting
solemnity, and also affords to the people of the town an
opportunity of assisting at daily Mass.
The Milltown Presentation Sisters after having passed
" per tot discrimina rerum" have at length the well-earned
satisfaction of seeing their convent and their schools in a
thriving condition. There are only thirteen nuns in com
munity at present, but it may be mentioned in explanation
' that the convent has sent out a foundation to Listowel,
and that death has carried off four of the sisters within
the past few years. The number of children on the
school-roll for the year 1874 was 430, and the average
attendance varied from 200 to 250. The attendance was
much larger some years ago, but the falling off in the
present number of pupils may be traced to the recent
multiplication of schools in the neighbourhood, which did
not exist for many years after the nuns had commenced
their arduous and voluntary labours among the poor of
Milltown. We find the Presentation Order next establishing itself
in Bagnalstown in the year 1838. The Very Rev. Michael
Prendergast, P. P. of Dunleekney, and Vicar-General of
Kildare and Leighlin, dying on the 7th of September,
1836, bequeathed his house, together with his property,
which was considerable, to trustees for the purpose of
introducing into the parish a community of nuns who
would undertake the education of youth, both rich and
poor. The trustees accordingly founded at Bagnals
town the present convent, which is beautifully situated,

358 Nano Nagle:
and enjoys the great advantage of having an extensive
garden and pleasure ground attached. As soon as the
house had been commodiously fitted up for the reception
of the religious, the Most Rev. Francis Haly, Bishop of
the Diocese, selected for the new mission the Nuns of the
Presentation Order, and accordingly, on August the 5th,
1838, Mother M. Magdalen Breen and Sister M. John
Harding from the convent at Maryborough, with Sister M.
Austin Kehoe from Carlow, arrived at Bagnalstown to open
the new foundation.
As the object of the testator was to make provision for
the education of all classes, His Holiness, Pope Gregory
XVI., at the request of Dr. Haly, permitted the sisters by
special rescript, to receive into their schools the children
of persons in easy circumstances, and since that time a
" benefit school," as it is called, has been attached to the
Bagnalstown convent, with an average attendance of fifty
children each year. The pupils in this school pay a
pension, which is, however, devoted by the nuns to chari
table purposes, and the education imparted to them is
quite equal to that conferred in the best hoarding schools.
In 1852 new and spacious schools were erected, at which
there is a daily average attendance of two hundred poor
children. The Bagnalstown Convent has sent out two
filiations ; the first to Mountmellick, Queen's County, on
the 7th of March, 1854, an(^ the second to Portarlington,
on the 29th of September, 1854. The present community
at Bagnalstown numbers sixteen members.
Thus it is that all over Ireland, and away beyond the
seas, wherever the English tongue is spoken, we. find the
mustard seed planted by Nano Nagle extending its branches
as each succeeding year rolls by, and gathering beneath
its protecting shade the lowly children of the poor. The
life of one Presentation nun may be taken as a type ofthe

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 359
humble, holy, laborious and eminently useful life of all ;
and beholding the labours of any one of them we may
say of each of her sisters all the world over, in the words
of Longfellow : — •
" And thus she walks among her girls,
With praise and mild rebukes,
Subduing e'en rude village churls
By her angelic looks.
* • * »
" And following her beloved Lord
In decent poverty,
She makes her life one sweet record
And deed of charity."

360 Nano Nagle:

CHAPTER XXI.
Fermoy, past and present. — Most Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cloyne.
— The Presentation Order in Fermoy. — Establishment of a Pre
sentation Convent in Clane, county Kildare. — Further exten
sion of the Order in the diocese of Kerry. — Houses opened at
Millstreet and at Cahirciveen. — The daughters of Nano Nagle in
India. — A branch of the Order established in Listowel. — Labours
ofthe nuns in Listowel during the famine years. — "I'm a spectre,
ma'am ! " — How a nun meets death. — " Sister Humility " of the
Listowel Convent — Prolonged controversy between the nuns and
the Commissioners of Education on the subject of a Cross.—
Mother Teresa Kelly. — Her death. — Present condition of the Lis
towel Presentation Convent. — Nano Nagle's institute in Castle-
island.
It is no exaggeration to say that Fermoy, picturesquely
situated in the valley of the Blackwater, midway between
Mallow and Lismore, is one of the prettiest inland towns
in Ireland. Apart altogether from the natural beauty of
its position, much of its neatness is owing to the circum
stance of its being a new town, having in fact sprung into
existence during the present century; but though the
town is new, the place has a venerable history, and its
very name would seem to indicate that it was destined to
be for ever the abode of religion and learning. Those
skilled in the antiquities of our country tell us that about
the year 254 this territory was bestowed by a king of
Munster upon a famous Irish Druid, through whose prayers
he had defeated his enemies in battle. From the number
of druidicai altars afterwards erected in the neighbourhood
the county became known as Magh Feine, or the sacred

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 361
plain, and " the inhabitant was called Fier Magh Feine,.
or the man of^ the sacred plain, or Fier Magh, whence
Fermoy'' * We are not sufficiently conversant with anti
quarian lore to offer any opinion on the correctness of this-'
derivation; but we do know from indisputably authentic
history that, in the 13th and succeeding centuries Fermoy
could lay good claim to be called the plain inhabited by saintly
and learned persons, for in the year 1270 Sir Richard
de Rupella, or de Rupe (Roche), who was Lord Justice of
Ireland in 1261, founded here a monastery of Cistercians,
which was styled of" Our Lady de Castro Dei," and which
for centuries held aloft the torch of religion and science
in this portion of our island. There still exists in Fermoy
a lane dignified by the name of " Abbey-street," which
marks the spot where the good Cistercians once hymned
the praises of the Most High ; but the venerable abbey
itself, like the men who tenanted its cloisters, is a thing:
of the past — " The sacred tapers' lights are gone,
, Grey moss has clad the altar stone ;
The holy, image is o'erthrown,
The bell has ceased to toll.
"The long-ribbed aisles are burst and shrunk,
The holy shrines to ruin sunk ;
Departed is the pious monk,
God's blessing on his soul."
But if the Cistercians have disappeared from Fermoy,
their place has been filled by no less devoted children of
the Church. For the Church can never die. She shall live
in heaven for eternity; and it is decreed that she, must
endure on earth until the end of time to battle against the
powers of hell. Her soldiers are but mortals, and in the
•See "Guide to the Blackwater," by J. R. O'Flanagan, Esq.,
M. R. I. A., p. 79.

362 Nano Nagle:
march of time they perish by the thousand in the fight ; but
as rank after rank of these devoted champions is swept
away, others replace them, and spring with eagerness into
the breach to storm the citadel of error and of sin. So it
has been in the past, so is it in the present, and §0 shall
it continue to be in the future, until Time opens the portals
of eternity, and the brilliant light of a glorious triumph
plays around the standard of the Cross.
We do not believe that there is within the four seas of
holy Ireland one single spot where this great truth of the
Church's wondrous vitality is brought home to a reflecting
mind more forcibly than in Fermoy. On the northern
hill overlooking the town, the world and its powers have
erected their fortress, consisting of immense barracks,
capable of accommodating more than 2,500 men ; but
right opposite, on the crest of the southern hill, where the
Church has pitched her camp, the eye is gladdened by the
sight of a line of noble buildings, vast in extent, and un
surpassed in architectural beauty, wherein eighty-two
soldiers of the church — priests and nuns and monks —
impart the blessings of a Christian education to over eight
Jiundred pupils, drawn from every rank of society. There
in the van, which is theirs by right, are the self-sacrificing
daughters ofthe heroic Nano Nagle, breaking the bread of
knowledge to the children ofthe poor, in whom their every
human affection is centred — who are to be their joy and their
crown for ever. Beside them are the gentle and accom
plished Ladies of Loretto, preparing the daughters of the
rich for those duties which religion and society will soon
call upon them to discharge. Further on, the College of
St. Colman rears its massive- tower, and proudly and de-
fiantlyflourishes the banner ofCatholic educationin the face
of a semi-pagan world. A few paces onward still, and we
meet the devoted sons of the venerable De la Salle-*— the

Her L.ife, her Labours, and their Fruits. 363
brothers of the Christian Schools — labouring steadily,
silently, but most effectually in the noble cause of science
and religion. While, lastly, we comprehend the hidden
motive power which sets all the vast machinery to work
as we look upon the tapering and exquisitely finished spire
of the parish church, which flanks this noble line of build
ings, and, pointing upwards, seems ever silently preaching
the one great truth that all man's ways should be so shaped
here below that they fail not to end in heaven. Looking
upon this picture and on that — gazing on the southern hill
of Fermoy, and then glancing across the rushing river at
all " the pride, and pomp, and circumstance" of war, which
marks the eminence on the opposite side, we cannot help
feeling with Longfellow, that —
"Were half the power that fills the world with terror ;
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error, »
There were no need of arsenals nor forts." i
That Fermoy may still lay claim to the title of " the
sacred plain" is due to the .zeal and energy of the late
Most Rev. Timothy. Murphy, Bishop of Cloyne.* When
* The Most Rev. Dr. Murphy was bom in the parish of Coachford,
near Cork, on the 16th of December, 1789, and, having completed his
preliminary studies, was admitted into the College of Maynooth in
September, 1810. After an academic career of unusual brilliancy, he
was ordained priest in May, 181 5, and was immediately after promoted
to the Dunboyne establishment, where he remained for four years,
partly as a student and partly as a lecturer in French. Having been
.summoned by his Bishop to the discharge of missionary duties, he was
appointed to the curacy of Mallow in 1819, but was removed after three
months to the extensive neighbouring parish of Doneraile, where he had
an ample field for the exercise of his zeal, and where his labours bore
.great fruit. In March, 1826, he was removed as junior curate to Fer
moy, having previously refused the incumbency of Doneraile, which the
then parish priest, the Very Rev. Wilham O'Brien, wished to resign in.

364 Nano Nagle:
Father Murphy was appointed to the curacy of Fermoy in
1826, he saw and deplored the existing want of any Ca
tholic school worthy the name, for the education of the
people. He felt above all how essential it was in a large
garrison town that a special watchfulness should be exer-
his favour ; and having also declined the parish of Macroom in 1831,
and that of Midleton in 1840, he was appointed parish priest of Fermoy
in 1841. His name was forwarded to Rome in August, 1847, as worthy
to be coadjutor to Dr. Crotty ; and in February, 1849, on the death of
the Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne and
Ross. Thus his connection with the parish of Fermoy as curate, parish
priest, and bishop extended over a period of thirty years, during which,
time he conferred lasting and incalculable benefits on religion. He
introduced the Presentation and Loretto Nuns into the parish, erected
three male national schools, improved and almost rebuilt the parish
church at a cost of ^f 5,000, and laid the foundation stone of the Diocesan
College of St. Colman, which, however, he was not spared to see com
pleted. These buildings were erected at a cost of over ^"20,000, and
their final completion, under his successor, Most Rev. Dr. Keane, cost
nearly^ 17,000 more. Over ^40,000 of public or private money passed
through Dr. Murphy's hands during his residence in Fermoy, and yet
he died not only poor but penniless— he was buried, in fact, at the
public expense . Having assisted at the definition of the Immaculate
Conception on December 8th, 1854, he returned to Fermoy evidently
much impaired in health, and, being attacked by paralysis on the 10th
of October, 1856, he never recovered from the stroke, and died on
December 4th, 1856. He was interred on the 8th in the chapel ofthe
Presentation Convent, in accordance with his own express desire; and
at his month's mind, which was held in Fermoy on Wednesday, Janu
ary 14th, 1857, and was attended by a large number of bishops and
priests, with an immense concourse of the laity, a magnificent funeral
oration, worthy the palmiest days of pulpit oratory, was pronounced on
tbe deceased prelate by the Rev. Dr. Croke, then curate in Midleton,
and at present the distinguished Bishop of Auckland. From this-
panegyric we have condensed most of the information which our limited
space has enabled us to insert concerning Bishop , Murphy — See
Cork Examiner, January, 16th, 1857.

Her Life, her Labours, and. their Fruits. 365
cised over the training of female youth, and that safe
guards should be proyided for the preservation of their
virtue amid the many terrible temptations to which they
were constantly exposed. No such safeguard, unfortu
nately, existed in Fermoy, and Father Murphy determined
to supply the want by the introduction of a community of
Presentation Nuns. With this object in view, he procured
from the assignees of the late John Anderson, Esq., a lease
of some ground on the Southern Hill, overlooking the
Blackwater, at a yearly rent of £\, and having thus se
cured a most desirable site, he set himself to collect the
necessary funds for the building of the new convent. He
obtained for this purpose the sum of ^1,500 from the
Very Rev. Morgan O'Brien and the Very Rev. Maurice
Sheehan, the trustees of Miss Gould's fortune (see chap.
xv.), and the balance of ^1,500 more, which was required
for the completion of the works, he collected among his
friends and the parishioners. The new convent which
had been commenced in 1835, was ready for the recep
tion of the religious in 1838, and on the 13th of November
in that year, three nuns from the parent house in Cork,
viz. Mother M. Ignatius Verling (Superioress), Sister M. de
Sales Madden (Assistant), and SisterM. Augustine Nowlan
(Mistress of Novices), arrived in Fermoy to open the new
foundation, being accompanied by Most Rev. John Murphy,
Bishop of Cork, who on the following day offered up the
Holy Sacrifice for the first time in the convent chapel.
It is superfluous to say that the people of Fermoy who
had so long felt the educational disadvantages under which
they laboured, now hailed the advent of the nuns as an
inestimable blessing, and that they were proportionately
anxious that their children should avail of the opportuni
ties placed within their reacM. As a natural consequence,
pupils came trooping in in large numbers, not only from

366 Nano Nagle :
the town but from the surrounding district, so that in a
short time the school-roll showed an attendance of 500
children, and every available seat in the class-halls was
occupied. A very brief period was sufficient to convince
the good people of Fermoy of the benefits which the nuns
were conferring on their town.' Their children, whose
days had previously been spent in idleness about the streets-
(and idleness is the parent of vice), were now to be found
regularly in the school, acquiring a thorough knowledge
of the principles of religion ; reducing its maxims, to
practice, and withal storing their minds with such secular
learning as would enable them afterwards to struggle suc
cessfully in the battle of life. But it was not in the school
alone that the influence of the nuns was felt ; it followed
the children out into the streets, and into the bosoms of
their families, fostering virtue and acting as a powerful
check on vice. Forbidden to pass the limits of their en
closure themselves, the sisters employed monitresses and
others, in whom they reposed confidence, to watch over
and report to them on the conduct of the girls outside the •
school and thus they were enabled, by constant and unre
mitting vigilance, to remove every dangerous occasion,
to root out every inclination to evil, and to plant the
seeds of virtue and piety in its stead. This watchfulness
extended itself to their pupils even long after they had
ceased to attend school, and when they had already settled
down in the world; and many a young wife was stopped in
the commencement of a career of folly and extravagance,
manyathoughtlessyoung girl was arrested on the very brink
ofthe precipice which ends in ruin by a timely and kindly
message — a word of warning and remonstrance gently
spoken by those angelic beings who had loved her and
trained her in her younger days. No wonder that Fermoy
began to put. on a new appearance after the introduction

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 367
of the nuns, and no wonder that its good pastor should be
strengthened in his resolve to multiply for his people the
means of a Christian education, having witnessed the
wonders wrought in a short time by a few earnest and
devoted daughters of Nano Nagle.
On the 2nd of March, 1843, Sister M. Augustine
Nowlan returned to Cork, and on the 28th of August,
1847, Mother Ignatius Verling (Superior) and Mother
de Sales Madden were also recalled to the parent house,
leaving after them in the Fermoy Convent four professed
sisters, two novices, and one lay sister. It was a trying-
time — that terrible famine year — to leave those poor young
nuns to struggle on without any experienced religious at
their head. They succeeded admirably, however, not only
in conducting their schools as effectually as before, but
also in relieving the corporal wants of hundreds of poor
children, many of whom might have perished of hunger
were it not for the timely assistance which they received
at the convent gates. In the discharge of this latter work
of charity, they were encouraged and sustained by their
good pastor, Father Murphy, who having spent upon the
poor every farthing which he possessed, went so far as
to sell his car (which was almost absolutely necessary to
him in the discharge of his duties), in order that he might
hand the proceeds to the nuns for the relief of their fa
mishing pupils. The death of this good man, in 1856, was
indeed a sore trial to the inmates of the Fermoy Presen
tation Convent. During life he had been to them not
only their superior, their counsellor, their firm friend, but
above all their loving father. Attached to them for so-
many years, he would not be separated from them in death,
and after bequeathing to them his house, and whatever
else he possessed, he willed that what was mortal of him

368 Nano Nagle:
should rest within their convent chapel to await the resur
rection. It was some consolation to the sisters in their sad
bereavement, that Dr. Murphy was succeeded in the epis
copacy by the Most Rev. Dr. Keane, whose concern for
the poor, and solicitude for the well-being of the nuns
equalled that of his lamented predecessor. Seeing that
the increasing numbers of the community rendered addi
tional accommodation necessary, Dr. Keane suggested
to the sisters in 1863, the idea of building new schools,
and converting the old one to the use of the nuns. The
work was immediately' commenced, and the splendid new
schools, measuring two hundred feet by thirty, were opened
on the Feast of St. Teresa in the same year. They stand
about forty yards from the convent, with which they are
connected .by a spacious and beautiful cloister. The
former school was then remodelled to suit conventual
requirements, the entire work being executed in the very
best style at a total cost of ^"2,100-. The convent chapel
and choir having been very small, the sisters determined
to enlarge both in 1873. They spared no expense in doing
so, and the result is that they have now one of the pret
tiest chapels and choirs in Ireland at a cost of £2, 5 00.
In 1866 the Fermoy Presentation community sent out
four professed nuns and' five postulants to establish a
branch of the Order at Hobart Town, Tasmania, and in
1870, sent out two other professed sisters and two pos
tulants to the same mission. The foundation in Tasma
nia has been exceedingly prosperous, as there are now in
that colony two flourishing houses of the Presentation
Order — one at Hobart Town; the second at Launceston.
But for the present we shall not make further allusion to
this mission, as it is our purpose to speak of it elsewhere

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 369
at greater length. Notwithstandingthe short period which
has elapsed since the Fermoy Presentation Nuns sent out
their missionaries to Tasmania, the community is at pre
sent one ofthe largest in Ireland, numbering in all twenty-
seven members. This is, no doubt, owing in a large mea
sure to the singularly healthful position of the convent, of
which the most convincing argument is to be found in the
fact, that since the Presentation Sisters came to Fermoy,
in 1838, they have lost only three of their number by death.
The average daily attendance in the schools is three
hundred. The Presentation Order was established at Clane, county
Kildare, in the year 1839, mainly through the instruments
ality of Miss Judith Browne, a lady of property residing
in the neighbourhood, and of Mr. and Mrs. Sweetman of
Lo'ngtown, within a few miles of Clane. The building of
the convent having been commenced in 1836, under the
superintendence of Mr. M'Kenna, architect, was com
pleted in 1837 > but the Bishop ofthe diocese, Most Rev.
Dr. Nolan, dying in October of that year, the introduction
of the nuns was of necessity postponed, pending the
appointment of his successor. The choice of the Holy
See fell on Most Rev. Dr. Haly, and wiih him rested the
Selection of the nuns who were to' occupy the new convent
at Clane. His lordship decided in favour of the religious
ofthe Presentation Order; and accordingly, on the 25th of
, April, 1839, four nuns of that Institute arrived at Clane
to establish a branch of their Order. The sisters who
took part in the foundation were Mother M. Teresa
Brennan (Superior), and Sister Catherine Donoghue
(lay sister), from Maryborough, with Sisters M. Bernard
Kinsella and M. Gertrude Murphy, from the convent at
Carlow. The two last-mentioned returned to their own
house jn less than two years ; and one of them being in
2 B

370 Nano Nagle:
very delicate health was very soon after summoned to her
eternal reward.
The Clane Presentation Sisters commenced their labours
under more favourable auspices than usually ,fell to the
lot of their less fortunate sisters elsewhere. From the
moment of their arrival presents began to flow into them
from. generous friends both lay and clerical. Mr. Sweet
man, already mentioned, in addition to many other favours,
allowed them' £$o per annum towards their support; and
a short time before his death invested ^"i.ooo as a per-,
petual fund in aid ofthe convent. Miss Browne, also, to
whom we have alluded, allowed the nuns ^40 per annum
until her death, which occurred in 1848 ; while the Rev. J.
Mooney, curate of the parish, did them good service by
laying down and walling in an acre of waste ground which
surrounded the convent, and which soon put on the garb
of fertility under his skilful management. Lest, however,
they might be too much elated by prosperity/Providence
permitted one slight defect in the arrangements which had
been made for their reception. Their schools, which had
formerly belonged to the Patrician Society, were in a dila
pidated state, and ill-suited for the purposes of instruction;
but the same good fortune which had attended them in
other respects came to their aid in this matter also, and
their cause was warmly taken up by the Very Rev. R.
Healy, S.J., Rector of Clongowes-wood College, which is
situated within a mile of Clane. The good Jesuit, with
the sanction and approval of the Rev. Mr. Kearney, P.P.,
undertook to make a collection through the parish for the
purpose of flooring, ceiling, and otherwise repairing the
schoolroom ; and his zealous exertions were attended with
a success far surpassing his most sanguine expectations.
This kind act of Father Healy's was only the first of an
unbroken series of similar ones which the Jesuit Fathers of

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 371
Clongowes-wood College have exhibited in the past, and
continue in the present towards the Presentation Sisters
at Clane.
On the opening of the schools numbers of children
flocked to them, and they were of a class well calculated
to try the patience of the nuns. Many of them had never
been inside a school before ; most of them were extremely
ignorant ; and such of them as had formed a slight ac
quaintance with the primer and spelling book were other
wise as rude and uncultivated as they well could be. There
was indeed a large field for work, but there were efficient
and willing workers to do it ; and in a short time the zeal"
and devotedness of the nuns had effected such a complete
change in the minds, habits, and appearance of these poor
children, that those who knew what they had been on the
arrival of the nuns were almost forced to doubt their
identity. The nuns continued the " even tenor of their
way," dividing their time between labour and prayer, and
with little to vary the ordinary routine of their lives, until
Mother M. Joseph Murphy, who was elected Superior in
May, 1856, found it necessary to enlarge the convent, in.
order to meet the demands for further accommodation.
To resolve upon building' is very easy indeed, but it is
quite another matter to provide the necessary funds.
Mother Joseph's exchequer was absolutely empty; but
she was resolved to build, and she was equally resolved
that her Patron St. Joseph, in whom she had unbounded
confidence, should manage, somehow, to pay the workmen.
She and her sisters therefore set themselves to pray in real
earnest. Novena followed Novena to Joseph, askingthrough
his intercession for means to complete the convent; and,
strange though it may sound in the ears of this exceedingly
clever and enlightened nineteenth-century world of ours,
St. Joseph heard his .clients, and granted them their prayer.
z B 2

372 Nano Nagle:
In a very short time various sums came pouring into the
exchequer of the nuns, not alone from sources whence
they had little hope of receiving aid, but actually from
persons who were unknown to them, and who had little, if any,
knowledge of their community. These donations enabled
Mother Joseph to have the first stone of the new building
laid on the 22nd of June, 1857, and in about eighteen
months from that date, the works were brought to a happy
completion. It is a strange fact, that though on several
occasions during the progress of the works, Mother Joseph
found herself absolutely penny less, and was therefore anxious
and puzzled as to how she should meet the calls ofthe
builder, she never failed in a single instance to receive a
sufficient sum of money from some unexpected quarter before
the much dreaded day of reckoning arrived. Such facts
as this, and they are of more frequent occurrence than
most people imagine, go far to prove the efficacy of prayer;
and are not sufficiently explained by the incredulous smile
or the impertinent scoff of those who will admit no
other than purely human agency in the direction of such
ordinary mundane affairs.
The school attached to the Clane Presentation Convent
is sufficiently large for the locality, being able to ac
commodate with ease 150 children, though the average
attendance for the past year has not exceeded ninety. It
is in connection with the National Board of Education,
and the official reports of the Inspectors speak most
favourably of the success of the nuns as teachers. The
instruction imparted at Clane, as in all other schools con
ducted by the Presentation Sisters, is gratuitous, but within
the last few months it has been deemed advisable to charge
a small pension to such as can afford to pay. The money
realized in this manner is not turned to their own use by
the nuns, but is expended in supplying clothes, food, and

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 373
other necessaries to the poorer children. It is questionable,
however, whether it be expedient to introduce an invidious
distinction among pupils of the same school, even though
the doing so may be otherwise productive of some good.
In 1866, the nuns opened an infant school, which is not
only invaluable to the poor people of the neighbourhood
in affording a place of protection and security to their
children, while they themselves are engaged at work, but
serves, moreover, to instil into these little ones from their
tenderest years the spirit of piety, as well as habits of
order and cleanliness ; and by imparting to them, in a
manner suitedto their limited capacities, the first rudiments
of knowledge, prepares them, as it were insensibly, to pur
sue their studies with more abundant fruit when admitted
afterwards into the classes of the more advanced depart
ment. Some twenty, years ago the nuns also opened an
industrial school, but in consequence of the large demand
for outdoor labour which existed in the neighbourhood, it
was found impossible to secure the regular attendance of
the girls, and the project was consequently abandoned.'
Plain and fancy work continue, however, to be taught with
marked success, and with the best results to the children;
many, who would otherwise be dependent on the bounty of
others, being thus enabled to earn a respectable livelihood.
Death dealt rather severely with, the members ofthe Clane
Presentation community during the years between 1857
and 1866, no less than six sisters having within that period
been summoned to another world. Among them was
the foundress, Mother M. Teresa Brennan, who departed
this life on the 9th of February, 1 864. The convent counts
at present twelve choir and two lay sisters.
The Presentation Convent at Millstreet owes its ex
istence to the zeal and munificence of the late Bishop of
Kerry, Most Rev. Dr. Egan, by whom it was not only

374 • Nano Nagle :
built but endowed. The buildings intended for the use of
the nuns having been completed, and comfortably fitted up
for theirreception, Dr. Egan arrived in Millstreet on the 28th
May, 1 840, accompanied by four members of the Killarney
Presentation community, viz. Mother M. Clare Barry
(Superioress), M. Joseph Prendergast, M. Francis M'Carthy,
and M. Teresa Doyle (novice). No ti me was lost in opening
the schools, and the results, which soon made themselves
visible, were in every respect of a most gratifying and
encouraging character. Before many weeks had elapsed
the daily average attendance of pupils had reached almost
to four hundred ; and this figure has been, with only slight
variations, maintained ever since, although the little town
of Millstreet itself has a population scarcely exceeding
one thousand. This fact may, perhaps, be in part at
tributed to the high standard of instruction which the
Millstreet Presentation Sisters have endeavoured to
establish in their schools ; for not only are the children
thoroughly grounded in all the ordinary branches of a solid
English education suited to their condition in life, but
they are taught, moreover, music, both vocal and instru
mental, drawing, and every kind of plain and ornamental
needlework. As evidence of the proficiency of the pupils
in the two last mentioned branches, it may be mentioned
that they were awarded certificates "at the last International
Exhibition in London. More substantial proof, however,
of the success of the nuns as educators is to be found
in the after career of their pupils. Not a year has elapsed,
since the Millstreet Convent schools were opened, without
bringing to the sisters several applications for some of
their pupils to fill offices of trust and emolument. Very
many of them have obtained, and are obtaining every day
respectable positions as clerks, governesses, teachers,
&c. ; while many others are edifying members of various

Her Life, her Labours, and their Lruits. 375
religious communities at home, in England, on the Con
tinent, in the United States, and in the colonies. Whether
in civil or in religious life, the character borne by all has
been invariably ofthe same high standard ; and the greatest
tribute which can be paid to the holy and talented ladies
to whom they owe their training, is to be found in the
fact, that the more widely their pupils become known, the
demand for their services increases. Many communities
of nuns, in particular, have written repeatedly to the Mill-
street sisters asking to recommend them postulants, being
convinced, from past experience, that nowhere could they
find subjects better trained and qualified to discharge
the various and important duties of the religious state.
The Presentation commuriityatMillstreetnumbers atpre-
sent only sixteen sisters, death having claimed nine of the
most valuable members. Of these, four have died quite re
cently, among them being the two late Superiors ofthe con<-
vent — Mother M. Xavier O'Callaghan, who departed this
life on the 2nd of August 1871, after having spent over 50
years in religion ; and Mother M. de Sales King, who was
summoned to her rest on the 14th of October, 1872.
The next foundation of the Presentation Order was
established in 1840, in Cahirciveen — the birth-place of
Ireland's best and greatest patriot. The site for the new
convent was granted, rent free for ever, by the immortal
Liberator himself, who added a further proof ofthe esteem
in which he held the daughters of his great countrywoman,
Nano Nagle, by generously handing them a donation of
^1,000 towards the expense of the buildings. With this
money, and a sum of /"500 which had been bequeathed for
educational purposes by General O'Connell, uncle to the
Liberator, Most Rev. Dr. Egan was enabled to erect a
suitable convent on a very beautiful site sloping down to
the sea, and on its completion he endowed it with a fund

376 Nano Nagle :
of £$oo, the interest on which was to be devoted to the
partial support of the community. Having made all the
necessary arrangements for the comfort of the nuns, Dr.
Egan left Dingle for Cahifciveen, on the Feast of St.
Teresa, October ijth, 1840, accompanied by three sisters
of the Presentation Order — Mothers M. Joseph Mahony,
M. Ignatius Johnson, and M. Evangelist Forham. They
paid a short visit to the Presentation Convent at Tralee,
where they were joined in their mission by a novice of
that house, Sister Teresa Lynch, and finally arrived at their
destined home in Cahirciveen, on the 20th of October,
being the eve of the feast of St. Ursula. On the. follow
ing day, the Bishop offered up the Holy Sacrifice, and
deposited the Blessed Sacrament in the parish church,
which adjoins the convent.
In the month following their arrival, they commented
their labour of love by opening the schools, which were
by no means sufficiently large for the educational require
ments of such an extensive and populous district. From
the very start, there were about four hundred children in
daily attendance, and these the nuns were forced to ac
commodate, as best they could, in the one large room set
aside for the purposes of instruction. This they succeeded
in doing by various ingenious devices for economising
space, and by enduring very many personal discomforts
and hardships, rather than allow even one poor child to
lack the opportunities of instruction for which they so
anxiously thirsted. The famine year brought them addi
tional labours, and afforded them many occasions of merit
ing future rewards by their deeds of charity, and theirgentle,
unrepining patience under trials of peculiar severity. Not
only did they attend to their schools, during the period of
this terrible visitation, with the same unremitting diligence
which they had displayed before, but, for months they

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 377
managed to supply food to their four hundred pupils, many
of whom, not improbably, would otherwise have fallen vic
tims of famine, or of some one or other of the diseases
which followed in its train. Nor were the good sisters
themselves permitted to pass unharmed through the dan
gers of that time. Several of them were attacked in a.
greater or less degree by illness, superinduced by overwork
and mental anxiety ; and one holy religious, having con
tracted cholera, sealed with the sacrifice of her life her
devotion to the poor. In the year 1854, the nuns enlarged
the convent buildings by the addition of an infant school,
and an •apartment for industrial work. This latter soon
proved a decided success, as the pupils became such pro-
ficientsih the working of crochet and guipure, that they
were enabled to contribute largely to their own support,
and* that of their families. The emigration movement,
however, paralysed the efforts of the nuns in this direc
tion. The more advanced girls, when they had amassed as
much money as would defray their expenses in crossing
the Atlantic, sought in America a more ready and remu
nerative market for their labour, and the ever-increasing
demand for labour in the home market induced those who
remained behind to turn their attention mainly to agri
cultural and domestic pursuits. The numbers of the com
munity increasing as time went on, it was found necessary
to enlarge the convent, and in 1870 a beautiful chapel
and additional cells were constructed at considerable ex
pense, for the accommodation of the sisters. Funds were
in a great measure provided through the generosity of
charitable persons, among whom may be mentioned two
Cork gentlemen (the Messrs. Sugrue), each of whom be
queathed ^200 to the Cahirciveen Convent.
There are at present in Cahirciveen thirteen sisters of
the Presentation Order, who have at their schools a daily

378 Nano Nagle:
average attendance of two hundred and twenty-five pupils.
The industry of the children is constantly stimulated by
premiums, which, no matter how small their value, are
eagerly sought after and highly prized. The good sisters
also distribute annually, as far as circumstances permit,
clothing to about 100 children; and in the "scarce" season
the infants, and such of the others as are in the greatest
need, receive a daily lunch, consisting of bread which the
nuns purchase for that purpose out of their own slender
resources. Thus do the Presentation Nuns of Cahirciveen,
true to the spirit of their great foundress, stand in the place
of mothers to those poor little ones on the rock-bound
coast of Kerry, supplying their physical wants, while they
store their minds with useful knowledge, and prepare them
for the after-enjoyment of that eternal life which is the
destined end for which they have been created.
The labours of the Presentation Nuns had been hitherto
confined almost exclusively to Ireland ; for up to 1841
their Order, though at that time sixty-four years in exist
ence, had sent out only two bands of missionaries — one
to Newfoundland, the other to Manchester. In the year
just named, however, a wider field was opened to their
zeal in being summoned to follow their vocation beneath
the burning sun of India, where their services were sorely
needed, not only by the native Catholic population, but
also by the poor orphan children of the brave Irish sol
diers whose lives were sacrificed in defence of Britain's
flag in that distant clime. The invitation to labour in the
land consecrated by the tears and sweat of Francis Xavier,
came to the daughters of Nano Nagle through the Most
Rev. Dr. Fennelly, to whose pastoral charge the mission
of Madras had been confided by the Holy See, in succes
sion to most Rev: Dr. Carew. Mother Xavier Curran, of
the Rahan Presentation Convent, heard of the wants of the

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 379
Church in India, and emulating the zeal of the apostolic
man whose name she bore, immediately volunteered to
accompany Dr. Fennelly to his distant and laborious
mission. She was joined by two choir nuns and one lay-
sister from Maynooth, and in September, 1841, all four
bade adieu to friends and kindred, and sailed from the
well-loved shores of holy Ireland, to unfurl the banner of
Nano Nagle beneath the sky of Madras. The voyage was
a very perilous one, so much so that on more than one
occasion the brave missionaries narrowly escaped perish
ing. On the 29th of September, as their ship was passing
through the Bay of Biscay, a storm of such terrific violence
arose that the nuns, expecting that each moment would
be their last, went to confession, and made their imme
diate preparation for death. Again, as they were sailing
by the coast of India, they were so near being dashed to
pieces on the rocks, that the captain who commanded
their vessel had to be repeatedly signalled from shore, to
acquaint him of the danger in which he was placed, and
had great difficulty in keeping out sufficiently to sea to
void destruction. Even during the very best portion ofthe
voyage,, the vessel pitched so that, as Mother Xavier Curran
afterwards wrote home in one of her letters (April 4th,
1842), ' the passengers were accustomed to amuse them
selves in friendly contests for the purpose of seeing who
could maintain a standing position for the longest time.
However, that God who had called them from their con
vents in Ireland to labour for His glory in India watch ed
over them until, all dangers past, they arrived safely at
their destination. That our readers may the better under
stand the work which the. nuns were now called upon to
undertake, and the condition in which they found female
Catholic education in their new home upon their arrival,
we think it well to place before them the following extract

380 Nano Nagle:
from a letter addressed in 1840 to the Treasurer of the
Central Council for the Propagation ofthe Faith at Paris,
by Dr. Carew, the predecessor of Dr. Fennelly. in the
Episcopal Administration of Madras : —
"Madras, October i8lh, 1,840.
" You have of course learned that notwithstanding the
many evils occasioned here by the Portuguese schism, the
Divine grace continued to produce many conversions
among the pagans, Protestants, and schismatics. I am
happy to be able to confirm this good news. The means-
of salvation multiply, and we have the pleasing confidence
that God has, in His mercy, visited this portion of the
inheritance of His Son. Thanks to your kind assistance,
we are now enabled to provide for the passage of the mis
sionaries, monks, and nuns, who have so nobly offeredus
their co-operation. When in 1839 I arrived at Madras,
there were in the whole vicariate, the extent of which is-
four thousand square leagues, only three priests who ac
knowledged the bishop appointed by the Holy See ; at pre
sent, notwithstanding our recent losses, fifteen priests
perform in union with me the functions ofthe sacred
Ministry. " The convent established lately in this city is for us a
considerable assistance, on account of the care which the
religious bestow on the European and Indian young girls..
The foundation of this establishment is principally due to
the widow of an English officer, Colonel Smith. From
the death of her husband, this lady led a very' retired life
at Pondicherry, solely employed in the service of God,
and doing good works. Other ladies united with her and
formed in her house a community, which adopted as their
rule that of the religious of the Visitation, Mrs. Smith,
and one of her companions, had already made the simple

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 381
Vows of religion, when Providence disposed that they
should come to establish-theniselves in Madras. We were
.without a: school for Catholic females. Having found it
.impossible to procure* persons papable of conducting such
¦ • » ¦ , ¦ ¦ ¦ t-
. an institution, my only resource was to form a committee
of ladies who would oversee the mistresses whom I would
employ. The pious^widow being informed of this state of
.things, voluntarily offered her services for the purpose of
establishing a more regular school. It would be unneces
sary to say with What readiness I accepted the assistance
so generously and seasonably offered. Mrs. Smith came,
therefore, to Madras, as did also the amiable lady who,
like her, had engaged herself in the vows of religion.
They immediately entered on their holy undertaking with
a self-devotion which God has been pleased to bless be
yond our hopes. A third lady has joined them, and their
care now extends to about one hundred young girls, who
have been born in Europe or the East Indies, and to sixty
natives all of whom heretofore attended the Protestant
schools. " To the convent is attached an orphan house, which is
intended for all poor girls, but more particularly for those
belonging to the Catholic soldiers stationed in India.
Here, no more than in Ireland, were any provisions made
for the orphans of soldiers, except in the Protestant estab
lishments. The poor children were imbued in these
schools with principles quite opposed to the Catholic
faith, and were soon taught not only to forget but even to
despise the religion of their parents. I, therefore, made
an appeal to the generosity of the Catholic soldiers, in a
circular, which I communicated to the Council of Lyons.
All of them responded to the call, and liberal contributions
showed how great was their desire to provide for the
religious education of their children. I have the conso-

38,2 Nano Nagle :
lation of adding that wherever these brave soldiers have
the advantage of being commanded by Catholic officers,
the latter use their influence in favour of whatever regards
the advancement of religion. Two establishments have
been the result of these happy dispositions of the military ;
one for orphan girls, placed, as I said, under the care of
Mrs. Smith ; the other for orphan boys, under my own
direction, and that of the clergysof the cathedral. These
establishments, as well as- the different schools, will be
much improved by the reinforcement of religious which
we daily expect from Ireland, and to which I will be able
to confide with safety the Catholic youth of this populous
city." *
A magnificent reception awaited the nuns on their
arrival, and, what pleased them far more, every preparation
for their coming had been so far completed as to allow ¦
them to commence their labours of love without a moment's
delay. Dr. Fennelly handed over to them the convent,
orphanage, and schools, of which mention is made by Dr.
Carew in the extract just given, and Mrs. Smith and her
companions, though they never joined the Presentation
Order, continued to assist by teaching the native tongue
to the nuns and to the European children. An account
of what the daughters of Nano Nagle had now to do, on
their arrival in Madras, will be best given in the words of
Mother Xavier Curran, in a letter dated Madras, April 4th,
1842, and addressed to Mother Aloysius Nugent, of the
Rah an Presentation Convent. f ..." There is, indeed,"
she writes, " a large field for doing good. We have an
* " Annals of the Propagation of the Faith," Vol. IV. (September,
1841). No. XXIII.
t The author is indebted to the courtesy of Mother M. J. Norton,
of the Presentation Convent at Rahan, for permission to use some of
the letters written by the nuns from Madras.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 383
orphan establishment for the children of the Catholic
soldiers at St. George, thirty-one in number, and some of
them uncommonly fine children, chiefly European ; but
some of them, having native mothers, are very dark, yet
really beautiful. We have a day school of the same de
scription, and attended by about the same number ; but,
as at home, there are some days more, some days less.
Among the children of this school there are many as dark
as real natives, but extremely handsome. In the real
native school there are one hundred children, with native
mistresses, under our inspection. So, you may suppose, we
are not idle. In addition to what I have already told you, we
have what we term a 'pay school,' in which are the young
ladies of Madras. As yet there are only twenty-three, but
we expect it will increase considerably. The reason why we
opened this school is, that there being no Catholic school,
at least of respectability, in this place, many have had to
send their children to Europe for education, or run the
risk of having them, through being at Protestant schools,
without any religion ; and, unfortunately, the greater
part of the respectable people here are only nominal Ca
tholics, and will boast of their not being strict observers
of fast, &c. So I trust in our good God that the last of
our works is not the least pleasing to the Lord in a place
like this ; and the more so as the dear little ones come here
on Sundays and holidays, to walk in procession with us
to the church, where, we teach the catechism. They also
attend at vespers, &c, and this brings their parents also,
who would not otherwise think of going." The nuns
afterwards established a boarding-school for young ladies,
as we learn from another letter written by Mother Xavier
(September 15th, 1842), in which^ after stating that they
commenced with six boarders, the good nun adds, " The
noise they make during the hours for play is very annoy-

384 Nano Nagle : .
ing, and more particularly as our duties have been so
mu'ch increased ; but the consolation we feel in our work
being for God's greater glory, as they would otherwise be
at Protestant schools, makes up for personal inconve
nience." In the same letter Mother Xavier states that the
orphanage had at that date been increased by the admis
sion of seven additional children, and that there were one
hundred and fifty names on the roll in the native school, so
that every thing was clearly going on well with the nuns.
The Indian children seem to have given the devoted sis
ters a good deal of trouble at first, as they found them
very giddy, volatile in disposition, and not easily kept
under control. In allusion to this subject Mother Xavier
writes in another letter (September 22nd, 1845) : "I some
times feel disheartened, it is so difficult to make our children
attentive either to prayer, or instruction. They have much
of the French character, but we must not despair; time,
I trust, and the example of the children'of St. Patrick,
will bring them to be steady." Some of these children
were converts from paganism, and the bishop allowed
them a certain quantity of rice weekly, as an inducement to
secure their regular attendance at catechism and secular
instruction — an experiment which was found to work most
satisfactorily. The Presentation Nuns at Madras were obliged to
modify the rule of their institute in some particulars of,
minor importance, in order to accommodate themselves
to the habits of the country, and to comply with those
sanitary regulations which the nature of the climate ren
dered necessary. As their sisters at home will be, no
doubt, anxious to get a glimpse at convent life in India,
we copy from Mother Xavier's letters whatever may prove
of interest on this head : — " We rise," she writes (April
4th, 1 842"). " at gunshot, that is, at a quarter before five

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 385
o'clock, when the cannon is fired at the military fort of
St. George, which is near us. We are in the chapel at
five o'clock, where we make half-an-hour's meditation.
We then recite the office, separately, walking about, make
up our cells, and after that, go, with our dear little orphans
marching before us, to the cathedral, where the Bishop
says Mass exactly at half-past six. Mass over, we return
with our dear orphans to breakfast, in our respective re
fectories, about a quarter after seven, and I must add with
good appetites. We have both tea and. coffee, whichever
we like ; very nice bread and butter, with oranges, man •
goes, and plaintanes — a very nice fruit, resembling a cu
cumber in shape, but in taste like a very sweet apple or
pear. I have two very nice novices ; and after being some
time with them, I go at nine o'clock to the school, where
I remain until twelve, when we come in and make our
examen in chapel, having previously said the Angelus in
school. We dine at one o'clock, and return at two to our
respective schools, where we remain until five. At 5.30
p.m., we say Vespers, and afterwards have tea, or, as termed
here, supper. At seven o'clock we go to meditation for a
quarter, and then say matins and have recreation till 8.30
o'clock, when we say night-prayer and retire, as our dear
Bishop wishes us to be sooner in bed, as we rise before the
rule hour, and have more labour than it prescribes." Such
is the laborious life of a Presentation Nun in India, divid
ing the day between the chapel and the schools — between
the service of her God and the service of her neighbour.
Every succeeding year brought additional labours to the
nuns in Madras, and in 1 843 they were forced to appeal
to their sisters at Maynooth for help. The call was'
generously responded to, and two other choir sisters sailed
for India, making in all five members of the Maynooth
community who volunteered for that distant mission. Of
2 c

386 Nano Nagle :
those five brave daughters of Nano Nagle not one now
survives, the last of them having died in 1861. In the
summer of 1 845, the cholera broke out in Madras, and
naturally caused the greatest anxiety among the nuns, not
so much on their own account as lest it might prove fatal
to their dear orphans. " For the last two months or more,"
writes Mother Xavier Curran (September 22nd, 1845), "the
cholera has been very prevalent here, I mean in Madras,
and even in the streets adjoining, but, thanks to our good
God, though we have had some (even bad) cases, all our
children up to the present have been spared. How grate
ful should we be to our merciful God, the more so because
we have no fear of being about all our dear children who
have had it. There have been several novenas offered
that the Almighty might be pleased to stop it, and in some
parts it has ceased. At present the Novena of the Holy
Rosary is saying in St. Mary's Cathedral for that intention,
and for the repose of the poor souls who have been carried
off. The Rosary is recited, the ' Salve Regina ' delight
fully sung, arid a nice exhortation given on the canticle
' Benedictus,' after which the Litany of the Blessed
Virgin is sung, the boys and girls of the orphanage join
ing. Many of them have very sweet voices. We have many
of the feasts of our holy mother celebrated so, and the
' Magnificat ' Litany, or ' Ave Maris Stella,' is made the
subject of the sermon during the nine days." All danger
of the cholera having passed by, the nuns continued
their glorious work with the greatest possible advantage to
the cause of religion and education ; but over-exertion
and the severity of the climate began to tell unfavour
ably upon their constitutions, and they once more turned
their eyes for help to their own loved Island of Saints.
The community of Maynooth, which had hitherto so nobly
supported the mission at Madras, was now too small to be

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits 387
of much practical assistance; but the place which the
sisters of that house would have otherwise occupied, was
quickly filled by the Presentation Nuns at Mullingar,
and in 1850 Mother de Sales Nugent, Superior of that
convent, volunteered to go with some of her spiritual
children to the relief of the struggling missionaries in
India. The brave Mother de Sales did not long survive
her arrival in Madras, dying on April 19th, 1852, sixteen
months after she had first touched Indian soil. On two
subsequent occasions the cry for help' again came from
Madras, and it never failed to find a ready response within
the walls of the Mullingar Presentation Convent. On the
2nd of January, 1859, Mother Ignatius Murphy and Sister
M. B. Grey were the volunteers ; and when assistance was
next sought, in January, 1863, Sisters Gertrude Kearney,
Ignatius Moore, and Mary Agnes Walton, followed them
to toil beneath India's burning sun. "Such noble, self-
sacrificing perseverance deserved success, and it has
obtained it. God has blessed the labours of Naqo Nagle's
children in Madras ; so much so, that one native Indian
lady has joined the Order, the schools for native children
are filled to' their utmost capacity, the pay-school is in a
most flourishing condition, and the orphanage continues,
as in days past, to shelter the children of the Irish soldiers
whose bones whiten the plains of India.
- Few Irish Bishops have manifested a more lively interest
in the spread of the Presentation Order, or have contributed
more liberally towards its support, than did Most Rev. Dr.
Egan, Bishop of Kerry, during the term of his episcopacy.
About the year 1 840, this good prelate being anxious to
establish a seventh house of the Institute in his diocese,
selected Listowel as the locality best suited for the new
foundation ; and, accordingly, with a view to the ac-
- complishment of his design, put himself in communication
2 C2

388 • Nano Nagle:
with the Rev. Darby Mahony, the venerated pastor of that
town. This eminently pious and zealous ecclesiastic was
overjoyed at the good intelligence ; and having procured,
, not without many delays and disappointments, a site for
the new convent, laid its first stone on Whit-Tuesday, June
ist,'' 1 841, in presence of an immense concourse of his
parishioners. The building reached completion in 1843 ;
but nearly a year elapsed before it was tenanted by the
nuns', the delay being occasioned by Father Darby's anxiety
to procure as Superioress of the new colony Mother M.
Teresa Kelly, foundress and Superioress of the Milltown
Convent. The good priest wished that his convent should
eclipse all others, and he believed it impossible that it
could attain that high standard of excellence under any
other government than that of Mother Teresa ; the Bishop
had formed an equally high estimate of Mother Kelly's
worth, and for that very reason wished that she should
remain at Milltown, to guide and support that community,
which, as we have seen, was just then struggling against
a sea of difficulties. The friendly contest had lasted for
some time when Father Darby determined to terminate it
in a very summary manner, by calling to his aid an ally
whom not even Bishops may resist. Writing on the feast
of the Presentation to a religious of the Milltown convent,
the good Padre explains the means which he had adopted
to bring his ecclesiastical superior to submission ; "This
morning," he writes " at six o'clock, I offered the atoning
Blood to the Eternal Father, asking Him to give me your
Reverend Mother. I know long, and you know now, her
unalterable sweetness, her burning charity  Prayer
is all-powerful. Unworthy though I am, our good God
may grant this blessing to me and to my people. — Darby
Mahony."
Father Darby's pious prayers did him indeed, good

'' Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 389
service on this occasion ; the Bishop, beaten " all along the
line," hajl to yield with whatever grace he could ; and the'
good priest, having secured for the new foundation the
' ,-ihyaluable services of Mother Teresa, gave himself up to
,.-»dra.wing all sorts of imaginable pictures of the future
,'^glo'ries of Listowel, and conjured up bright visions of his
.. Convent commanding the respect and admiration of gene-
'rations yet unborn. At long last, on the 7th of May,- 1844,
the anxiously-sought-for Mother Teresa Kelly, with Sisters
M". Xavier Brennan, M. Francis M'Carthy, and M.Augus-
jine Stack, arrived at Listowel, accompanied by Most Rev.
Dr. Egan, for the purpose of taking possession of the new
cSrivent. It happened to be "Conference" day; and all
the priests of the Deanery were present to join the people
in welcoming' the nuns. But the welcomes of priests and
people, united and multiplied ever so often, were simply
as nothing compared with the genuine cead mille failthe
accorded them on that day by honest Father Darby. That
7th of May formed an epoch to be marked with the very
whitest of white stones in the annals of his life. The good
man was simply beside himself with joy ; and why not ?
Could not he at last, after all his fights with landlords and
agents — aye, and with bishops, too — show his people real
Wve, bona fide nuns in Listowel — his nuns, mark ye ! — and
with his Mother Teresa, moreover, at their head. Various
were the means and manners by which Father Darby
manifested the fulness of his heart on the occasion ; and
among them we suspect that " creature comforts," for the
special use of the nuns and their reverences, played "no
unimportant part. Peace to thy ashes, Darby Mahony —
fine old type of the simple, pious, zealous, hard-working,
genial, hospitable, and patriotic Soggarth Aroon. The
present and future priests of Ireland may equal, but they
scarcely can surpass those giants who have preceded

390 Nano Nagle :
them, and who kept the faith and piety of the people
alive in dark and perilous times.
«On Whit-Monday, May 27th, the nuns opened their
schools for the fir§t time, and had the consolation of
registering on their school-roll on that day the names of
more than 300 children, which number before long swelled
to 500, many of them being grown girls from the country,
and the adjacent parishes. The efficiency of the nuns as
teachers was, however, greatly impaired by the entirely
inadequate accommodation which the school-rooms
afforded both to the mistresses and to their young charge.
It was determined that this want, as well as a chapel for
the use of the sisters, should be supplied as soon as
circumstances would permit, and the friends of the insti
tute were actually engaged in collecting funds for the
execution of the'latter work, when the lamentable effects
of the potato blight became painfully visible, and it was
evident that the country would have to pass through the
terrible ordeal of famine. How to meet this dreaded
visitation was the thought now uppermost in everyone's
mind. Churches and schools were for the time forgotten,
when people saw strong men fainting and dying by hun
dreds on the roadside for want of bread; and that the start
ling problem ofthe hour presented 'itself to the Presenta
tion Nuas in Listowel in all the grim and ghastly'reality in
which it appeared to others, is evident from the following
simple, brief, but touching entry with which they conclude
the annals of their house for 1846 : — "The year 1846 is
ended. The prospects for the coming year are appalling.
May God assist His own poor, and help us to relieve the
loved children."
On opening their schools in January, 1847, the nuns
saw too clearly that their worst apprehensions had been
fully realised. They cheerfully drew upon their own

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 391
scanty resources to relieve the more pressing cases of
destitution which came under their notice, but such assist
ance was almost useless, where their dear little children
were starving and dying before their eyes,' not in twos or
threes, but in fifties and hundreds. But what could they
do ? Nothing — humanly speaking — absolutely nothing;
and yet, far from despairing, their confidence in God's
goodness remained unshaken, and an apparently trivial
coincidence, which only persons of a lively faith would
have heeded for a moment, nerved them to vigorous
and successful efforts for the relief of their little ones.
On the fourth Sunday of Lent, a letter was received from
Mr. Dan Brennan, a Liverpool merchant, and brother to
Mother Xavier, enclosing £$ towards the fund for the
poor convent children. The Superioress on receiving it,
said immediately: — "This day's Gospel recorded the
multiplication of the loaves and fishes ; these five pounds
may lead to the feeding of more than five thousand. We
will begin to-morrow to give breakfast to thirteen poor
children, in honour of our Lord, and ,of the twelve
Apostles who witnessed that miracle." Such simple,
childlike faith deserved a reward, and the reward was
not slow in coming. Money came pouring in to the nuns
from various, and often unexpected quarters, until in a
short time not thirteen, but two hundred and fifty, child
ren sat down every morning to a substantial breakfast of
bread made of first quality flour, with a mug of boiled
rice, to which was added a little milk. The devoted
sisters were content to take their, own meals in a narrow
little cell, in order that their refectory might be appro
priated exclusively to the use of the poor children ; and
in that refectory a scene took place every morning during
the year 1 847, on which God's angels might love to look.

392 Nano Nagle:
There sat the 250 little ones, waited upon, and tended
with more than a mother's care by the nuns ; the silence
was uninterrupted except by the clattering of the busy
spoons upon the plate ; during the repast one of the
sisters read a pious book, or told an edifying story, thus
ministering food to the mind, while the other Religious
supplied nourishment to the body. Some of the children
were so weak that they had to be fed on milk alone ; and
many were so exhausted from hunger that it was no
unfrequent occurrence to see them faint either before or
immediately after partaking of food. In this manner
31,000 breakfasts were distributed by the nuns during the
year 1847 > ^ut the opening of 1848 saw the misery of the
poor unabated, while the sisters were absolutely destitute
of all resources to carry on the good work of the preced
ing year. However in February of that year, a humane
gentleman, Captain Sparks, was appointed to superintend,
in the Listowel district, the distribution of the moneys
subscribed in England for the relief of the sufferers from
the famine, and he was induced to allow to the convent a
daily supply of rye bread for 400 children. This bread
which was perfectly black, was distributed in loaves of eight,
ten, or twelve ounces, according to the age of the reci
pients, and, its repulsive appearance notwithstanding, was
eagerly sought for by the poor starving children. The
bread of absentees was given to the " expectants ," as they
were called ; and one day a little girl who had been
accidentally passed over, wishing to assert her claim to
rank as an " expectant," but being unable to pronounce
the word, called out at riie top of her voice to the nun who
was distributing the bread, " I'm a spectre, ma'am !" The
poor child was graphically, though quite unconsciously,
describing the real condition to which she was reduced,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 393
for she and most of her companions bore a stronger re
semblance to visitors from ghost-land than to living beings'
of flesh and blood.
Overwork soon began to tell on the constitutions of the
brave Presentation Nuns at Listowel, and nearly all of
them were stricken down with sickness, so that the work
ing staff of the house was at one period reduced to two —
Mother Xavier Brennan and Honoria Martin (now Mother
Austin). Some recovered after a tedious illness, but.three
fell victims to charity, and before the end of January,
1849, their sisters had laid them to sleep in, the little
convent cemetery. The first to go to her reward was-
Martha Love (a Cork lady), in religion Sister Angela, who
was the first postulant to enter the Listowel Convent,
and was professed on the 15th of May, 1848. She sur
vived her profession not a full month, dying on June 13th,
in the same year. Her death was singularly holy; and for
the edification of our readers we shall let those who wit
nessed it describe it in their own words. "About four
. o'clock, p. m., on the 13th, we observed a change in her
countenance, and in a few moments Father Mahony
was up, read all the prayers, and several Psalms besides.
Seeing no symptoms of immediate dissolution, he left to
return, he said, in an hour. He had not long gone when
she called each sister by name, and lifting her trembling
hands, her large blue eyes fixed on heaven, she invoked
a blessing on them for their tender charity towards her.
Then turning to Rev. Mother, who was 'in tears near her
pillow, she ' said aloud : — ' Weeping for me, Reverend
Mother ! weeping for me ! and / this moment one of the
happiest of human beings !— happy ! happy ! ! happy ! ! !
(she repeated 'happy' very many .times). What have I done
to be so happy ?' Her ecstasy of joy literally made us
hold our very breathings. At last Rev. Mother said :—

394 Nano Nagle;
' We will grieve no more, my darling child.; but, in
thanksgiving to our good God for all His favours to you,
we will say the 'TeDeum.' And so we did with our
whole hearts. She then sank back, exhausted. She was
too rich a prey for the enemy to give up quietly, and
after some moments we could see she was combating him
with the arms of Faith and Love. She spat upon the
'Evil One,' and invoked again and again the Sacred
Name. A heavenly calm succeeded ; her large blue eyes
were again filled with the expression of ecstatic love,
and her spirit fled to its home beyond the skies."*
The same spirit seemed to animate all those martyrs of
charity, for the pen which has pictured for us the scene
of Sister Angela's death, thus describes the last days of
another nun who followed her within two brief months : —
" There was present at this scene one who was then very de
licate, but she had pleaded so hard to be permitted to assist
at the departure of her loved sister that the Rev. Mother
could not refuse her request. Precious was the fruit which
that death-bed produced on Sister Mary Joseph (O'Kane),
who, on the 12th of July, was pronounced in consumption.
On that day her reverend brotherf broke to her that the
fiat had gone forth for her too. When he came out of
the community-room, where she reclined in an easy chair,
his eyes red with weeping, we found her perfectly calm-,
and smiling sweetly. Had he not told us, we could not
suspect that any more than an ordinary conversation had
passed between them. He told us that she had perceived
he had a difficulty in telling her the truth, and she
encouraged him by saying, 'Ah, my dearest brother, if
you had witnessed the death scene that I have so lately,
* " Annals, Presentation Convent, Listowel. Ad. an. 1848," p. 21.
t The Rev. John O'Kane, P. P., Castlegregory.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 395
you would not fear to tell me that my own is near. I
thank God, and you, my best loved brother, who placed
me here where I have been so happy ! Now you have
brought me good news !' She never alluded to her ap
proaching end until the following Sunday, when she said
to the sister who attended her : ' You know how deeply
I loved Father John, especially since he enabled me
to enter here ; but I never loved him as I do now that he
has saved beloved Reverend Mother and you the pain of
telling me that I am so soon to die.' A trace of sadness
never appeared, save once that, after hearing a lecture
read from St. John Chrysostom on obedience, tears
flowed, and she exclaimed, ' Oh, could I begin my
religious life again, how perfectly would I obey !' and yet -
the mothers and sisters had never seen the shadow of a
fault against this great virtue." She was professed on the
8th of August, and on the 20th of September was sum
moned to her reward.
The third member of the Listowel community who fell
a victim to her zeal during the famine year was Ellen
Moriarty (in religion Sister M. Philomena), a lay sister,
whose voice, we doubt not, is now heard in the heavenly
choir. The two great characteristics of her life were her
charity to the poor and her humility. Hundreds of proofs
might be brought forward to illustrate the perfection
which she had attained in the exercise of these virtues ;
but we shall content ourselves with two anecdotes culled .
from the annals of her convent. 1 Father Mahony had for
a whole year under instruction at the convent a poor
woman — a convert — who daily received her breakfast from
the nuns. On hearing of Sister Philomena's death, she
was so extravagant in her praise of the deceased that a
sister who heard her could not help expostulating. The
poor woman replied, " Ah, ma'am, for near a year she

396 Nano Nagle :
gave me my breakfast. I know 'tis to Rev. Mother I am
indebted for this favour; but if you only saw the kindness
— the respect with which she treated me, you could not but
know that she considered the person of our Lord in the
poor creature she served." The impression which her
sincere and unaffected humility produced on those with
whom she came in contact may be judged from the fol
lowing anecdote. On her entering the school one day a
Sister overheard one of the children saying, " Here comes
Sister Humility!" The nun who heard the remark, fear
ing it might be some reflection on Sister Philomena's
subordinate position in the community, asked her why she
had called her by that name. " Oh! " was the reply, "we
all call her Sister Humility ; she hands us our work as if
we were grand ladies." Even at the risk of being tedious,
we cannot forbear giving one other anecdote illustrative of
Sis'ter Philomena's great straining after perfection. In
addition, to discharging the usual duties of a lay sister,
this holy soul taught needlework , and writing in the
school, and among the written resolutions discovered after
her death was one in which she proposed to herself, while
guiding the hands of the children in their first attempts to
write, to beg of God at the same time to draw her own
heart and that of the child to Himself. We may turn
over the lives of the saints as often as we will, but we
shall scarcely find higher perfection in them than is implied
in this simple but eloquent resolution of the lowly lay
sister of the Listowel Presentation Convent. We doubt
not but equally edifying reminiscences of their departed
sisters might be collected in most houses ofthe Institute ;
and it strikes us that, " The uncanonized saints of the
Presentation Order " might furnish the title for a volume
at once interesting, instructive, and edifying in a high
degree.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 397
Their labours during the famine years, and the terrible
depression felt all over the country after that fearful visi
tation, prevented the nuns for a long while from carrying
out their projected improvements in. the convent and
schools. Every day, however, only served to show the
more clearly the absolute necessity of commencing the
works at once. The sisters were falling ill, and dying
with alarming rapidity, owing in a great measure to the
defective accommodation afforded by the convent ; while
some five hundred children were daily cooped up in a
schoolroom which could not well contain more than half
that number. The improvements in the convent being the
most urgent they were commenced first, and by the close
of the year 1849 the nuns had the satisfaction of seeing
a new chapel and choir completed, at a cost of ^848, a
large portion of which was collected by means of cards,
distributed among the friends and relatives of the sisters.
Attention was next directed to the schools, and on the
feast of " Our Lady, Help of Christians," in 1833, Father
Mahony laid the first stone of a new building]designed to
serve as an infant school, and also to supply the pupils of
the other' schools with additional class halls, work-rooms,
&c. This structure was erected at a cost of fjiy; but
the sisters were amply repaid for the outlay by the facili
ties which it afforded them of carrying on their labours
more successfully than before, and with increased comfort
to themselves and their young charge.
There was one body of gentlemen, however, decidedly
opposed to the manner in which the good nuns chose to
decorate their new school. These were Her Majesty's
Commissioners of National Education. The nuns^thought
fit to display a large cross on the outside of the building,
and the Commissioners were horrified ! Had the emblems
of Freemasonry — a square and compass — or any other

398 Nano Nagle*.
emblems whatever been displayed, the learned gentlemen
would, probably, have held their peace ; but that a com
munity of Christian ladies should expose the emblem of
Redemption to the veneration of little Christians in Kerry
— horror of horrors ! — to what a sad pass was the world
coming ! Oh ! that cross at Listowel. The Commis
sioners wrote letter after letter about it for five long years ;
they remonstrated and cajoled, alternately, about that
dreadful cross ; they fretted, and foamed, and stormed,
and raved about it pretty much as a certain sable poten
tate is reported to have done once upon a time in con
nection with another cross, if Longfellow writes truly in
the prologue to his " Golden Legend " :
" Hasten ! hasten,
O ye spirits,
From its station drag the ponderous
Cross of iron, that to mock us
Is uplifted high in air ! "
But to no purpose. Even Satan's ministering spirits we're
powerless against the cross at Listowel, as against that
which crowned the Cathedral at Strasburg.
" O, we cannot !
, For around it
All the saints and guardian angels
Throng in legions to protect it ;
They defeat us everywhere ! "
So the Commissioners were defeated. The nuns informed
them calmly, but most resolutely, that, come what might,
they would never take down the cross ; and though every
month for five years brought a terrible letter from " the
board " on the subject, the nuns merely smiled, consigned
the precious document to the waste-paper basket, and
" kept never minding " Her Majesty's Commissioners.
From 1855 to i860, the Listowel sisters expended ^"300
in further decorations of their chapel, which might indeed

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 399
be pronounced " a gem " in the latteryear, though the nuns,
never weary of adding to the beauty of God's house, have
managed to lay out within the last fourteen years £$\2
on additional improvements, until human art has not now
much left to contribute towards the embellishment of this
sacred edifice.
In the year 1864, the Listowel Presentation commu
nity received a severe — an almost Crushing blow in the
death of Mother Mary Teresa Kelly, the foundress and
Superioress of the convent. Mary Anne Kelly (as she was
called in the world) entered the Killarnej'' Convent in
1814, where two aunts and two cousins of her's had taken
the veil when the Presentation Order was still in the first
years of its infancy. So great were her merits, that in a very
short time after her profession, she was placed in a posi
tion of trust, and soon after was elected Superioress of her
convent, which office she subsequently discharged on
-three different occasions, to the incalculable advantage of
religion. In 1838, she was called upon to found the Con
vent of Milltown, as we have already mentioned in the
preceding chapter ; and having governed that house for a
term of six years, was brought in 1843, at the most earnest
entreaties of Father Mahony, to open and preside over the
new establishment of her Order in Listowel. Here she
laboured for twenty long years, and here her venerable
remains now lie awaiting the Resurrection. " Who can
ever tell," to use the words of the eloquent prelate who
pronounced her funeral oration, " the amount of good
done during these years within and without these walls ?
The knowledge of God imparted, the love of God kindled,
the sorrows that were soothed, the steps of the wandering
made straight, and the steps of the tottering made steady.
How many went away from the conversation of dear Rev.

400 Nano Nagle :
mother filled with holy thoughts ! Oh ! God's day alone
will reveal all this. We shall see it in the fulness of His
light.* Well, indeed, might her panegyrist say that her
labours were not confined within the convent walls, but
were extended also to those beyond them. She so won
• the hearts of all'who had ever been her pupils that she
exercised unbounded influence over them in after-life.
Whether in Ireland, or Australia, or America, or in what
ever other part of the world their lot might be cast, they
never failed to keep up a regular, and most affectionate
correspondence with Mother Teresa, and to consult her
in all their dangers, and trials, and difficulties. How wide
spread was this feeling of attachment between the good
nun and her former pupils may be best estimated from
the fact that " a few days before her death, on her pa-
tronal feast of St. Teresa, she received no less than eighty-
nine letters from them, and though her death-sickness was
upon her, she sat down determined as a matter of duty to
read them all."
Mother Teresa's exertions, moreover, in the diffusion of
good books did immense service to the' cause of Christian
education. For over forty years she was actively engaged
in this most meritorious work ; and Dr. Moriarty tells us
that having had her bookseller's bills for a period of five
years computed, he found that they amounted to over five
hundred pounds ; from which we may conclude that during
her lifetime she must have expended several thousands in
providing the homes ofthe poor with useful, instructive,
and religious works. Nor was her influence exercised on
those of her own sex only ; it was also active in promot-
" Panegyric of Mother Teresa Kelly," preached afher Month's Mind
by Most Rev. Dr. Moriarty, Bishop of Kerry.— See Tralee Chronicle
' of November 29th, 1864.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 401
ing God's glory among those of the opposite sex with
whom business or accident brought her in contact. This
was particularly the case with little boys, many of whom
formed her acquaintance, either when serving the altar at
the convent chapel, or when transacting business with her
in connection with the circulating library which she had
established. She lost no opportunity of instilling senti
ments of piety and of the love of God into these young
minds, and her success in directing their thoughts to, the
service of religion is evidenced by the fact that from sixty
to seventy of these young lads were led by her conversa
tions either to enter the secular priesthood or to join some
religious community. No wonder, indeed, that her con
versation should have produced these effects when it was
such as the Bishop of Kerry paints for us in eloquent
words. " Her power of holy conversation," he says, " was
beyond anything I ever met in the world, or in the cloister
There was a placid cheerfulness, a tone of voice that in
dicated deep feeling and restrained enthusiasm, and tha
sweetly eloquent tongue which it was a charm to listen
to. Without effort, without affectation, without the least
appearance of strangeness, words of edification came flow
ing from the heart because her heart was full. She was
not dogmatical, she did not lecture, she did not set about
giving advice, but she told her stories of what happened
recently or long ago, stories of what good things befel
those who trusted in Providence, stories which told ofthe
virtues of the poor, of the beautiful traits of character
noticed in the little children, or of the generous charity
of the rich. The doings and sayings and sentiments of
the saints dropped from her as she spoke, and they were
ever apposite, elicited naturally by the turn of the con
versation, and thus the stream of happy and holy talk
2 D

402 Nano Nagle :
flowed on, while her face was all the while radiant with
happiness, and her eye was moist with feeling. When
you went away you should feel that your soul was better
than when you came into her presence."
Though Mother Teresa had been for some time slightly
ailing, her death was quite unexpected. During the week
preceding her passage to eternity, she had been busily
engaged in superintending the examination ofthe children,
and her last act in the schools is worth commemorating,
as it shows how thoroughly she was impressed with the
greatness of the charge imposed upon her in the instruc
tion of youth. The last class to be examined was that of
sacred scripture, and one of the little girls who was rather
late for the exercise rushed into her place, making, as she
did so, the sign of the cross in a very careless and hurried
manner. Many teachers would have let this act pass un
noticed, as being nothing more than the result of thought
lessness ; but not so Mother Teresa. She suspended at
once the lesson on which she was engaged ; spoke to the
child of the respect due to the sign of the cross ; dwelt
upon the mysteries ofthe Trinity and Incarnation which it
recalls to our minds ; reprimanded her in severe terms for
the disrespectful conduct of which she had just been
guilty]; and left the little offender and her companions
deeply impressed with the awful sacredness of everything
connected, even remotely, with the service of God. This
great and good religious was summoned to her reward
within the octave of the feast of her patron St. Teresa,
on Wednesday, October 19th, 1864, leaving her commu
nity and all who had the privilege of knowing her, filled
with the most bitter grief at her unexpected and somewhat
sudden demise.
We shall not attempt to sketch • Mother Teresa's cha-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 403
racter, for to her we may fitly apply the beautiful lines of
Hannah More : —
" To those who knew thee not, no words can paint !
And those who knew thee, know all words are faint."
But that our readers may know what eminent judges
outside the convent thought of Mother Teresa, we shall
place before them two out of the' many letters of con
dolence written after her death to her afflicted community.
The first is from the Most Rev. Pr. Moriarty, Bishop of
Kerry, who was intimately acquainted with Mother Teresa
for a period extending over twenty years.
"Palace, Killarney, October igih, 1864.
" My dear Mother Augustine, — I know all you have
lost, and you know what I and the diocese and religion
have lost in our dear frjend and Mother.
" I always believed her to be the best and greatest soul
I ever knew in religion, and the kindest and most affection
ate human soul of all I ever knew in the world. Saint
Teresa would have her before her octave was out. Every
line in the Mass of Saint John Cantius to-day would seem
to have been written for her-. What a glorious life was hers !
Well — her sweet gentle spirit is now with God, in its con
soling rest, and we cannot wish her back ; let us only
wish and strive to follow her example. Let her remains lie
in the chapel that the poor people may have a last look at
that face which was such an expression of charity. It
would not surprise me to hear that God made known her
sanctity and present glory. May God comfort you all.
" Yours in Christ,
" «J- David Moriarty."
The second letter is from the Abbot of Mount Mel
leray. '
2 d 2

404 Nano Nagle:
" Cappoquin, October 21st, 1864.
" My dear Mother Augustine,— I am indeed a very
poor comforter ! I want comfort myself ! Yet upon this oc
casion I must forget self and try to console you, that you
may console and strengthen others, and cheer up your
dear sisters now plunged in deep, deep affliction.
"Their grief is certainly just; never, perhaps, in the
Presentation Order was there a nun whose death was more
deservedly lamented. But, dear mother, the more your
sisters grieve the more must you exert yourself to keep
down your own feelings of sadness ; the more generously
must you shake off the drooping torpor which accompanies
depression of spirits ; the more vigorously must you bound
foiward in the path of charity, and make yourself all to all,
that all may bear the cross with joy — With joy ? Yes, with
joy ; for an angel had stood in the midst of you, and soon
will that angel be high—- very high in heaven — your mother,
your protectress for ever. I write in haste for the post.
" Ever and for ever-,
"B- Fitzpatrick, Abbot."
Since the death of Mother Teresa Kelly the Listowel
nuns have been steadily pursuing " the noiseless tenor of
their way," without any occurrence of more than ordinary
interest to diversify the usual routine of their lives, save
and excepttthat up to the close of the year 1874, they have
been constantly making improvements both in their con
vent and schools. In 1868 they erected a pretty belfry at
a cost of /~ioo ; and in 1869 they expended £2^ in the
erection of a " Ladye Chapel," and in the decoration ofthe'
sanctuary. Stained 'glass windows were added in 1870;
and in 1872, a gallery was erected. Finally, in 1874,
various additions to convent and schools were made at a

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 405
cost of /~i,020 ; and everything in connection with the
convent buildings has thus been brought to a state of
perfection which scarcely admits of further improvement.
The schools are largely attended, and are conducted
with the greatest efficiency. Besides the ordinary branches
of a solid English education, the sisters teach also vocal
and instrumental music, French, &c. ; and contemplate the
introduction of a still higher course of studies, with a view
to meeting the requirements of the times. Within the
last sixteen years fiver fifty pupils ofthe Listowel Presen
tation schools have joined various religious orders, not
only in Ireland, but also in England, France, and Australia,
and are giving everywhere the greatest satisfaction. The
number of nuns at present in Listowel is twenty-one ; and
the average daily attendance of pupils at their schools is
as high as 455.
The eighth house of the Presentation Order in the
diocese of Kerry was opened in Castleisland, in the year
1 846, and owes its establishment, under God, to the zeal
and energy of the late venerable Archdeacon O'Leary, the
then parish priest of that town. This good pastor having
witnessed the happy results which attended the labours of
the Presentation Sisters wherever they had been intro
duced, was most anxious that the members of his own
flock should participate in them, and with this end in
view he resolved, at all hazards, to attempt the establish
ment of a convent at Castleisland. His prospects, of-
success in this endeavour were, to use the very mildest
term, not encouraging. He had no funds in hand with
which to start in the undertaking ; his people were not
wealthy ; and, what was worse still, the distress which
terminated in famine and pestilence was just then be
ginning to make itself felt. He did not, however, lose
heart, but with the sanction of Most Rev. Dr. Egan,

406 Nano Nagle:
Bishop of Kerry, appealed to the congregations in several
churches throughout the diocese for contributions \ to aid
him in his good work ; while his curate, the Rev. John
O'Connell, at present Archdeacon of Kerry and parish
priest of Castleisland, undertook to discharge the same
arduous mission in Liverpool. A convent having been
partially erected, by means of the funds thus collected,
Father O'Leary applied to the Presentation community,
Sexton-street, Limerick, for some members of that body
to open the new branch at Castleisland, and his request
having been favourably received, Mother M. Jbseph
Harnett, accompanied by Sisters M. Aloysius Byrne and
M. Catherine Vize, took their departure for that town, on
the 6th of October, 1846.
On their arrival in Castleisland, the nuns took up their
residence, temporarily, in the presbytery, which had been
vacated by the curates, and in which a choir had been ,
fitted up, and such other arrangements made as were
rendered necessary by the requirements of conventual
life. No schools had been built as yet, and the sisters were
consequently obliged to discharge the duty of instruction in
the parish church. This was indeed disheartening enough ;
nor did the prospect look much brighter, when on the 16th
of June, 1847, they were enabled to leave their temporary
abode at the presbytery, and take possession of the con
vent which had been built for them, for the only articles of
furniture which it contained were four poor little beds-
Beyond this, the house was absolutely empty ; there was
not even a table or a chair in it, except what had been
borrowed from some charitable neighbours, and there
was very little hope that this blessed state of holy poverty
would terminate speedily, for the dreadful famine was at its
height, and the contributions which might have assisted
the nuns, were, of course, given to the relief of other and

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 407
more urgent necessities. The devoted sisters embraced the
cross which had been presented to them, and bore it
bravely and patiently without a murmur of complaint ; but,
after three years of heroic endurance, affairs began to
assume a desperate appearance in 1849. One of the pro
fessed nuns had returned to Limerick, a second had
died of consumption, the result of a cold caught while
teaching the poor in the damp, comfortless church, and
Mother Joseph alone remained to bear the brunt of the
battle with only two novices Sisters M. Francis Molony
and M. Xavier Vize (who had entered since the foundation)
to assist her. Appeals for help were made to various
quarters, but they ended in disappointment. The dissolu
tion of the community seemed inevitable, and so imminent
was it that arrangements were made for the reception of
Mother Joseph and her novices into another convent ofthe
diocese, and negotiations had actually been entered into for the
sale of the convent bell. In this trying emergency Father
O'Leary thought it best to lay an exact statement of affairs
before Mother Joseph's brother, Michael Harnett, Esq.,
then residing in Liverpool, and ask him to assist the
tottering institute over which his sister presided. Mother
Joseph herself also addressed a touching appeal to the
same quarter, and not without success, as Mr. Harnett re
sponded warmly, promptly, and generously. He sent a first
donation of /~8oo, which he soon supplemented by a
further gift of /~8oo more, not to mention various smaller
sums which he forwarded to his sister from time to time.
He, moreover, contributed ^"200 towards the erection of
the schools, which were at last opened with great solemnity
and every demonstration of joy, on the 16th of July, 1850
— three years and upwards of nine months after the arrival
of the nuns.
After so long a period of suffering, the Castleisland

408 Nano Nagle :
Presentation Sisters were now permitted to enjoy for a
period the sweetness of repose. Their convent began to
assume an air of simple, modest comfort which it had never
known before ; postulants sought admission into the
community, and thus lightened the labours of the few
sisters who had been cruelly overworked during the terri
ble years which intervened between 1846^ and 1850; the
schools were well filled, and the children profited so much
by the instructions which they received that a manifest
improvement soon became visible within the circle ofthe
nuns' influence ; in a word everything progressed. But
only for a while, as it was God's will to test the solidity of
His servants' virtue by new and severe trials. In 1859,
the community having by that time increased to eleven
members, Mother M. Joseph Harnett went with two of her
religious sisterhood to establish a branch of the Presen
tation Order at Kenmare. Funds were not wanting for the
new foundation, as Mr. Michael Harnett, who had already
proved himself such a munificent benefactor to the
institute, placed the sum of ^"2,000 in the hands of his
sister, for the furtherance of the good work which she had
undertaken with every prospect of success. Humanly
speaking, everything looked well for the Kenmare Presen
tation convent, and yet it was destined to prove a failure.
The nuns found that the hours marked out for the school
exercises in Kenmare would not suit the Presentation rule.
The classes opened and closed an hour later than that
contemplated by the constitutions of the religious, and, as
a necessary consequence, the entire routine of the con
ventual exercises was disturbed in order to suit the arrange
ments which regulated the schools. The sisters submitted
to- this inconvenience for a time, hoping that eventually
some change might take place enabling them to adhere
to the letter of their rule, which they were determined at

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 409
all risks to uphold ; but finding after a sufficient trial that
it was impossible to make the Presentation rule harmonise
with the Kenmare school regulations, they abandoned the
foundation, and returned to their convent at Castleisland,
on the nth of October, 1861, after an absence of two
years and fifteen days.
Since 1861, nothing of more than ordinary interest has
occurred in connection with the Presentation community
at Castleisland. The schools are largely attended, and
with most satisfactory results. Besides the general schools,
there is attached to the convent a free school for seventy
infant boys, and, also, a " pay-school," opened in Sep
tember, 1873, in which thirty-five young girls of the better
class receive a superior education. It is the intention of
the sisters to devote the proceeds of this latter institu
tion to the establishment of an orphanage for destitute
•children, as soon as circumstances will permit. There
are in connection with the schools several pious sodalities,
which tend largely to create and foster a spirit of piety
among the children. In addition to these, the nuns have
also in charge two sodalities of the Blessed Virgin for
adults — one for married women, the other for young girls
— numbering in the aggregate three hundred members.
Each of these sodalities meets twice a month, but on
separate days, for the purpose of common prayer and in
struction, and the members make an annual retreat, under
the direction of the fathers ofthe Society of Jesus. There
is a circulating library in connection with the convent,
which is largely availed of, and is productive of much
.good, by diffusing useful and edifying works through the
homes of the poor, and thereby providing a substitute for,
and an antidote against the poisonous publications which a
cheap and licentious press is daily placing within the reach
of the million.

41 o Nano Nagle.

CHAPTER XXII.
The history of the Presentation Order during the last quarter of se
century. — Establishment of the Order in Stradbally, Queen's
County, Mitchelstown, Mountmellick, Portarlington, Clondalkin,.
Oranmore, and Fethard. — The voyage of the "Empress."^Mis-
sionaries from Fermoy unfurl the banner of Nano Nagle jn
Tasmania. — Splendid success of that mission.— Further extension
of the Presentation Order. — Establishment of branches in Lucan,
Ballingarry, Granard, and Baltinglass. — The Presentation Nuns
in Australia. — What a zealous Irish priest can do with the aid of
a generous Irish flock in Victoria. — Establishment and success of
the Presentation Convent at St. Kilda, Melbourne. — A second
colony of Presentation Nuns for Australia. — Establishment of a.
convent at Wagga- Wagga, diocese of Goulbourne. — Princely
munificence of Messrs. Cox and Donnelly. — " Westward ho !" —
The daughters of Nano Nagle in New York. — "Wonderful success
and brilliant prospects of the Presentation Order in the " Empire-
City."
" Their sound hath gone forth into all. the earth : and their words-
unto the ends ofthe world " (Psalm xviii., v. 5).
It is our purpose in the present chapter to trace the
fortunes of Nano Nagle's daughters during the last five-
and-twenty years.
During the first years of this period the extension of the
Order at home was remarkably slow, but a sufficient ex
planation of the fact is found in the wretched condition
of the country at that epoch. Ireland was then only just
recovering from a dreadful shock, the effects of which are

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 411
felt even at the present time. A terrible famine had de
solated the land, sweeping whole hecatombs of people
into untimely graves ; pestilence followed in the train of
famine, and the breath of the destroying angel was hot
upon the face ofthe Celt, until the island became a charnel
house; and then the strong men and fair maidens who
survived rushed to the sea-coast, maddened with despair,
and crowded the decks of the emigrantvessels, begging the
skipper to bear them somewhere — anywhere — from their
loved and once happy, but now desolate and seemingly
heaven-cursed homes. The spirit of the people was
broken, their hopes seemed crushed for ever, and a feeling
of gloomy despair settled like some terrible incubus
upon the land. In the wreck of all their fortunes, how
ever, the children of St. Patrick preserved one treasure —
their faith ; and the first sign of the nation's resurrection
was seen in the living action of that faith. Slowly but
surely, religion began to make its influence felt in the
establishment of various institutes for the alleviation of
human misery, and for the education- of the poor ; and
the daughters of Nano Nagle prepared themselves not only
to continue their labours at home, but still more, to cross
broad oceans, and seek out the scattered children of the
Gael in every land where it had pleased Providence that they
should toil for that bread which had been denied them
at home. The period on which we are now entering may
be styled the " Missionary period " in the history of the
Presentation Order, as it witnessed the establishment of
eleven houses of the. Institute in Newfoundland, two in
California, two in Tasmania, two in Australia, and one in
New York, while the progress of the institute at home has
been steady, and most satisfactory in its results.
The first convent of the Presentation Order established
within the period of which, we now write was opened at

412 Nano Nagle: i
Stradbally, in the Queen's County, under the auspices of
the late Rev. George Hume, P. P., and with the warm
approval of the late Most Rev. Francis Haly, Bishop of
Kildare and Leighlin. Mother M. Magdalen Costlett and
Sister M. de Sales Farrell, both members of the Presen
tation community at Carlow, were the nuns selected to
establish the new foundation, and they accordingly arrived
in Stradbally for that purpose on the 25th of February,
1852. A small incommodious house had been rented to
serve them as a convent, but there was an absolute want
of any proper accommodation for the very large number
of children, and even of grown girls, who flocked to the
nuns for instruction. The sisters, however, managed as
best they could in these trying circumstances, and were
both surprised and consoled by witnessing the eagerness
displayed by the children in the pursuit of knowledge — an
eagerness, however, not difficult of explanation, if we only
remember that, before the introduction of nuns no Catholic
school existed in Stradbally. In the year 1859 unforeseen
circumstances obliged the two sisters from Carlow to re
turn to their own convent, and the new foundation seemed
fated to terminate its brief career in failure had not Pro
vidence brought the Most. Rev. Dr. Walshe, Bishop of
Kildare and Leighlin, to its rescue. This zealous prelate
determined to refouhd the convent at Stradbally ; and,
accordingly, in January, i860, confided this difficult task
to the prudence of Mother Augustine Ganly, of the Pre
sentation community at Maryborough, who was assisted by
three of her religious sisters from the same house. A
more judicious selection could not have been easily made,
as Mother Augustine united in her own person the zeal
and mental activity of youth with that ripe experience and
solid, practical sense which years alone can confer. She
possessed the advantage, too, of having shared largely in

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 4 1 3.
the friendship of the great Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare,
by whom she had been not only brought over from the
errors of Protestantism to the one true fold, but directed
afterwards in the various stages ofthe spiritual life.* This
illustrious prelate continued to the hour of his death to
regard her as his spiritual child, and in one of his letters
he styles her one of " the oldest, the most faithful, and
the most affectionate" of his friends. f
When Mother Augustine and her three companions ar
rived at Stradbally, they found before them neither con
vent, chapel, nor schools. Had they been worldly-minded,
they would have employed the little that they possessed in
providing for themselves a comfortable dwelling, but like
King David, their spirit knew no rest until they had first
provided a decent chapel in which the Lord of Hosts
might take up His abode ; and in little more than twelve
months they erected one of the prettiest conventual
chapels to he met with in the diocese of Kildare. The
dwelling-house and schools were built soon after, and in
* Those who have read Mr. Fitzpatrick's masterly life of Dr. 'Doyle
must have met with a good many letters addressed by the great J. K. L.
to Hannah, and to H  G  . We may inform such of our
readers as are ignorant of the fact, that the lady thus addressed was
Mother Augustine Ganly, of the Maryboro' Presentation Convent.
' ' Born and reared," writes Mr. Fitzpatrick, "in the bosom of a zealoui
Protestant family, she grew up with views strongly antagonistic to the
ancient faith of Ireland ; but influenced by a thoughtful and observant
disposition, these- prejudices gradually softened and melted away. She
prayed much and fervently, and having at last embraced the Catholic
doctrine, committed her conscience to the guidance of Father James
Doyle."—" Life, Times, and Correspondence of Dr. Doyle," by W. J.
Fitzpatrick, J.P., vol. i., p. 72.
t Fitzpatrick, "Life," &c, vol. ii., ch. xii., p. 377.— Mother
Augustine Ganly died, full of years and honours, on April the 13th,
1872.

414 Nano Nagle:
a style which excited the wonder and admiration of every
one who saw them. How all this was done was a mys
tery even to the good sisters themselves, for so many and
so great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle,
that, humanly speaking, success seemed impossible, and
many wise heads prophesied that the Stradbally founda
tion would fail for the second time. But God willed other
wise : the work was His work, and His blessing caused it
tb prosper so that few houses of the Order in Ireland are
now in a more flourishing condition. The school for
poor children is daily attended by about two hundred
pupils, who besides receiving a thorough religious training,
are instructed in those branches of secular education or
dinarily taught in the National Schools. A knowledge of
music is also imparted to such of the grown girls as intend
to make teaching their profession ; and several of those
who have chosen that means of earning a livelihood have
already attained a high classification under the Board of
National Education, and give the greatest satisfaction by
the zeal and efficiency which they display in the manage
ment of their schools. The Presentation Nuns at Strad
bally also conduct a special department for the education
of young girls of the better class, in which from fifty to_
eighty pupils receive instruction in French, Italian, vocal
and instrumental music, drawing, fancy needlework, &c.
• There is a third department in which women and young
girls receive religious instruction, and are supplied with
work which is afterwards disposed of for them by the nuns.
The work executed here has found its way all over Eng
land and Scotland, and finds a ready market in America,
Australia, and even at the Cape of Good Hope. The
sisters have agents for the sale of the work in these diffe
rent countries, and their pupils have been enabled to earn
up to the present, from this source alone, upwards of

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 415
^"6,000 ! The community at Stradbally numbers eleven
professed sisters, two novices, and one postulant.
Mitchelstown, in the diocese of Cloyne, was next
favoured by the presence of the daughters of Nano Nagle.
Indeed, few places stood in greater need of their labours,
for until the' year 1853 the people of that immense parish,
which stretches away at the foot of the Galtees, and is
removed at a considerable distance from any large town,
were forced to accept for their children such education as
could be obtained in the National Schools, or in the hedge
schools which still continued in operation in the mountain
districts. Wishing, to bring the female children of his
flock under the influence of the teaching and example of
some religious body, the late holy and zealous pastor, Very
Rev. Morgan O'Brien, Dean of Cloyne, determined on
introducing the Presentation Order into Mitchelstown,
and succeeded in obtaining a site for the future convent
from the late Robert Earl of Kingston. As soon as the
building intended for the nuns was ready for their recep
tion, Dean O'Brien, with the approbation of Most Rev.
Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cloyne, applied to the Presentation
Convent at Doneraile for some sisters to open the foun
dation in his parish, and the application having been
favourably received, three members of that community
arrived in Mitchelstown on the 24th June, 1853. These
ladies were Elizabeth Tuite (called in religion Mother M.
Aloysius), Elizabeth Magrath (M. Clare), and Mary Anne
Roche (M. F. Xavier). Mother Aloysius Tuite who was
appointed Superioress, was a lady eminently qualified for
the arduous mission of establishing a new foundation, and
had been long and favourably known to Dean O'Brien.
Her father had been governor of a West Indian island, and
belonged to one of those old Irish Catholic families who
were banished from their native land by Cromwell and his

.416 Nano Nagle:
exterminating Puritans. At an early age Miss Tuite was
sent to Ireland for her education, under the care of her
relative, the Countess McCarthy, sister-in-law to the cele
brated Abbe McCarthy, who was deeply attached to her, and
continued during her lifetime to send her many valuable
presents. The voyage to Ireland was attended with much
danger at that time, in consequence of the war then raging
between France and England ; and Mother Aloysius used
to tell how they were pursued for three whole days by a
French man-of-war, and so narrowly escaped capture that
their captain ha dthe mails weighted in order to sink them,
lest any papers should fall into the hands of the enemy.
Having landed safely at Cork, Elizabeth Tuite was placed
under the charge of the Ursulines in that city, and. con
tinued to pursue her studies with them from the year 1813
to 1821. Hearing about this time ofthe Presentation
Convent which had lately been established at Doneraile,
she requested permission to join that community, and her
application having been favourably received, this petted
young lady, who had in her youth been tended by slaves,
gave up all that the world could bestow, and enrolled her
self among the daughters of Nano Nagle, to be until death
the humble servant and slave of the poor. Having passed
through all the trials ofthe religious probation, she pro
nounced her solemn vows, and was soon after, because of
her rare merits, elected to the office of Superior, which
post she afterwards filled for a period of twelve years.. It
was in Doneraile, where he for some time discharged the
duties of convent chaplain, that Dean O'Brien became
acquainted with Mother Aloysius Tuite ; and it was the
knowledge gained at that period of her splendid abilities
and great virtues which made that saintly man so anxious
afterwards to secure her direction for the community which
he wished to establish in Mitchelstown. Indeed, there

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 4 1 7
must have been many strong links of sympathy between
them, for their characters were similar, and in everything
affecting the interests of the poor they had but one heart
and one soul. The charities of good " Father Morgan,"
as his brother priests and his people loved to call the
Dean, were simply beyond reckoning. He was always en
gaged on some charitable or religious work. A splendid
church, a convent, spacious schools, a parochial house, a
monastery for the Christian Brothers, with magnificent
halls attached for the education of the poor, all remain
to-day a standing monument of his zeal. Then he had his
St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Society of the Holy
Family which largely shared.in his bounty, not to mention
the boundless charities which he dispensed in secret,
and which are known only to God.
He kept several persons employed in buying and making
articles of clothing for the destitute ; and it was said of
him that there was scarcely a house in Mitchelstown in
which" one might not find a hat, coat, cloak, dress, or pair
of shoes purchased with his money. He used to pay
for many years to one shopkeeper /"200 annually for
flour and meal, which was distributed in small quantities
to the poor. The good man had a large and generous
heart for everybody, himself excepted. He allowed him
self none of the comforts, and barely the necessaries of
life. His dress, always very plain, occasionally bordered
on poverty, and though he was extremely hospitable it
was the opinion of his priests who lived with him, that he
would starve himself to feed the poor were he not obliged
to provide for their wants and share in their meals. During
life all his thoughts were centered in " the poor of Jesus
Christ," as he used, lovingly, to call them ; and at his death
it was his will that everything he possessed should be
sold, and the proceeds distributed among them. Such
2E

4i 8 Nano Nagle :
was Father Morgan O'Brien, and he met„with a kindred
spirit in the person of Mother Aloysius Tuite. She seemed
to be familiar with only two places within the convent
enclosure — the chapel and the schools, and whenever she
was not to be found in the one it was the habit of her
sisters to seek her in the other with a pretty safe assurance
of not being disappointed in their search. In the schools
she left the respectable well-to-do children to the charge
of others, and selected her own class from the poorest,
most ill-conditioned, and most wretched little ones that
she could find. These were her special favourites, and on
them she lavished all a mother's love, and treated them
with more than a mother's tenderness and care. When the
hour of lunch came, it mattered not who her visitors might
be, she would steal away to distribute to these poor little
creatures whatever food her limited resources would permit
her to supply ; and as you gazed upon her face while she
was engaged in this labour of love, you might perceive at
a glance that if her soul harboured a single regret, it was
her inability to act as charitably towards the poor as her
heart prompted her to do. Her kindness to the old and in
firm and destitute, who were almost hourly visitors at the
convent gate had passed into a proverb. She gave them
all that she could, and often perhaps more than she
ought, had her conduct been regulated by the standard of
worldly prudence ; when she had nothing to give herself
she begged for them from others, and whenever it did
happen, and it did not often occur, that she was abso
lutely powerless to relieve them, the kind soft words of
comfort and the sympathetic tear which glistened in her
eye spoke the feelings of her heart, and the poor departed
from her presence as grateful as if she had showered upon
them the treasures of kings.
But to return from this digression, which, after all, is not

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 4 1 9
entirely out of place. Dean O'Brien and his nuns were
welcomed on their arrival in Mitchelstown with demon
strations of joy such as never greeted a Roman general
returning at the head of his victorious army from many a
hard-fought field. We are inclined to believe that on the
whole the pageant of a " Triumph " in the good old days
ofthe Republic was somewhat more magnificent as regards
external display, but there was far less sincerity — less
heart in it than in the homely, but honest welcome which
awaited Mother Tuite and her religious sisters on their
entry into Mitchelstown. The peaks of the Galtees blazed
with bonfires to do them honour, the houses in the town
were illuminated, burning tar barrels were carried in
procession through the streets, and five thousand throats
gave out cheer after cheer, which made the welkin ring
until their echoes died out in the neighbouring hills of
Limerick and Tipperary. A. Protestant gentleman chanc
ing to meet on the occasion one poor woman, who rushed
through the street in a very excited manner, carrying oh
her shoulder an arm of a tree which she was scarcely
able to support, asked her what she wanted to do with it.
" What could t want it forf she replied, "but to embrace
Ihe nuns with it ! "
Not a moment was lost after the arrival of the nuns in
commencing the great work to which their lives were con
secrated. The schools were opened, and the children of
the parish literally rushed into them, until at the end of a
few days six hundred pupils had registered their names .
upon -the rolls, and a vacant place could hardly be pro
cured in the schools on any terms. The system of edu
cation which the nuns adopted from the first, and which
they have since continued to follow is that of the Christian
Brothers, for Dean O'Brien would not permit his schools
2 e 2

420 Nano Nagle:
to be in connection with the Board of National Educa
tion. He believed religion to be " the aroma of educa
tion," inseparable from it, and permeating it at all times,
and he would not therefore have his nuns comply with the
regulations of the National Board, which limits religious
instruction to certain fixed hours, and which forbids the
exhibition of those religious symbols which, while they
teach the mind through the medium of the eye, serve to
keep alive in the hearts of the children the spirit of faith
and Christian piety. Apart, indeed, from this conscien
tious objection, Dean O'Brien did not love the so-called
National system on other grounds. It was a gift from
England to Ireland, and Father O'Brien disliked and dis
trusted England and her gifts alike. His feelings on the
subject might be epitomised in the line —
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. "
Noi»was it unnatural that he should harbour such feelings,-
for he could not forget that while he was yet a babe in his
mother's arms, his father was hanged as a rebel from the
clock gate of Youghal during the troubles of the memo
rable year 1798. The system of instruction pursued by
the nuns in Mitchelstown has been found to work most.
satisfactorily; from their tenderest years the children
imbibe the spirit, and learn the practice of religion, which
is interwoven with their every exercise during school hours,
and which leaves impressions which neither time, nor
distance, nor any vicissitudes of fortune can ever totally
efface. The secular training is also most effectual, being
identical in every respect with that pursued by the Chris
tian Brothers; and the success of the nuns in this depart
ment is conclusively established by the very large number
of their pupils who have been enabled to obtain and fill .
with credit respectable situations, where a solid education
was indispensably necessary. The spirit which the found-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 421
resses brought with them from the old house in Doneraile
still largely predominates in the Mitchelstown Convent.
The education imparted to the children is not showy,
but it is thoroughly solid and eminently practical, and is,
therefore, the only education worth having for the humbler
classes. In the fifth year ofthe foundation, Mothers Clare Magrath,
and Xavier Roche returned to Doneraile, the community
at Mitchelstown having by this time become sufficiently
strong in numbers to carry on the good work without
further assistance. In the following year the sisters suf- -
fered a very severe loss in the death of their holy foundress,
Mother M. Aloysius Tuite. She had been ailing for some
time, and might have lived for many years to edify and
sustain her community, if she could only be prevailed on to
take ordinary care of her health. This, however, she could
not be induced to do, notwithstanding the many and ear
nest entreaties of her friends and her religious children.
A victim to her zeal and charity, she pined away gradually
until, on the feast of Pentecost, for which she had a special
devotion, she became so weak that she was unable to as
sist at Mass, but at her special request was brought to the
choir to receive holy Communion. She soon after received
the last rites of the Church, and expired in the greatest
tranquillity on the following morning, June 13th, 1859. .
Since then, the Mitchelstown Presentation Nuns have gone
on quietly, peacefully, and successfully, labouring for the
salvation of their own souls, and for the instruction of
" many unto justice." There are at present fifteen pro
fessed choir sisters in the community, and their schools
are attended by five hundred pupils.
The sixth house of the Presentation Order in the
diocese of Kildare was opened at Mountmellick, on the
7thof March, 1854, the foundress being Mother M. Charles

422 Nano Nagle:
Corballis, of the Presentation Convent, Bagnalstown, as
sisted by Mother M. Ignatius Taylor, M. Aloysius Brophy,
and M. Francis Kelly (lay sister), all members of the com
munity at Carlow. These were afterwards joined by
Mother Catherine Cullen, from the convent at Kildare.
The convent and schools, originally placed at the dis
posal of the nuns, being in a short time found quite un-
suited to the purposes for which they had been designed,
the generous people of Mountmellick determined to erect
more commodious buildings in their stead, and in the
course of a few years replaced them by a handsome con
vent, with large and well-ventilated schools attached.
The latter are daily frequented by the children ofthe poor,
varying in number from three to four hundred, who are
carefully instructed in all the branches of education usually
embraced in the curriculum of first-class female National
Schools. At the request of the parish priest, the nuns
opened, some years ago, " a pay-school," also, for the
convenience of children of the better class, who, in addi
tion to a thorough English education in the ordinary ac
ceptation of the words, are instructed in French, vocal
and instrumental music, plain and fancy needlework,
drawing, and such other branches as fit them to occupy in
after-life respectable positions in society. There is in
this school a daily average attendance of about; thirty
pupils, very many of whom afterwards join various religious
communities at home, on the Continent, or in the colo
nies. The sisters have also been particularly successful
in preparing young girls to fill situations as governesses.
Many of their former pupils fill that position at present ;
and by their irreproachable conduct and high acquire
ments, give the greatest satisfaction to their employers,
and reflect no small degree of credit on the good ladies
by whom they have been trained. '

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 423
The Mountmellick branch of the 'Presentation Order is
at present in a highly prosperous condition. There are in
community fifteen professed nuns and two novices — all
full of zeal and vigour for the discharge of their onerous
and important duties. It' is worth recording that since
the foundation of this convent — now twenty-one years ago
— only one of the sisters has died. We venture to say
that scarcely any other community in Ireland could boast
of a death-rate proportionately low ; and it goes far to
prove that, while engaged in the instruction of others, the
Presentation Nuns of Mountmellick have been, with much
profit to themselves, diligent students of the laws of
sanitary science.
The children of Nano Nagle came to labour in Port
arlington on the 29th of September, 1854, under the aus
pices of the Most Rev. Dr. Haly, Bishop of Kildare and
Leighlin. This mission was undertaken by four professed
sisters of the Presentation Convent at Bagnalstown, viz.,
Mother M. John Kinsella (Superior), M. Angela Maher
(Assistant and Foundress), M. Bernard Kinsella, and M.
Teresa Donoghoe. They were accompanied by one no
vice, Sister M. de Pazzi Kearney, and by two postulants,
Sisters Baptist Davin and Catherine Phelan (lay), who
in due time became professed members of the community.
This was in itself a fair teaching staff to begin with, but
after a very short time it was largely increased by the ac
cession of fresh aspirants to the religious habit, so that on
the whole the Presentation Convent at Portarlington may
be said to have started on its career of usefulness with
very cheering prospects of success.
As in the case of most other new foundations, the first se
rious inconvenience which the Sisters at Portarlington expe
rienced was the want of suitable school accommodation.
There were hundreds of children seeking and needing in-

424 Nano Nagle:
struction, and the only available place in which it might
be imparted to them wa6 pne small, shabby, unfurnished,
and ill-ventilated room, which was injurious to the health
of both the nuns and their pupils, and was, moreover,
calculated to make the work of instruction extremely irk
some to the one, while it was in a great measure unpro
fitable to the others. For this defect there was but one
remedy — to build ; and the nuns did, accordingly, build
four very fine school-rooms, capable of accommodating
three hundred children with ease and comfort. From
that time the good work has been carried on successfully
in Portarlington, and the people have derived immense
benefits from the presence of the nuns. Most ofthe pre
sent matrons of the town were pupils at the convent school
some eighteen or twenty years ago ; and their intelligence,
neatness of appearance, and, above all, their solid practical
piety, are the best evidence ofthe training which they then
received, while their own appreciation of it is marked by
the mingled feelings of love and reverence with which
they continue to regard their former mistresses, and the
anxiety which they manifest that their children should
share the blessings which they themselves were fortunate
enough to have once enjoyed. There are at present thir
teen sisters in the Portarlington Presentation Convent, of
whom eleven are employed in the schools, where there is,
on an average, an attendance each day of one hundred
and fifty pupils.
The Carlow Presentation Convent would seem to have
been specially commissioned for the propagation of Nano
Nagle's glorious Order, for after having sent out a colony
to Mountmellick in 1854, we find the members of that
community conferring a similar favour on Clondalkin in
less than three years after. The religious who took part
in this foundation were Mother .M. Joseph Cosslet (Su-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 425
perior), M- Regis Coslett, and M. Stanislaus Mulcahy.
They arrived in Clondalkin on December 8th, 1857, and
immediately commenced their labours in the schools where
they found more work awaiting them than they were well
able to accomplish, owing to the anxiety manifested by
the people that their children should avail of the instruc
tions of the nuns. The inconvenience arising from a large
number of pupils and a limited teaching-staff, was not,
however, felt so severely as might be expected, for the
Superioress was a lady gifted with a singular power of
grappling with difficulties, and, moreover, the new convent
held out so many attractions to aspirants to the religious
state, .that, from its very foundation, several young ladies
made application to be received into the community.
Indeed we believe we are strictly within the limits of ac
curacy when we say, that the growth of the Clondalkin
Presentation Convent has been more rapid than that of
any other house of the Order. Within little more than
nine years from its foundation the community had in
creased to that extent, that the sisters were enabled to
send out a colony to Lucan (March 19th, 1867), under the
care of Mother Joseph Coslett ; and yet, notwithstanding
the diminution of numbers which this step necessarily
entailed, there are at present in the Clondalkin Convent
twenty-seven daughters of Nano Nagle — a number ex
ceeded by five other houses only out of the entire Order.
The community sustained a severe loss three years ago
in the death of their beloved foundress, Mother Joseph
Coslett, who died on the feast of the Epiphany, 1872, in
the 44th year of her age. We may reasonably hope that
this good religious, having followed during life the guid
ing star of God's will, has been already made a sharer in
the rich reward promised by the prophet, that " they that
are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,

426 Nano Nagle:
and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all
eternity" (Dap. xii. 3).
The Clondalkin Presentation Sisters have" under their
charge three schools attended by nearly three . hundred
children. The pupils of the advanced classes are trained to
the duties of governesses, National School teachers, &c,
and those who have already received employment (and they
are many) in these capacities have given the greatest
satisfaction. The parish church, a perfect specimen of
the purest Gothic architecture, is attached to the convent,
and with the schools forms a quadrangle. These build
ings were erected within twelve years, and at a cost of
sixteen thousand pounds.
The Presentation Order was introduced into Oranmore,.
county Galway, on the 3rd of May, 1 861, under the follow
ing circumstances. A pious Catholic citizen of Galway,
Counsellor John Blake, whose two sisters had joined the
daughters of Nano Nagle, bequeathed at his death in
1828 the sum of/~2,ooo for the purpose of founding a.
convent of Presentation Nuns in his native county. Owing
to the difficulty of procuring within the diocese an eligible
situation for the proposed institute, the good work re
mained for very many years unaccomplished ; but in 1861
Most Rev. Dr. M 'Evilly decided that the pious intentions
of the testator should be carried out, and accordingly
fixed upon Oranmore as the site of the new foundation.
The situation which was selected was in every respect.
most desirable, as it afforded the nuns all the advantages.
to be derived from the pure sea breeze, and was, more
over, surrounded by six acres of excellent pasture land-
The house which was to serve as a convent had been
originally a hotel, and had no doubt occasionally relieved
the wants of Galway squires after a hard day's run with
" the Blazers ;" but the good nuns did not object to it in

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 427
the slighest on this account, as they were determined to
purify it by many prayers and sacred chants from any unholy
echoes ofthe " Cruiskeen Lawn" or "We won't go home
till morning," which mighfe still chance to linger in the
old rooms. The hotel having been somewhat altered
from its original appearance, and made to assume a
little of the dignified gravity befitting a convent, was
duly taken possession of in the name of Nano Nagle by
four sisters from the Galway Presentation Convent. These
were Mother M. Catherine Martyn, M. Teresa Donnellan,
M. Rose Magee, and M. Joseph Oliver, who were duly
licensed to retail instruction to the youth of Oranmore on
the third day of May, 1861.
From the very start Providence smiled upon the infant
establishment, and it has gone on prospering ever since.
The moment the schools were opened they were filled
with poor children, many of whom walked long and weary
miles to avail themselves of the teaching of the nuns, and
sadly indeed did they, need instruction. They were very
ignorant, not through any fault of theirs, poor children,
but because they had hitherto lacked the means of ac
quiring knowledge. Now, however, that the opportunities
were placed within their reach they were eagerly availed
of, and such were the intelligence and docility of the
children that in a short time the zealous labours of the
nuns produced most gratifying results. The schools were
placed in connection with the Board of National Educa
tion ; and the course of instruction embraces reading,
writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, drawing,
vocal and instrumental music, and every description of
needlework. But though the nuns pay very great atten
tion to the secular training of the little ones entrusted to
them, their chief care is to ground them in the knowledge
of their faith, and to mould them from infancy upwards

428 Nano Nagle :
to the practice of every Christian virtue. This is of course
at all times and everywhere the basis of all education;
but it becomes of paramount importance in a portion of
Ireland where anti-Catholic societies have been using
every endeavour to root out the faith of Christ, and to
wean by bribes the children of the poor from the allegi
ance which they owe to the one true Church. The Pre
sentation Sisters at Oranmore have at present on their
school-roll the names of 350 children ; and the average
daily attendance for the year 1874 was 224. From three
to four hundred breakfasts are given to these little ones
each week, and they, moreover, receive presents of cloth
ing at various periods during the year. These induce
ments go far in securing a large attendance at the schools,
for many of the children who walk three and four miles
to the convent, often in bad weather, could not be brought
to make the sacrifice were there not some material rewards
held out to them in return. The children's breakfast is a
serious tax upon the exchequer of the good nuns, as they
have no funds to meet the large outlay which it entails,
except whatever can be realised by means of a bazaar
which is annually held for that purpose in the school
rooms, under the superintendence of the charitable ladies
of the locality.
Of the original foundresses Mother M. Catherine Mar-
tyn returned to her own convent at Galway after a lapse
of six years, and Mother M. Teresa Donnellan died at
Oranmore ajt the advanced age of seventy-three years, of
which she had spent fifty-four in religion. It is worthy
of record that this venerable lady was the first fubilarian*

* A nun who reaches the fiftieth anniversary of her religious pro
fession is styled in conventual language, njubilarian. . For an account
•of the ceremony observed on this interesting occasion see Appendix.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 429
of the Presentation Order in Ireland, having celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of her religious profession on the
3rd of May, 1869. The community at Oranmore numbers
at present nine sisters.
The daughters of Nano Nagle were next introduced
into Fethard, county Tipperary, by the Very Rev. Dean
Cantwell, P. P. and V. G., who had been translated to that
parish from Cashel on July 14th, 1861. Seeing the great
need of a good female school which existed in his new
parish, the Dean determined to supply the want ; and that
no time might be unnecessarily lost in doing so, arranged
with the late Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr. Leahy,* and
with the Presentation community of Thurles to place his
own dwelling-house at the disposal of some nuns from
that establishment, until such time as thei intended con
vent should be ready for their reception. When the
necessary preparations had been completed, Mother M.
Agnes Ryan, accompanied by two of her religious sisters,
left Thurles for Fethard, on the 12th of April, 1862 ; and
having on their arrival fitted up a small house for the
accommodation of their pupils, opened school on the first
of May following. The attendance of children on that
occasion reached the figure of ninety, but by the end of
the month the number had swelled to 300, so that the
* The Most R'ev. Patrick Leahy, Archbishop of Cashel, whose name
has frequently occurred in these pages, and who was a staunch friend
and benefactor of the Ursuline and Presentation Orders., died at his
palace in Thurles on January 26th, 1875. He was an accomplished
scholar, a holy priest, a great and zealous prelate, and a sincerely
ardent lover of his native land. His funeral obsequies, which were
celebrated in his Cathedral at Thurles, on Wednesday, February 3rd,
were attended by thirteen bishops, oVer 250 priests, and a vast con
course of the laity. He sunk into his honoured grave amid the tears
of a sorrowing Church and the wailing of a grief-stricken nation.

430 Nano Nagle:
nuns were obliged to utilise a portion of the unfinished
convent for school purposes. Even then the accommo
dation was found insufficient ; but as the weather was
beautifully fine, the sisters carried on the work of instruc
tion in some of the classes in the open air. For some
weeks the instruction imparted to the children was almost
exclusively religious, and consisted in preparing them for
the fit reception of the sacraments. Nor were the labours
of the nuns confined to the younger members of Dean
Cantwell's flock. Numbers of women and grown girls who
had never received Confirmation also attended daily ; and
though they were very ignorant, their diligence and the
zeal of the sisters wrought such wonders that in a short
time they were very fairly instructed, and were admitted
in the following August to the sacrament of Confirmation,
on which occasion many of them also approached the
sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist for the
first time.
During the midsummer vacation, the house which had
served as a school-room was enlarged, but even so it was
found insufficient to accommodate more than half the chil
dren who were in attendance when business was resumed on
the 2nd of October (1862). On the 25th of March, 1863,
the nuns took possession of the building which had been
originally intended to serve them as a convent ; and the
occasion was marked by a most imposing religious cere
mony, which was witnessed by a vast concourse of the
parishioners. In order to afford additional school accom
modation to the poor children, Dean Cantwell, now raised
the house (his own) hitherto occupied by the nuns by
the addition of two stories, the upper one, of which,
measuring forty by twenty-four feet, he handed over to the
nuns for the purposes of instruction. This concession
was of incalculable advantage to the sisters and their

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 43 1
pupils; but it involved a great deal of self-sacrifice on
the part of the good Dean to whom the continual noise
and clatter of so many little children must have proved
a source of much personal discomfort and inconveni
ence. But he endured it all patiently and silently dur
ing well nigh eight long years, and thought himself of
no account so long as he could thereby advance the cause
of God, and serve the temporal and eternal interests of
his beloved flock.
Meanwhile Dean Cantwell had it in contemplation to
build, as soon as circumstances would permit, a new and
more spacious convent for the use of the nuns, in order
that he might be enabled to convert into schools the
house which had been heretofore used for conventual
purposes. The first stone of the new convent was accord
ingly laid on Sunday, 26th June, 1869, an(l the sisters took
possession of the building on the 13th May, 1871. This
magnificent structure, consisting of a centre and two wings
(of which the centre alone is as yet completed), was erected
atan expense (including wall of enclosure, &c.) of £$, 100 ;
which large sum was almost entirely raised by the nuns
themselves, by means of bazaars and of donations received
from their relatives and friends. The old convent was, as
intended, converted into schools ; but in August, 1871,
the Presentation Sisters arranged to hand them over to
the Brothers of St. Patrick, who were coming to the parish,
on the understanding that new schools , should be built
for the nuns on their own grounds at the expense of the
parishioners. In accordance with this agreement, the
new schools were commenced in the spring of the follow
ing year, and were opened for the instruction of the poor
with a most imposing religious ceremony on the 22nd of
November, 1872. Those splendid schools are capable of
accommodating 350 children, and there are about 300 in

432 Nano Nagle :
actual daily attendance. The instruction imparted by1
the nuns is of the standard usually met with in Female
National Schools of the highest class ; while the moral
tone created among the children, and through them
among the parishioners at large, is such as could not be
possibly attained under any other system than that of
the strictly religious training which the nuns pursue. The'
Fethard Presentation Convent has already achieved very
much for the religious education of the poor ; but as yet
it is only fairly entering upon its career, and we are confi
dent that a brilliant future awaits it. The number of
nuns at present in the community is fourteen.
The Most Rev. Dr. Wilson, Bishop of Hobart Town (Tas
mania), having become enfeebled by old age and the
infirmities contracted during a long and laborious mis
sionary career, received in the year 1865 a coadjutor, with
the right of succession, in the person of the Most Rev.
Daniel Murphy, who had been for many years Vicar-
Apostolic of Hyderabad (Hindostan). The new diocese
confided to Dr. Murphy's spiritual charge, comprised the
whole of Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, an island
almost as large as Ireland, and situated south of Australia,
from which it is divided by Bass's Straits. Up to the year
1825, this splendid country was little more that an English ,
penal settlement ; but the fertility of the soil and the salu
brity of the climate having attracted to it many emigrants,
who finally adopted it as their home, it was made a free
colony in the year just mentioned, and though remaining
a dependency of the British Crown, has ever since enjoyed
its own Legislature under the superintendence of a local
governor. At the period of Bishop Murphy's appoint
ment, the Catholic population scattered over the entire
country was estimated at 20,000 souls, who were for the
most part Irish by birth or by extraction, and who were,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 433
in common with the colonists of other denominations,
suffering severely from the poverty caused by the gold
fever in Victoria and New South Wales, which had turned
the tide of emigration from Tasmania, and had even in
duced many of the old settlers to abandon the colony and
seek their fortunes in Australia. The depression conse
quent on this state of affairs injuriously affected not only
the material prosperity, but the religious progress of
Tasmania. There were but few priests and still fewer
churches in the island, and there existed no provision
whatever for the Catholic education of youth, if we except
a few small and badly-managed schools scattered here
and there throughout the country, and a convent at Ho
bart Town, which at the period of Dr. Murphy's appoint
ment was tenanted by only two nuns.
In order to apply a remedy, as far as possible, to this
distressing state of affairs, Bishop Murphy before starting
for his new diocese secured six Irish priests to aid him in
his missionary labours, and his next step was to make
provision for the education of his flock by obtaining a
colony of Presentation Nuns to accompany him to Tas
mania. His sister, Mother M. Xavier Murphy, happened
at the time to be Superior of the Presentation Convent at
Fermoy ; and as she shared with her brother a good deal
of the apostolic spirit, the late Most Rev. Dr. Keane,
Bishop of Cloyne, was solicited to grant permission that
she and such of her religious sisters as wished to join her
might offer themselves as volunteers for the mission to
the antipodes. The Bishop of Cloyne, though fully con
scious of the great loss which his own diocese would
sustain in the departure of Mother Xavier and her com
panions, could not bring himself to withhold his consent
when he reflected how much their services were needed
in the diocese of Hobart Town, and the vast amount of
2 F

434 Nano Nagle:
good fruit which would "reward their labours in God's
cause beneath the shadow of the Southern Cross. The
permission sought for was therefore reluctantly given, and;
accordingly, on July 16th, 1866, four professed nuns, viz.
Mother M. Xavier Murphy (Superior), M. Stanislaus
O'Brien, M. Regis Murphy, and M. Ignatius Murphy;
left their own loved convent at Fermoy to face a perilous
voyage, and a life of laborious self-sacrifice in a distant
land. The spirit of Nano Nagle must have smiled from
heaven upon them that bright July morning, for never had
any Order sent out a band of missionaries more brave,,
more talented, more single-minded, more devoted to duty,
more prompt to do or die in the good cause, than were
these, her four daughters, who were chosen to bear her
banner, and lead on the vanguard of Christ in remote
Tasmania* Dr. Murphy having already jailed for his
diocese, the nuns were placed under the charge of his-
nephew, the Rev. Daniel Beechinor, and were accom
panied by five postulants who aspired to the honour of
wearing at some future day the habit of the Presentation
Order. Arrived in Cork, they paid a visit to their sisters
at Douglas-street, and knelt with full hearts and streaming
eyes beside the lowly grave which holds all that was
mortal of Nano Nagle, the while they prayed to her to
watch over their wanderings on earth, and guide them
finally to a haven of safety in heaven. They also visited
some of their friends and relatives at the Presentation
Convent at Bandon, and the Ursuline Convent, Black
rock, and finally arrived on Friday, July 20th, in Queens
town, where the good ship " Empress" lay proudly in the
waters of the noble harbour, to waft them far, far away
from friends and country.
What a busy bustling scene those quays at Queenstown
presented on that 20th of July, 1866 ! At every step you

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 43 5
met priests, and nuns, and bishops, to say nothing of stu
dents and aspirants to the religious habit, who swarmed
about the place till they were almost beyond counting.
They were all evidently emigrants too, for there was the
usual amount of trunks and boxes, beds and bedding, and
all the other' impedimenta so familiar to the eye of the
inhabitant of Queenstown. But then a glance showed
that they were not poor emigrants of the ordinary class,
who were leaving their country, broken-hearted, to seek
bread elsewhere. No ; these were evidently bent on some
great work beyond the seas, and their heart was in it, for
they looked cheerful and hopeful, though a tear would oc
casionally glisten on the eyelid as some passing thought
conjured up the memory of home. There were two
bishops who evidently had charge of the emigrants, or
rather missionaries — for we may as well say at once that
all these priests, and nuns, and students, and postulants,
were missionaries — Dr. Matthew Quinn, Bishop of Ba-
thurst, and Dr. James Murray, of Maitland, both sailing to
their new sees in Australia. There were priests there, too,
waiting to embark for Hobart Town, and Maitland, and
Bathurst — some ofthem old campaigners, veteran mis
sionaries, whose bronzed faces spoke of days of toil beneath
the fierce suns of India ; others quite young, fresh from
college, and more largely provided with piety and theolo
gical lore than with that less valuable, albeit very useful
commodity, a knowledge of the world and its ways. There,
too, were gentle Sisters of Mercy from Charleville, en route
for Bathurst, under the charge of Mother Ignatius Croke
(sister to the Bishop of Auckland), Sisters of Mercy from
Athy, bound for Brisbane ; Sisters of Mercy from Baggot-
street, Dublin, whose destination was Geelong ; and there
were the daughters of Nano Nagle from Fermoy, with
the commanding figure of Mother Xavier Murphy in
2 F 2

43° Nano Nagle :
their midst, who were going to labour in distant Tas
mania. Oh, what a blessed exodus it was! what a precious
freight of living souls the "Empress" was bearing away
from the Island of Saints that 20th of July, 1866 ! But
the captain ofthe "Empress " is growing impatient, and
so the bishops hurry all the emigrants on board the tender
which is to bear them to the leviathan vessel lying outside
the harbour's mouth ; the "Empress" is soon gained, and
then comes more bustle, more packing and unpacking,
and more stowing away of all kinds of impossible things
into all sorts of impossible places. But even the bustle
ends in due time, and the missionaries, with their friends
who have come to see them off, sat down to dinner — not
to a very hearty one, however, for the hearts of all were
far too full to permit of justice being done to the good
things placed before them ; but toasts were given and
healths were drunk; and many a "God-speed" said for
the "Empress" and her occupants. Dinner over, the sad
moment of parting came at last ; the tender with the visi
tors on board returned to Queenstown, while the " Em
press" weighed anchor, and, with all sail set, steered out of
the harbour of Cork. " The first night closed in upon us
at sea, " writes one of the passengers on board the good
ship ; " the hills of the old land were disappearing from
our sight ; we all gathered together on the poop to catch
once more the shadowy outlines which were fast fading
from us in darkness and in distance. The sternest nature
would have melted on such an occasion. Some of the
sisters cast themselves on their knees, and their white
and black veils mingled in picturesque confusion on the
deck. Hands were lifted to heaven, and the last glimpse
of Erin was caught through an irresistible flood of burn
ing tears."
The voyage of the "Empress" was a favourable and a

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 437
pleasant one ; and we hope we are not violating confidence
in giving the following extract from a letter written by
the Bishop of Bathurst during the voyage, in which his
lordship tells us how the nuns passed their time on board
ship : — " Most of the nuns have been able to go to com
munion as regularly as when at home ; and most of the
other passengers have been to their duty. The nuns have.
many of the charges they had at home, and go through
them with great regularity. True, like their floating con
vent, some of them are on rather a miniature scale ; their
school, for instance, numbers but one pupil — the captain's
son, a boy about seven years old. The adult class for
instruction is larger, numbering fourteen or fifteen persons.
They have plenty of needle and other manual Work, which
keeps them constantly employed. The poop serves at
once as community room, a novitiate, and a pleasure-
ground ; and you could scarcely enjoy a more picturesque
view than it presents from nine o'clock in the morning till
nine at night. At one corner you see five or six white
veils, with, perhaps, a black one in the centre, plying the
needle, reciting the office, or sending up a fervent prayer
to heaven on bended knees ; at another a number of black
veils, following the avocation of the hour ; three or four
pacing the deck in silence, with slow and measured steps
and downcast eyes ; or, mayhap, with a light quick step,
genial air, and hearty laugh. They do not, indeed, enjoy
the same privacy in these different exercises as at home ;
but the intruders are either of the cloth, or the captain
and officers on duty, and hence are not so much minded.
I doubt not that the fervent prayer, the busy finger, the
hearty laugh, the innocent amusement, are as prevalent on
board the " Empress " as in most convents at home. At
all events, one thing you may be assured of — amongst the
nuns1 there is piety, happiness, and health, notwithstanding

438 Nano Nagle :
the shortcomings of their floating convent. The different
apartments above-mentioned occasionally shift with the
wind, but our Reverend Mothers and their commands have'
become so well versed in nautical terms, and the move
ments of the ship, that the thing is done in a moment, and
is more a variety than an inconvenience. . For instance,
you hear a tiny voice gently whisper, ' Luff,' and the
novitiate is lightened by two points to windward of the
mizen mast, and the community room becomes .almost
concealed by the life-boat and hen-pens with the regu
larity and quickness with which Jack, at the captain's
command, tightens the main-sail or hoists the flying gib.
At another time the same gentle voice breathes, in gentle
accents, 'Leeward,' and the convent is transferred from
one side of the ship to the other in less time than I take
to tell it. In a wbrd, so natural does everything appear,
that you would say our good nuns had been trained on the
bosom of old Neptune's dominions rather than in those
of our gracious Queen Victoria."
After a prosperous and pleasant voyage, the " Empress"
cast anchor in the waters of Sidney Harbour on Sunday
night, October 21st, and when the nuns awoke next
morning and went on deck, they saw no longer the wide
expanse of water which had wearied their eyes for months,
but the lovely bay of Sidney, smooth as a sheet of glass,
and bearing on its bosom ships of every nation ; while away
before them stretched the vast city, showing in its outward
appearance every indication of luxury and wealth. . Mass
was celebrated, at which the nuns communicated ; and
after breakfast all was bustle on board the good ship, as
the work of packing went on preparatory to the departure
of the passengers for shore. The bustle and confusion
increased as the morning went on, for boats and steamers
came out from Sidney with streamers flying, bands playing,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 439
and crowded with the elite of the city, who had come to
welcome the bishops and nuns. Hands were shaken vigo
rously, addresses were read, and hearty words of welcome
spoken over and over again, until ' the bishops and priests
departed for the shore in company with their visitors,
leaving the nuns to follow afterwards, under the charge of
Father Beechinor. They did follow in due time, and the
Presentation Sisters having spent four days in seeing all
the sights and wonders of Sidney, of which they' afterwards
wrote home accounts worthy the facile and graphic pen
of George Augustus Sala, took once more to the sea, and
sailed at four o'clock on Friday for their future island
home, per ss. "Tasmania." Their arrival was hailed with
the greatest possible'demonstrations of joy on the part of
the Bishop, his priests, and the Catholic population of
Hobart Town, who had at last the happiness of possessing
in their colony the daughters of Nano Nagle, of whose
worth they had heard so much, and from whose zealous
labours such blessings were expected to follow. After
a short stay at Hobart Town, to recover from the fatigues
of their long and wearisome journey, Mother Xavier and
her religious sisters took up their temporary residence at
Richmond, where it was arranged that they should remain
until the convent at Hobart Town should be fully ready
for their reception. They opened schools at Richmond,
and a very short experience sufficed to convince them that
they were not likely to suffer from ennui in Tasmania.
They found the old and the young alike extremely igno
rant, aiid for some time their chief labours were directed
to imparting religious instruction, and preparing children
and adults for the reception ofthe sacraments. Many of
their pupils were married women, and even some men,
who had never been to confession or communion, and
who might be said to have been, up to the arrival of the

440 Nano Nagle:
nuns, in perfect ignorance ofthe mysteries of faith, and
of the obligations imposed upon its followers by Chris
tianity. Patience and zeal, however, soon worked wonders,
and in a short time the good sisters had the consolation of
seeing hundreds of these poor people, young and old,,
well instructed in the Christian doctrine, and admitted to
the sacraments of Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist.
They also commenced to impart secular instruction in
their schools, which were largely availed of by children of
all • classes, whom they found exceedingly smart, but so
wild and wayward, that it required constant vigilance and
the exercise of much patience to make them amenable to.
discipline. They did, however, succeed in effecting an
almost incredible change among the juvenile population ;
and, notwithstanding all the trouble that it cost them,
they seem to have retained a grateful memory of Rich
mond and their little pupils, for after they had removed to
Hobart Town, we find one of them writing home to Fer
moy : — " I felt dreadfully leaving Richmond. The year I
spent there was the happiest and most peaceful of my life,
and, do you know, I think I'll die there."
After Mother Xavier and her companions had spent one
year at Richmond, they removed to Hobart Town (Ja
nuary 6th, 1868), where a splendid convent had been pre
pared for their reception, and where it had been from the
first intended that their permanent residence should be
fixed. Here pretty much the same round of labours
awaited them as at Richmond, and their zealous efforts
were crowned with, if possible, still greater success. In
season and out of season the sisters catechised and in
structed both adults and children, whom they also gra
dually induced to be regular in the frequentation of the
sacraments. The secular instruction went hand in hand
with the religious training, and the schools were soon

,Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 441
filled with intelligent and diligent pupils whose rapid pro
gress in knowledge and piety amply compensated the
good nuns for all the care which they lavished on them.
To supply a want much felt in the colony, Mother Xavier
very wisely resolved to open a boarding-school for young
ladies of the upper and middle classes, in which they
might have the advantages of a thorough religious train
ing, combined with a secular education of the very highest
order. That the necessity existed for an academy of
this description, is abundantly proved by the fact, that it
has been from the very beginning eagerly availed of by
the colonists, and numbers at the present moment some
fifty young lady pupils of the best families in Hobart
Town. Our readers might be perhaps inclined to suspect
us of exaggeration were we to give an account of the
success of this school as learned from the Presentation.
Nuns. We shall not, therefore, state a single fact concern
ing it on the authority of Mother Xavier, or of any of her
religious sisters, but shall quote from a hostile Protestant
journal published in Hobart Town. In the Tasmania:
Tribune, of Wednesday, December 16th, 1874, we find the
following report : — " Yesterday afternoon a large party of
ladies and gentlemen assembled to witness the public
examination of the scholars of the Presentation Convent
School. The spectacle there presented could not be taken
otherwise than a fitting answer to the sneer that is often
cast upon those who enter a convent, viz., that they do sc»
to escape the obligations of existence and society, and lead
a life of idleness. So far as Hobart Town is concerned
the Roman Catholics, in their reply to such a remark, need
not use mere generalities, but can point to a work which
is going on in our midst, and which is destined to do much
good. In the words of one of the speakers, it is the
nursery in which are reared creditable citizens, and the

442 Nano Nagle:
thoroughness of its work is proved to the mind of one
who is not a co-religionist in its being able to present a
bevy of young girls who are free from 'fastness,' which is
alleged against the present age. It must have been with
no small gratification that all connected with the man
agement of the convent school listened to the words of
the Hon. F. M. Innes." We then learn from the same
authority that, in addition to the usual branches taught at
primary schools, the curriculum at the seminary con
ducted by the Presentation Nuns embraces the follow
ing subjects : — The French and Italian languages, Bible
History, the Histories of Greece, Rome, England, and
Tasmania ; algebra and geometry, astronomy, music,
vocal and instrumental, fancy-work of every kind, and
drawing. On the occasion to which we refer, the
jyoung lady pupils were publicly put through a searching
examination in most of those subjects, and we shall allow
the gentleman belonging to the Tribune staff to state with
what results. " The pupils," he writes, " then underwent
a viva voce examination in a large number of subjects, and
acquitted themselves in a most creditable manner." Nor is
this mere formal praise; it is a confession reluctantly
wrung from an unwilling and hostile witness, as is shown
by the fact that further on in his report, the same gen
tleman goes out of his way to expose a few historical
mistakes made by some of the children while under, the
excitement of examination. The Hon Judge Dobson and
the Hon. Mr. Innes, who were present, spoke of the very
high gratification which the exhibition had afforded them;
and the latter gentleman, complimenting the pupils on
their lady-like deportment, observed that " in their whole'
demeanour there was nothing but modesty and proper
pride, which showed how thorough and efficient was their
education." We shall not add a word to the foregoing

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 443
report, as it already speaks sufficiently of the excellence of
the Hobart Town Presentation Schools, even when judged
from a purely secular stand-point.
On October 3rd, 1870, two professed sisters, M.
Patrick Hickie and M. Catherine Murphy, accompanied
by two postulants (Miss Hickie and Miss Beechinor), left
Fermoy to assist their sisters in Tasmania. Their num-
. bers being thus recruited, they were in a position to
extend the sphere of their usefulness, nor had they to wait
long for an invitation to do so. The Very Rev. Dr.
Butler, pastor of Launceston, having witnessed the won
derful good effected by the Presentation Sisters at Hobart
Town, was anxious to secure similar blessings for his own
flock, and accordingly asked Mother Xavier Murphy to
establish a branch of her Order in his parish. Mother
Xavier complied with hisrequest, and on the 2nd of Feb
ruary, 1873, took possession of the new convent at Laun-
•ceston, having for her assistants in the foundation, Sisters
JVI. F. Xavier Beechinor, M. Evangelist Murphy, M. Patrick
Hickie, and M. Catherine Murphy. The convent is most
beautifully situated on extensive grounds on the banks of
the river Tama, and behind it is a hill (within the enclo
sure), which commands a splendid view of the town and
harbour of Launceston. The sisters opened school on
the 10th of February, and on that day they had one hun
dred children in attendance. This may be considered a
small number in Ireland, but it was an exceedingly large
number if we regard the smallness of the Catholic popu
lation of Launceston ; and, moreover, take into account
the fact that the good Tasmanians are a very steady people
who will not rush to anything no matter how inviting it
imight seem ; they must see their way before them, and
find out precisely how their neighbours fare before they
will commit themselves to any course of action. That

444 Nano Nagle :
the nuns, however, have already established a name for
their schools at Launceston is proved by the fact that they
have at present an average daily attendance of two hundred
pupils. There is a small cemetery in Launceston which deserves-
mention in the history of the Presentation Order, as it-
contains one, and only one, small, newly-made grave which
holds the remains of the first of Nano Nagle's daughters
who died in Tasmania. It is the grave of Sister Mary
Columba Beechinor (niece to Bishop Murphy and Rev.
Mother Xavier Murphy), who left Fermoy on October
3rd, 1870, full of rare intelligence, made more perfect by
all that human culture could effect ; full of young hope,,
which conjured up bright visions of happy days yet before
her at the antipodes ; burning with a holy zeal to spend'
herself for God in the land to which He called her to-
labour for His name. Oh the 2 ist of May, 1874, she put
on the habit of Nano Nagle's daughters, and just one brief
month from that day, on the feast of St. Aloysius, she was-
summoned to join the choir of stainless souls whose spe-"
cial privilege it is always to follow the Lamb in heaven ~
She had often in life expressed a wish to die young, and
her desires received their accomplishment on the feast day-
of a saint to whom she was specially devoted, and whom.
the Church proposes to her children as. a model of youthful
innocence. Beloved in life by all who had the happiness-
to know her, Sister Columba has left her memory deeply
graven upon the hearts of her sorrowing community at
Launceston, but they are consoled by the thought that if
she was too bright a flower to bloom in the cold atmos
phere of earth, she is but transplanted to live in the sun
shine of God's love in heaVen, whence she looks down
upon those she has left behind her with feelings of affec
tion not changed but purified, and where her prayers are-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 44 5
ever rising before the throne of God to invoke his bless
ing upon the Presentation Order in Tasmania.
But we must return from the antipodes to trace the
progress which the Presentation Order had been mean
while making at home in the island which gave it birth.
On the, 19th of March, 1867, a branch of Nano Nagle's
glorious institute was established at Lucan, under some
what unusual and very interesting circumstances. In the
year 1857, Captain Robert La Touche Colthurst, of the
family of Vesey-Colthurst, of Lucan House (and of Bally-
vourney, in the county of Cork), became a convert to the
Catholic faith, and soon after resigned his commission
in her Majesty's service. This young officer during his
frequent visits to the family mansion at Lucan, did not
fail to observe the want existing in the neighbourhood of
a suitable provision for the education of the children of
the poor, and resolved, accordingly, to devote a portion of
his ample means to the erection of a convent and schools,
in which the daughters of Nano Nagle might pursue their
vocation of instructing the little ones of Christ. It pleased
God that Captain Colthurst should not live to see the
accomplishment of his designs, as he died in London, in
sentiments of the'most fervent piety, in the year 1864, being
only thirty-four years old. The death of Captain Colthurst
did not prevent in any way the execution of the charitable
project which he had formed. He bequeathed a sum of
^2,000 towards the establishment of a convent at Lucan ;
and to show how truly he loved the poor, he requested
that his body should be taken to Ireland and interred,
with nothing but a plain black cross to mark its resting
place, in the village graveyard attached to the Catholic
church at Lucan, in order that, as he himself said, '" he
might not be forgotten in the prayers of the poor." The
dying wishes of the holy young man were most faithfully

446 Nano Nagles
carried out by his brother, Major (now Colonel) David L.
Colthurst, 17th Regiment, who, like himself, was a convert
to Catholicity ; and thus it was that Providence effected
the establishment of the Presentation Order in the pretty
village of Lucan. After the death of Captain Colthurst,
immediate steps were taken towards the erection of the
convent by Colonel Colthurst and the Rev. James Hunt,
C.C. A beautiful site of two acres of land adjoining the
parish church was generously given for the new building,
rent free for ever, by Mr. Quigley of Lucan ; and plans
having been procured from Mr. John Burke, architect, the
works were entrusted to Mr. Conolly, builder, Dominick-
street, Dublin, on whose skill and care they reflect the
highest credit. The convent stands on the summit of
Lucan hill, beside the parish church, with which it is con
nected, and which serves the nuns for religious purposes ;
and the whole group of buildings crowning the hill, and
consisting of presbytery, schools, convent, and church,
forms a most striking picture.
The new convent having been completed and fully
prepared for the reception of the nuns, was taken pos
session of on the feast of St. Joseph, March 19th, 1867,
by five sisters from the Presentation Convent at Clon
dalkin, of whom Mother M. Conception Kennedy was
named Superior. When the carriage containing the reli
gious arrived at the door ofthe church, a procession was
formed, and the sisters were conducted into their choir,
while the attendant clergy solemnly chaunted the Te Deum.
High Mass followed ; and after the first Gospel, a magni
ficent discourse was pronounced by the Rev. J. Prender-
gast, O.P., of St. Saviour's Church, Dominick-street, Dub
lin, in the course of which he congratulated the people
of Lucan on the blessings which would follow the intro
duction among them of religious whose lives were devoted

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 447
to the instruction of the poor, and bade them pray for the
soul of the good young officer who had been chosen by
God as His instrument to effect this great good. The
nuns lost no time in opening their schools, which were at
once largely availed of, and the rapid progress made by
the children in religious and secular knowledge was most
gratifying to the sisters themselves, and to all who were
interested in the meritorious Work which claimed their
attention. There are two schools at Lucan in the
charge of the Presentation Nuns ; one for the children of
the poor which is cbnnected with the Board of National
Education, and in which one hundred and fifty pupils
daily receive instruction ; the other for the children of
the middle classes who pay a pension, and receive an
education quite as good as that imparted at most of our
fashionable boarding schools. In addition to their ordi
nary labours during the week, the nuns ' devote a great
portion of Sunday to the religious instruction of adults,
and of such boys from the male National Schools as are
preparing for the reception of the sacraments. The sisters
have also conferred a very substantial benefit on the
people of Lucan by the establishment of a circulating
library, which supplies the parishioners with instructive,
entertaining, and wholesome reading, and preserves them
from the cheap and poisonous trash, falsely called
" literature," with which a licentiqus press has flooded
the country. > In this most meritorious work the good
nuns were very materially assisted by his Eminence Car
dinal Cullen, who not only gave the project his warmest
approval, but sent a very liberal donation towards the
purchase of books.
The convent at Lucan being found too small, the nuns
expended in 1 874, from their own private resources, the
sum of/Y,ooo in enlarging the house and adding a more

448 Nano Nagle :
commodious class-hall for the accommodation of the
young ladies attached to the " pay school." There are at
present in the Lucan Presentation Convent, besides three
novices, seven professed nuns, of whom two only made
their novitiate at Clondalkin.
Ballingarry, situated on the southern portion of the
great coal-field of Slievardagh, in the county of Tippe-
rary, deceived a colony of Presentation Nuns in the year
1 87 1. The house which serves as a convent was built by,
a former pastor of the district, the Rev. Edmund Pren- .
dergast; and some idea of its. style and dimensions may be
formed from a knowledge of the fact, that it was originally
designed to meet the requirements not only of a paro
chial residence, but also of an ecclesiastical seminary for
the diocese of Cashel and Emly. Provision has been,
however, made on a larger scale at Thurles for the train
ing of aspirants to the priesthood, and consequently the
late P.P. of Ballingarry, Rev. Philip Fitzgerald, D.D., who
died in the month of April, 1868, bequeathed the house
and twenty- three acres of land which surround it to a
community of Presentation Sisters, who should devote
themselves to the religious and secular education of the
poor children of his flock. It would not be easy to find
a more suitable site for a convent than that which fortu
nately fell to the lot of the Presentation Nuns in- Glen-
view. Situated in a lovely valley, in the midst of spacious
and well-planted grounds, it combines two advantages
which cannot be too highly prized, especially by religeuses '
— health and solitude ; nor is the picturesque wanting to
add a charm to the scene, as the house commands a
splendid view of the peak of Sl'ieve-na-mon, celebrated in
the ballads and legendary lore not of Tipperary alone, but
of all Ireland.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 449
The colony destined to establish the new foundation
was chosen from the Thurles Presentation Convent, and
consisted of Mother M. De Sales Ryan (Superior), M.
Magdalen Lynch, M. Regis Cooke, and a lay sister. These
ladies, accompanied by Mother M. Aloysius Grene, the
Superior at Thurles, and by the late Most Rev. Dr. Leahy,
Archbishop of Cashel, arrived at Ballingarry on the octave
day ofthe Assumption, August 22nd,, 1871 ; and in a few
weeks after were joined by another choir sister, Sister M.
Paul Fennelly. The convent, which had been untenanted
for three years (since the death of Dr. Fitzgerald), was
found to be in a very dilapidated condition, and the nuns
were obliged to make a very considerable outlay before it
was rendered comfortable, and in every respect suitable for
religious and educational purposes. This slight difficulty
was, however, soon surmounted, and since then the sisters
have been supremely happy, and their work has prospered
beyond their most hopeful calculations. The children' of
the colliers who inhabit the district are most eager to
avail themselves of the great advantages which are placed
within their reach, and in the present year there are 1 6 1
names upon the school-roll. Nor is the community ever
likely to fail in numbers, as even if other and higher
motives were wanting, the natural beauties of the locality
cannot fail to attract those whose vocation it is to serve
God by labouring fpr the education of the poor. Already
several young ladies have joined the infant colony at
Ballingarry, and it is worth recording that the last public
ceremony in which the late lamented Archbishop of Cashel
took part, was on the occasion of giving the white veil to a
religieuse (Sister Mary Alphonsus) of that community, on
the 23rd of May, 1874. His grace preached on this solemn
and interesting occasion, and many competent judges?who
had often before had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Leahy 1
2 G

450 Nano Nagle:
discourse on the happiness and excellence ofthe religious
life, declared that they had neyer admired his gift of
sacred eloquence so much as they did on that day, when
it was decreed by God that he should occupy the pulpit
for the last time. The community at Ballingarry numbers
at present eleven sisters, who have before them a bright
career of usefulness for religion and for society.
The Presentation Convents at Granard and Baltinglass
are of too recent establishment to have a history, though
we are confident that in the great book of the Recording
Angel there are long entries of much good already effected
by the holy inmates of both houses. The Granard Con
vent was founded on the 12th of October, 1871, by three
religious from George's-hill, Dublin. Mother M. John
Hughes was appointed Superior, and, under her able
direction, the establishment has progressed so favourably
that there are now eight sisters in community. There is
a poor school attached to the convent, at which there is
a daily average attendance of 200 pupils, of whom the
very destitute are clothed, and receive a substantial break
fast during the winter and spring. The sisters also con
duct a pay-school, in which about thirty children of the
better class receive a very superior education.
The Baltinglass Convent was founded on the 18th of
March, 1873, by Mother M. Magdalen Hussey and some
of her religious sisters from Carlow. The community
consists of six nuns, who conduct a school in which 150
children daily receive the blessings of a sound religious
and secular training.
We must now turn our thoughts to Australia, where we
shall find a colony of brave nuns from the old city of the
"Violated Treaty" unfurling the banner of Nano Nagle.
Thev were invited to undertake this great work by a zealous
Irish priest— a native of Limerick — the Rev.J.F. Corbett,

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits 451
who, seeing the evils which the new Education Act, passed
by the Government of Victoria, was calculated to produce,
resolved to save his own flock at St. Kilda, Melbourne, '
from the terrible effects of a godless education. From
boyhood, Father Corbett had known and prized the Presen -
tation Nuns at Limerick, and when in 1873, he found the
education difficulty staring him in the face, he thought
with himself how supremely happy he should be if he
could only induce some of those good sisters at Sexton-
street to come out to Victoria, and save his little ones
from the ravening wolves who sought not their bodies but
their immortal souls. The thought was no sooner con
ceived than it was acted upon. Father Corbett, with his
Bishop's warm approval, invited the daughters of Nano
Nagle to aid him in his struggle, and they readily re
sponded to his call. But we shall best inform our readers
how all this was brought about by simply placing before
them the following correspondence, which speaks volumes
for the zeal of Father Corbett and of the Presentation
Nuns who dwell in the good old city by the Shannon : —
"St. Mary's, St. Kilda,
"Victoria, fanuary 2%th, 1873.
"Dear Rev. Mother — From the ends of the earth
I write to you for help. An Educational Bill has been
recently passed by our Local Legislature which is diame
trically opposed to our interests, as it requires that no
religious instruction be imparted, at any time, in our
schools, either by priests or masters. ' We are, however,
permitted to tell the children in our schools that there is a
God, who is to reward virtue and punish vice, and even
this wonderful privilege we shall not be allowed to exercise
for a longer period than the last day of this year. What,
then, are we to do? How are we to protect from infide-
2 G2

452 Nano Nagle:
lity and atheism the little ones for whose souls we are
responsible to God ? You can contribute very materially
to enable us to meet this difficulty by sending three dr
four sisters, to whom I shall give my house, which is
sufficiently commodious for even six sisters, and is as con
venient to the church as your convent is to the chapel •*,
and, furthermore, as soon as I hear from you I shall collect
funds to have everything in order on the arrival ofthe
sisters. I am directed by the Bishop to ask you for four
sisters also for Melbourne, for whom his lordship will pro
vide a house and schools in the city. Cork recently sent
several sisters to the neighbouring colony of Tasmania,
and I shall be very much disappointed indeed if our own old
city cannot spare a few from your flourishing community.
If I had the slightest doubt that the sisters would not find
everything here to their entire satisfaction, nothing could1
induce me to say 'come.' Come then, in God's name,,
and aid us to stem the torrent of irreligion, against.
which we must wage war. I am sure that from your de
voted community at least eight volunteers can be had for
this bright sunny land ofthe south, where the hearts ofthe
young shall be gladdened at the sight ofthe devoted Nuns
of the Presentation.
"As a guarantee of good faith, I have asked his lordship
to add his name to this letter, and I remain in anxious ex
pectation of a prompt reply, which, I trust, will be favour
able. If the sisters provide and pay for passages to Mel
bourne, they shall find everything to their entire satisfac
tion on arrival here.
" I shall be much obliged if you will have the kindness
to send me an immediate reply. God grant that it may be
favourable. " I remain, dear Rev. Mother, yours sincerely,
"J. F. Corbett."

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 453
" Father Corbett's application for a community of the
Presentation Order for his mission has my most cordial
approval. The application for Melbourne I approve of;
but it seems to me that we can wait its acceptance until
the first community has arrived, and reported to the parent
house the result of their experience here, which, doubtless,
will be most favourable. We need very much thespiritual
aid of the well-known religious of the Presentation Order.
If they offer themselves to this diocese for the good work
to which they have consecrated themselves, I will assist
them to the utmost of my ability.
•{• " J- A. Goold,
" Bishop of Melbourne."
In reply to this pressing invitation from the zealous
pastor of St. Kilda; the Presentation Sisters at' Limerick
wrote a letter, holding out hopes that they would undertake
the mission, but at the same time committing themselves
definitively to nothing until they should be first better in
formed of the prospects of success which awaited them in
the antipodes. They also requested Father Corbett to
supply them with information on several subjects con
nected with the mission which he wished them to under
take, and as his answer to their queries is most circum
stantial, we cannot do better than place it in full before
our readers. " St. Mary's, St. Kilda,
" Victoria, f une f]th, 1873.
"My dear Rev. Mother — I received Sister Gertrude's
thoroughly business letter by last mail, to which I hasten
to reply. My presbytery contains six good rooms, of
which the following, are the dimensions : — On the ground
floor, one room, twenty feet square ; one room, sixteen
feet square ; one room, twenty feet in length by sixteen
feet in width ; and three rooms up-stairs of the same

454 Nano Nagle :
dimensions, and a bath-room, to which there is a constant
supply of hot and cold water. On two sides ofthe house.
there is a verandah and a covered balcony, which are a
great advantage on hot and rainy weather. There is a
kitchen, eighteen feet long by fourteen feet wide, a scullery,
ten feet square ; a pantry, six feet square ; a servant's
room, ten feet square ; and an underground cellar, twenty
feet long by ten feet in width. Such is a general descrip
tion of the house. The church, presbytery, and school
are built on an allotment of two acres. To the presbytery
(or convent if you will) and schools there is an area of
about one acre and a half devoted. The neighbourhood
is very quiet, as the buildings are at a distance from the
business part of the town. On two sides of the church
and grounds there is an extensive park, which has been
reserved for purposes of recreation ; on another side there
is a public road, and on the fourth the church stands, a
prominent object. When the house was built seven years
ago, I had a garden laid out and well planted on about
half an acre. I purpose to erect a high wall around the
grounds. The sea, or rather the bay, is about a mile
distant ; the open sea is about forty miles from Melbourne.
" With regard to the climate, I have only to state that it
will compare favourably with that of any other country.
It is on the whole a good one. Its air is pure, dry, and
exhilarating; it has its hot winds andthese are compa
ratively few ; but it has not the days of wintry gloom, the
keen and cutting frosts, and the blinding snow-storms and
nasty fogs ofthe Emerald Isle. The hot days are tempered
by cool sea-breezes, and the winters are more like the
balmy spring days that you now enjoy.
"The voyage is no doubt a long one, but once you pass
the first week on sea it becomes quite agreeable ; the
passage is a very pleasant one, through generally quiet seas.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 455
My experience of it will best convey to you what it is. -
During my voyage, having sailed on Saturday, the next
day, Sunday, was the only one on. which I was unable to"
celebrate the Holy Sacrifice. In fact, I should feel as little
concern about the voyage as of a trip by the old ' Garry-
owen ' from Limerick to Kilrush.
"The schools shall by no means be subject to Govern
ment or other secular inspection ; they must belong to the
Church, and be subject to the control of the Church aione,
There will not be the smallest difficulty in erecting schools ;
but I prefer that the sisters should be on the spot, in order
that I may have their assistance inthe selection of suitable
plans, as. if I now commence to build, there may be con
siderable alterations required to suit their convenience, so,
as a matter of prudence, I consider it advisable to delay
their erection. lean engage, without even a shadow of
failure, that the buildings shall be commenced within a
month of the sisters' arrival ; meantime I shall be able
to arrange fdr the school accommodation in the church',
which is capable of containing a greater number of chil
dren than the average attendance will ever reach. So
much for schools. Before leaving the school subject, I
think it necessary to state that there are very few children
so poor as not to be able to pay school-fee's — sixpence,
ninepence, a shilling a week, or perhaps more. Again,
the Presentation Sisters in Tasmania have a flourishing
boarding school, the Sisters of Mercy have three convents
in this diocese, to each of which there is a boarding school
attached ; and as St. Kilda is a favourite resort in the long
summer of our colony, I am certain that you should very
soon have numerous applications from several well-to-do
families to receive their children as boarders.
" That nuns must be supported as well as other human
beings is nothing new to me. There is not alone a pros-

456 Nano Nagle :
pect, but a. positive certainty that the benevolence of bishop,
priests, and people will not fail to furnish the means
of support. When his lordship invited the Christian
Brothers a few years ago to come to Melbourne, he offered
them a guarantee of £2$ a year for each of four brothers,
or an annual collection. You may have the same. This I
unhesitatingly promise. A few months ago a community
of Sisters of Mercy arrived in Melbourne, and not only did
'they pay their passage, but they also purchased, soon
after their arrival, a house and land at their own expense,
putting implicit trust in the benevolence of the people
What do you think of that ?
" I hope I' have been sufficiently explicit in my replies.
You may rest with perfect confidence in the due fulfilment
of all that I promise ; and it only remains for me to entreat
that you will'no longer hesitate about permitting the four
sisters (whom you can well spare) to enter upon the
glorious field that is now open to them. The only real
difficulty that I can perceive in your allowing them to come
is, that the result of their labours will be- so successful,
they may write such glowing accounts of the St. Kilda
foundation as to thin the cherished community of Sexton-
street very considerably.
" You should receive this letter on the fourth or fifth pf
August ; and as you will have time to write a short note
by the mail which leaves London for,, 'Australia* on the
8th of August, I hope you will not fail to say Fes. If you
write to the President of All Hallows College, Dublin, he
will inform you about the young priests who ought to sail for
Melbourne in August. This will be an advantage to the
sisters to have priests in the same ship, an opportunity rarely
occurring. With kindest remembrances to all old friends,
" I remain, dear Rev, Mother, yours very sincerely,
"J. F. Corbett."

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 457
The same mail brought another letter from Father
Corbett to most Rev. Dr. Butler, Bishop of Limerick,
begging his lordship to use his interest with the nuns in
favour of the Australian mission, and giving a touching
account of the difficulties by which Catholic education is
hampered in the colony of Victoria. "St. Mary's, St. Kilda,
" Victoria, fune 1 jth, 1 873-
" My dear Lord — I have so often thought of writing
to you, and failed to do so, that even now, after an absence
of ten years,I should not know how- to begin were I not
afforded the opportunity by a subject of whichyou are already
aware. By the mail which leaves to-day I renewiny applica -
tion to the Rev. MotheratSexton-street, for four sisters of her
numerous and valued community. I think I have answered
her queries so satisfactorily that she will not fail to grant
my request, subject, of course, to your lordship's sanction.
I have implicit confidence in the hearty co-operation of
my generous flock. I need only mention that since I took
charge of this mission (my first and only one) I have been
enabled by their generous liberality, unaided by any ex
ternal assistance, to complete a splendid Gothic church,
capable of accommodating nearly 1,000 persons, and
presbytery superior to anyjn the colony, at an outlay of
more than ^10,000. The Catholic population is about
j,ooo, in a gross population of close on 25,000 in the
whole district under my care, the extreme part of which
is only three miles from my house.
"An iniquitous system of education has been hatched in
our Colonial Legislature — free, secular, and compulsory ;
the secular feature is so objectionable that we can on no
account accept it. It enacts that no religious instruction
be given by clergyman or teacher either before or after the
prescribed school hours, or during such hours. A very

458 Nano Nagle:
trifling concession has, however, been .allowed until the
last day of this year and no longer — that religious in
struction may be given outside the usual school hours
by priest or teacher. Your lordship has had some diffi
culty in removing the children from that unholy den — the
model school ; but then you met the difficulty instantly by
gathering the little ones into the schools so numerous in
our old city. Here we have no such remedy at hand, in
such a young country with our people scattered over an
area of territory more extensive than Ireland and Great
Britain. Dr. Goold has established the Christian Brothers,
Nuns of the Good Shepherd, and Sisters of Mercy, in
Melbourne. There are two other [houses of Sisters of
Mercy in distant parts of the colony, all of whom are
generously supported and duly appreciated by our faithful
countrymen, who are as docile to the teachings of the
Church, and as desirous that their children should receive
a thoroughly religious education, as those whom they have
left in the old green land which they never forget.
" Father Malone will show you a copy of the new 'Edu
cation Act ' which we are asked to accept, but our reply
at the end of this year, as hitherto, shall be ' No Sur
render.' " I am willing to make any sacrifice rather than see
the children go to the secular schools ; as an instance of
my earnestness in this matter, I voluntarily offered to
resign my house, and as soon as I proposed it to the
Bishop, he cheerfully approved of my proposition to
invite the Presentation Nuns to become its occupants. I
need not trouble your lordship with a detailed account
of what -I propose to do for the sisters when they arrive,
as the Reverend Mother will inform you. I have only to
say, that I shall most faithfully, with God's help, accomplish
what has been promised.

Her Life, Her Labours, and their Fruits. 459
" And now, my dear lord, I take the opportunity of most
cordially thanking you for all your kindness, of which I
hope ever to retain a pleasing remembrance, and begging
your blessing,
" I remain, my dear Lord, your faithful son,
"J. F. Corbett.
" The Right Rev. Dr. Butler."
The Limerick Presentation Sisters found it impossible
to resist the touching and eloquent appeals for help made
to them by the zealous pastor of St. Kilda, and it was
accordingly resolved, with permission of Most Rev. Dr.
Butler, to send out seven members of the community to
Australia. The ladies chosen for this distant and arduous
mission were Mother M. Paul Mulquin (Superior), M.
Bernard Gunson, M. Patrick Irwin, Margaret Mary Cronin,
M. Berchmans Carroll, M. Xavier Mackey, and M. Anne
Bray (lay sister). They left Limerick on October 22nd,
1873, and arrived at Wagga- Wagga, in excellent health,
on the Sunday before Christmas in the same year. While
the nuns were on their voyage to Victoria, good Father
Corbett was not forgetful of their interests. There was
opposite the church at St. Kilda a very neat and commo
dious house, built in Gothic style, and surrounded with
two acres of tastefully-planted grounds, which struck the
pastor as being admirably suited to serve as a convent for
the nuns who were coming over from Limerick. When
Father Corbett once resolves upon having anything, he
is pretty sure not to stop short until he succeeds in getting
it; and so he very soon secured the pretty Gothic house
for his nuns at a cost of /~2,6oo. The Presentation
Nuns who left Kildare for Wagga- Wagga in 1 874, visited
en route their sisters at St. Kilda, and in writing home
afterwards of their visit, the only fault they could find
with the convent was that it was "too grand." They

460 . Nano Nagle:
would not, perhaps, have been so very much astonished at
its grandeur, had they been aware of the expensive and
eccentric habits of the gentleman by whom it had been
built and tenanted before it came into the possession of
the humble daughters of Nano Nagle. This gentleman
¦came to Australia as poor as the proverbal "church mouse."
He made an immense fortune by a few lucky strokes of
his. pick in the gold mines, and finding himself suddenly
raised from extreme poverty to almost boundless wealth,
he cast common sense to the winds, and rushed into the
wildest extravagance. Not being able to spend his money
fast enough in supplying himself with the ordinary com
forts and even luxuries of life, he went so far as to have his
horses shod wilh solid pure gold! Dame Fortune is prover
bially fickle ; and, above all things, she does not like to be
trifled with. The gentleman soon ran through all his
means, relapsed into his former state of poverty, and is at
present a common labourer, hired at six shillings a day,
while the Presentation Nuns inhabit the beautiful mansion
which he built in the excess of his wealth and folly. The
¦site of the convent is called " Windsor," and it is separated
from St. Kilda by the river. Before the nuns took posses
sion of it, Father Corbett made ample provision for the
observance of enclosure by surrounding it with a wall
which cost ^1,000 — this sum being generously and cheer
fully contributed by the people. As the building, how
ever, all its grandeur notwithstanding, is not well suited
to the wants of a religious community (and no building
can be, which is not specially designed for that purpose),
the nuns are only biding their time to erect, at no distant
future, a convent more in keeping with the requirements of
conventual life. The Presentation Sisters' at St. Kilda
have two schools under their charge ; one for the poor, in
which there are at present 150 pupils, and another for

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 461
children ofthe better £lass. It is quite possible that the'
sisters may, in course of time, find it necessary to open a
boarding school in order to meet the wants of the Catholic-
community in a young colony ; but they would much pre
fer that no such necessity should arise, as it is their earnest
wish to follow in the footsteps of their sainted foundress,
Nano Nagle, and confine their labours exclusively to the
poor of Christ.
We shall conclude our brief notice of the Presentation
Convent at St. Kilda with the following extract from a.
letter written by Father Corbett (February 25th, 1 874), from
which we leam the esteem in which the nuns are held by
the members of his flock. " There are," he writes, " one
hundred and twenty children in the primary school, and
in the select school thirty-three  The children
here are as much attached to the sisters as the children
whom they left in their old home ; and the parents have
implicit confidence in the sisters. This was shown on the
occasion of a meeting held on the first of this month,
when a sum amounting to nearly ^500 was subscribed.
after Mass. I expect that the amount will reach ^"800 at
the end of .this week. I have had a fare share of 'begging'
experience since I arrived here, and I always found the
people willing to assist me ; but I never found them give so-
cheerfully as at the present time. They feel that the Educa
tion Act now in force has been directed solely against the
spread of Catholicity, and hence the lively interest which
they take in co-operating with the sisters in their glorious
mission." In the month of March, 1874, a colony of Presentation
Nuns, consisting of Mother M. John Byrne (Superior),
M. Xavier Byrne, M. Paul Fay, M. Evangelist Kelly, and
M. Stanislaus Dunne, left the convent at Kildare to labour
in the cause of Catholic education at Wagga- Wagga, in

462 Nano Nagle :
the diocese of Goulbourne, Australia. They sailed from
London for their distant mission in the screw steamship,
" Northumberland," accompanied by the Very Rev. Dr.
M'Alroy, Vicar-General of Goulbourne ; and after a very
rapid passage of fifty-one days and eighteen hours, arrived
at Melbourne on the 5th of May. They remained here for ,
three days, which they devoted to sight-seeing, and visit
ing the religious institutions of the city. They also paid
a visit to their sisters at St. Kilda, whom they afterwards
described as " the nicest nuns I ever saw in our Order,"
and " supremely happy." The St. Kilda nuns hoped to
have the company of the new arrivals for a few days ; but
this was impossible, as Dr. M'Alroy was anxious to arrive
at his destination with the least possible delay. Accord
ingly, on the Sth of May, they left Melbourne at half-past
six, a. m., en route by rail for Albury, distant 260 miles.
Here a magnificent reception awaited them, no less than
seventeen equipages being filled with the leading inhabi
tants of the town, who had come out to welcome them.
They made a stay of about three weeks at Albury, during
which they were the guests of the Sisters of Mercy, and
then proceeded to their destination at Wagga-Wagga,
where they were received with the most enthusiastic de
monstrations of joy. A monster procession of the citizens,
consisting of ladies and gentlemen on horseback, and in
every conceivable description of vehicle, from the modest
" buggy " to the well-appointed carriage, came a distance
of fully twenty miles to meet them and escort them to their
new home. They were conducted on their arrival to the
Catholic church, where a large congregation had assembled,
and the organ, accompanied by a full choir, poured forth
a grand Te Deum in thanksgiving to God, who had so
mercifully blessed Wagga-Wagga by the presence of the
daughters of Nano Nagle. They then took up their tern-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 463
porary residence at the presbytery, and made immediate
preparations for the glorious work to which they had con
secrated their lives.
Wagga-Wagga, it must be remembered, is, after Mel
bourne and Sydney, the most rising place in all Australia,
and before the arrival of the nuns was already well sup
plied with female ^chools. There was a very fine public
school, well worked, a Protestant boarding school, a ladies'
boarding and day-ichool, not to mention several minor
educational establishments, and yet there did not exist a
single school in which Catholic children might receive a
r Catholic training. They were forced to attend some one
or other ofthe institutions just mentioned ; and our readers
may judge for themselves of the fitness and propriety of
this arrangement, when we tell them that at one of these
schools (at which there were three Catholic children pay
ing each a pension of £"120 per annum) it was, and most
probably continues to be, the custom to board bank clerks,
journalists, Government officers, and other gentlemen at
the same table with the young ladies. Few parents at
home, we fancy, would care to send their daughters to such
a school ; and Australian mothers did not care much to do
so either ; but it could not be helped — they had no alter
native. We may {easily imagine, therefore, the joy with
which all classes of the Catholic population at Wagga
hailed the advent of the Presentation Nuns, and the gene
rosity which they displayed in providing everything
necessary for their comfort. Mr. Donnelly, one of the
citizens, purchased forthe sum of £"1,500, forty acres of
land on the outskirts of the town, which he presented to
the sisters as a site for their future convent. On the 21st
June, his relative, Mr. Cox, handed the Bishop .£2,500
towards the building of the convent alone. The ladies
purchased in Sydney ;i magnificent piano, in a walnut

464 Nano Nagle:
case, which they gave to the nuns, that they might occa
sionally seek, relief from their labours in the " concord of
sweet sounds." In fact, all classes vied with each other
in contributing in some manner to mark their esteem for,
and appreciation of the Presentation Nuns. The schools
filled rapidly, and no wonder that they did, for, as we have-
seen, they were sadly needed. By the ist of November, the
sisters had one hundred and forty children in daily attend
ance at their schools. They were not exclusively Catho
lics, but belonged to various religious denominations, and
some of them were preparing for competitive examinations
for the position of- teachers in the public schools. By
this time the nuns had succeeded in attracting every
Catholic child in Wagga from the Protestant schools,
which, in itself, was a great triumph and a signal service
to religion. The sisters seem greatly takep with their
young pupils. One nun writing home says, " The children
are very quick, and wohderful talkers. I never saw such
young women at the age of six or severt." In another
letter we are told that "they are very affectionate, and like
the nuns so much. Anything they think we would like
they bring it to us." From the nature of the presents
which the little Australians make to their good mistresses,
it would seem as if they intended to set them up in what
Artemus Ward would call " the menagerie bizziness," for
we find among their pets several parrots, dogs, cats, an
opossum, and a kangaroo ! On Sunday, November 29th,
1874, Most Rev. Dr. Lanigan, Bishop of Goulbourne, laid
the foundation stone of the new convent, on the site
presented by Mr. Donnelly, on an elevated plateau sur
rounded by vineyards, and visible from every portion of
the town. Over one thousand, persons walked in procesr
sion to the spot where the ceremony took place. " Seldom,"
says a Wagga paper of December 2nd, 1874, "did so fair

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 465
and interesting a scene meet the gaze of our townspeople
as when the long procession was winding its way up the
gentle eminence, on which a large marquee, capable of"
holding i ,000 persons was erected. The procession slowly
entered, singing the hymn, "Brightly Gleam our Banners ; "
and when all had entered, the Bishop, accompanied by
Drs. M'Alroy and Birmingham, blessed the stone, which
was carefully laid by Mr. Gordon, the architect, and Mr.
Douglas, stonemason." In the unavoidable absence of
Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Bishop of Maitland, the sermon
on the occasion was preached by the Very Rev. Wil
liam Kelly, S. J., after which a collection was taken up,
which, including the £1,500 contributed by Mr. Donnelly,
reached the almost incredible figure of £4,400. This
included contributions from a few liberal and high-
minded Protestants. His Lordship, Dr. Lanigan, was, it
is needless to say, deeply moved by this fresh proof of
the generosity of his flock. Addressing them, he said,
" That never before during the years of his episcopal
responsibility, was he equally gratified as on the present
occasion. The gathering was very large, and the sum
contributed was truly munificent. It was not, however,
the scene, beautiful as it was, or the amount given, that
filled his heart so with pleasure ; it was the reflection that
all this was given by a noble people to promote Christian
education, and to bestow on the children of this impor
tant district the greatest- of blessings — a good, sound,
Christian education."
The new convent, which will cost between seven and
eight thousand pounds, will be completed in August, and
will compare favourably with any other similar building
at home, or in the colonies. Meanwhile, the nuns are
located in the presbytery, which serves them as a tempo
rary convent, and to which are attached their schgols
2 H

466 Nano Nagle:
attended by one hundred and forty pupils. The sisters
conduct also a " select " school for children of the better
class, of whom there are at present thirty in attendance,
many of them being Protestants. On Sundays, there is
religious instruction for adults from 1.30 to 3.30 p.m.
Indeed the sisters appear to be never weary of giving reli
gious instruction, and their labours seem to be employed
on a grateful and fertile soil. In one of their letters,
written home to Kildare (July 15th, 1874), they say, " we
are kept very busy ; religious instruction is never done.
It is glorious tb see how anxious the people are to learn
something of God's holy law ..... There are numbers
receiving baptism every week  We have at present
a. glorious harvest." Yes, indeed, the Presentation Nuns
at Wagga are gathering in a glorious harvest of souls for
God, but as yet the labourers are few. Let us hope that
the "Masterof the Vineyard" may inspire others to toil in
that splendid young country situated beneath the Southern
Cross, until not a town or parish exists in all Australia
without a convent tenanted by the devoted daughters of
Nano Nagle.
There are few countries in which more of the public
money is expended on the education ofthe people than
in the United States, and at the same time there is scarcely
any other country in which the public educational system is
more objectionable in itself, more unjust towards Catholics,
and more subversive of the principles of their faith. On
this subject of the public schools of America His Eminence
Cardinal M'Closkey, Archbishop of New York, writes as fol
lows to his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin :
" I can answer that, so far as our Catholic children are
concerned, the workings of our public school system have
proved and do prove highly detrimental to their faith and
morals. So strongly has the conviction of this been

Her Life,* her Labours, and their Fruits. 467
impressed upon the minds both of pastors and parents;
that most strenuous efforts, and even enormous sacrifices,
have been made and continue to be made in order to
establish and support Catholic parochial schools. We
have at the present moment in daily attendance at these
schools an average number of between eighteen and
twenty thousand children. The annual expense for the
maintenance of these schools does not fall short of one
hundred thousand dollars ; while the amount expended
for the purchase of lots, and erection of proper school
buildings, &c, considerably exceeds a million.
" Nothing but the deepest sense of the many dangers
to which the religious and moral principles of their.
children are exposed, could prompt Catholic parents to
make such great pecuniary sacrifices, or assume such
onerous burdens ; for it has to be borne in mind that,
while they are thus obliged through conscientious motives
to support their own schools, they have at the same time
to bear their share of the taxation imposed for support of
the public schools." *
It was this knowledge of the danger to which Catholic
children are exposed in the schools, under State manage-.
ment, that induced the Rev. Arthur J. Donnelly, who has
been for the last nineteen years pastor of St.' Michael's
parish, New York, to erect, with the assistance of his gene
rous parishioners, spacious schools for the instruction
of his flock, which should be under exclusively ecclesias
tical management, and in which religion should form the
* See " Lecture on Protestant Ascendancy and Catholic Education
in Ireland," delivered by.his Eminence Card. Cullen before the Literary
Society of the Catholic University in July, 1869. — Irish Ecclesiastical
Record, August, 1869.

468 Nano Nagle :
basis of education. These schools are situated at the
corner of Ninth-avenue and Thirty-first-street, and are
bounded on one side by the -parochial residence, and on
the other by the convent and Church of St. Michael.
" Architecturally they are of the Gothic style, with two
mansard towers rising from them. They were built by the
well-known architect, Lawrence O'Connor, under the
personal supervision of Father Donnelly. They are con
structed of Haverstraw stone, with trimmings of Ohio
stone. Internally they are laid out with great skill ; and
after having seen some, of the finest school-houses of
Europe and of America, we are prepared to accept the
enthusiastic boast of the people of St. Michael's, that
their schools are in extent and fitness for their purpose
unrivalled in America. They can accommodate with the
most perfect ease over six hundred children, and if the
needs of the parish demand, they can receive 1,000.
These schools have cost about f 100,000, and the adr
jacent convent, remodelled for the nuns, is worth about
$20,000."* The parishioners of St. Michael's being
anxious that their splendid new schools should be placed
in the charge of Irish nuns, their zealous pastor, Father
Donnelly, who is a native of Athy, came to Ireland in the
summer of 1874, with a view of persuading some mem
bers of the Presentation Order to accompany him to New
York. His mission was eminently successful, as the
daughters of Nano Nagle were, as ever, willing to make
sacrifices when there was work to be[done for God, and
accordingly six professed sisters expressed their readiness
to cross the Atlantic. These were Mothers Joseph Hickey,
Xavier , Jones, and Teresa Reynolds, from Terenure;
*The Brooklyn and New York Catholic Review, September 19th,
1874.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 469
Mother Aloysius Talbot, from the Convent at Tuam ; *
and Sisters Magdalen Keating, and Angela Griott, from
Clondalkin. They were accompanied by five choir and
two, lay postulants, and the entire party was placed in the
charge of Mother Joseph Hickey, who was appointed
Superior, an office which she had twice filled in her own
community at Terenure.
The little band of zealous missionaries left King's-bridge
Terminus, Dublin, on the 27th of August, by the 10.30
o'clock train for Cork> where they arrived at half-past five
o'clock, and proceeded immediately to the South Presen
tation Convent, Douglas-street — the parent house of their
Order. Here they were most cordially welcomed by their
religious sisters, and at an early hour the following morn
ing they visited the tomb of Nano Nagle, where, on bended
. knees, they asked her to bless themselves, the voyage they
were about to undertake, the children for whom they were
about to labour, and the dear old land, and the good kind
friends whom they were leaving behind. At about one
o'clock they were ordered to proceed quickly to Queens
town, where they got on board the "City of Paris," of the
Inman Line, and were soon after making towards the
"Empire City" as fast as wind and steam could carry
them. When they were embarking on the " City of Paris,"
some of the sisters overheard a sailor say, as he
glanced contemptuously at the religious habit, " Look
at them ! We can't have luck." If these words were pro
phetic of a storm, the son of Neptune calculated rightly,
for the ship had one of the worst passages on record, and
the passengers, of whom there were about 800 in all,
* We deeply regret to state that after a short stay in New York,
Mother Aloysius Talbot has been forced to return to her convent at
Tuam in extremely delicate health. A sister from Castleisland (St.
Mary Stanislaus Cummins) sailed for New York to take her place on
February 5th, 1875.

470 Nano Nagle:
scarcely ever hoped to see land again ; but instead of re-
. garding the presence of the nuns as an evil omen, we are
inclined to believe rather that the "Star of the Sea"
watched over the " City of Paris," and preserved her,
because she had the good fortune to bear the daughters
of Nano Nagle. " If I find in Sodom fifty just within the
city, I will spare the whole place for their sake 
What if ten. should be found there ? And He said : I will
not destroy it for the sake of ten " (Gen. xviii. 26,32).
On the morning of September 8th, the " City of Paris"
cast anchor in the harbour of New York, and at about eight
o'clock she was boarded by Father Donnelly, who, it is
needless to say, gave his Irish nuns a hearty welcome to
the great republic, and conveyed them on shore with as
little delay as possible. Their convent being yet not
quite ready, the sisters were foraed to separate for a while*
some of them sharing the hospitality of the Ursulines in
Henry- street, while others became the guests of the Sisters
of Mercy in Houston-street. On the 1 9th all were once
more reunited, in their own convent under the protecting
wing of St. Michael. Even then the house was unfinished
interiorly, and the nuns had to put up with some slight
inconveniences; but far from being disheartened at this.
they rather liked it, for it would have been quite unfashion
able, and contrary to the established precedent of their
Order, that Presentation Nuns should establish a new
foundation without undergoing a little hardship, ¦ and
"roughing" it a little, as poor Nano Nagle and heir first
companions had to do in the dark days at home — one
hundred years ago. Besides, if the truth must be told,
they were far more anxious about the schools than about
their own personal comforts, and, to their delight, the
schools were fully finished and furnished — so absolutely
perfect in every detail, that the most critical and censorious

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 471
eye could not discover a single fault. The schools are
divided into various class halls, each capable of accommo
dating from fifty tb one hundred children. , ' The teaching
is carried on simultaneously in all these halls, while there
is one large assembly hall for general purposes, capable
of containing 1,000 children, in which all. meet each day
at nine o'clock for morning prayer.
The first, and not the least difficult duty which the
sisters had to perform was to classify the children. They
commenced this task on the feast of our Lady of Mercy,
when 600 children, who had been previously attending the
State schools, presented themselves for admission. They
had been brought, for the most part, by their Irish mothers
and grandmothers, many of whom had themselves been
pupils of the Presentation Nuns in the old land, and who
could not now be restrainad from bursting into tears, when
their eye rested once more on the familiar and well-
remembered habit of Nano Nagle's daughters, recalling,
as it did, visions of old scenes past for ever, and memories
of old friends long since sleeping their last sleep by the
quiet green hill-sides of holy Ireland. Father Donnelly
formally introduced the nuns to their new pupils in the
church, availing himself of that opportunity to tell the
children of the good fruits which they might expect from
the labours of their zealous mistresses, if they showed
themselves diligent and docile, as were the Irish children
among whom the Presentation Sisters had effected incal
culable good. The work of classification was then pro
ceeded with, and was continued for three days, during which
the nuns got a very fair idea ofthe literary attainments of
their future pupils. They seemed to have, as a rule, a great
thirst for learning, and the first impression which their
conversation would produce was that they were nicely
educated ; but a very slight examination showed that their

472 Nano Nagle:
knowledge was extremely superficial. Those who had
been learning algebra, natural philosophy, &e, at the
public schools were found unequal to the addition of
fractions. Children who had been for a long while en
gaged in the study of German and French were unable to
write correctly from dictation simple sentences in English.
When the nuns remarked to one apparently very intelligent
girl how backward she was, she replied, " Yes, indeed ;
my mother tells me the same. I have been going for nine
years to the State school. They taught me German before
I knew English, and lots of other things of which I know
neither the head nor tail."* On the whole, the sisters
found that while the children had a superficial knowledge
of many things, they knew nothing well, and that those in
whose charge they had hitherto been, had aimed rather at
display than at solid instruction- As to religious know
ledge, they found their future pupils little better than
civilized pagans. Though they liked the nuns, and treated
them with respect, they manifested a positive dislike to
learning the catechism, or even hearing the subject alluded
* Next to the entire absence of religious instruction, superficiality
seems to be the great defect in the public school system of America.
Writing, to his eminence Cardinal Cullen, the learned Bishop of New
ark, Dr. Bayley, says on this subject: — " Another thing which has been
the cause of much injury to the national character and welfare is that
the public school system attempts too much ; over education, in one
sense, by teaching the masses branches which belong only to higher
education, and thus disposing them to think they know a great deal
when they know very little. In a word, that superficial knowledge,
which is so dangerous, making the children of the poor discontented
with their lot in life, indisposed to anything like hard work, and this is
one of the causes why all the professions are so overcrowded with per
sons who would' have made very good shoemakers or carpenters ; but
miserable physicians, lawyers, or ministers." — See Card. Cullen's
" Lecture on Catholic Education in Ireland," Irish Ecclesiastical Re
cord, August, 1869, p. 519.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 473
to. There were numbers of grown girls of fourteen years of
age who had never been to confession, and who had not the
most remote idea how they should prepare themselves for
that duty, and the vast majority had never made their first
communion. Nor need this surprise us, for these poor
children had all been trained previously in the State schools,
in which, under the "godless" system, the name of the
Redeemer is never mentioned, except it be, perhaps, to
garnish an oath.
But better days have come for the Catholic children of
New York. The daughters of Nano Nagle are now in their
midst, toiling well and zealously to impart real, solid in
struction, both religious and secular. There are now
twelve schools working under the care of the nuns jn St.
Michael's parish, and these are frequented by 750 pupils.
Two hundred other children are seeking admission ; but
what is to be done? " The harvest is great but the labour
ers are few." The missionaries in New York have only
to pray — as they do fervently — that the " Master of the
Vineyard " may inspire some of their sisters at home to go
to their assistance in a field where they can gather a rich
harvest of souls for God. The work of instruction is
carried on for five hours daily during week days, and on
Sundays the sisters impart religious instruction for an hour
and a half, during which the Catholic children from the
neighbouring blind asylum attend with the ordinary pupils.
Already the Presentation Nuns in New York have achieved
wonderful results ; but they do not much care to calculate
them. Their motto is," Excelsior," and they keep looking
out with a steady eye into the future, when St. Michael's
Convent will be the fruitful mother of many children ;
when the daughters of Nano Nagle will be found pursuing
their glorious vocation in every city, and town, and hamlet,

474 Nano Nagle :
by the great lakes and rushing rivers of the vast American
continent. And now our task is well nigh done. We have traced
the fruits of Nano Nagle's life in the history of two Orders
founded by her in Ireland. We have seen the Presentation
Order struggling into life one hundred years ago, in an
obscure house in an obscure street in an Irish provincial
town, and we have followed its varying history, year by
year, for a century, until we have seen its latest branch
extended to the proudest city of the proudest and most
energetic nation upon earth. On the 17th of July, 1769,
Nano Nagle wrote to her friend, Miss Fitzsimons, "I can
assure you my schools are beginning to be of service to a
great many parts of the world  If I could be
of any service in saving souls in any part of the globe, I
would willingly do all in my power."* What would the
holy woman say, were she now alive, on seeing her schools
scattered over four continents, and likely to multiply them
selves much more rapidly in the coming century than they
have done in the past ? Truly may we apply to the glorious
Nano Nagle, and to the work which she has left after her,
the words of the poet : —
" He who seeks the mind's improvement
Aids the world in aiding mind !
Every great commanding movement
Serves not one, but all mankind."
* Vide supra, pp. 34, 35. ,

Her LifeT her Labours, and their Fruits. 475

CHAPTER XXIII.
The special Providence of God shown forth in the origin, establishment,
and extension of the Presentation Order. — Primate Boulter's work
contrasted with the work of Nano Nagle. — The destiny of the Irish
race, and the part which the daughters of Nano Nagle take in its
accomplishment. — The lesson taught by the extension of the
Presentation Order to the advocates of "godless" education in
Ireland. — Conclusion.
" You see it has pleased the Almighty to make me succeed when I
had everything, as I may say, to fight against  I began in
a poor humble manner ; and though it pleased the Divine will to give
me severe trials in this foundation, yet it is to show that it is His work,
and has not been effected by human means."— Letter of Nano Nagle
to Miss Fitzsimons, July ijth, 1769 (supra, p. 32, et seq).
We have headed this, our concluding chapter, with an
extract from a letter, written by Nano Nagle more than one
hundred years ago ; and, reading it at this distance of time,
with the history of the Presentation Order before us, we
cannot help feeling that it expresses a great truth, and
helps the solution of a problem otherwise somewhat
puzzling. Miss Nagle, as she herself informs us, com
menced her great work " in a poor, humble manner," by
instructing such poor, miserable children as she was able
to gather together out of the lanes and by-ways of Cork.
From the first, difficulties almost insuperable met her at
every step, and yet she did not desist from her self-imposed
task because of its difficulties, nor renounce it because of
its disagreeable nature, nor quit it for more interesting
occupations, nor leave it off wearied with the manyJabours

476 Nano Nagle ;
which it entailed. In course of time she was joined by
a few zealous, earnest souls, whom she united in a religious
sisterhood, having for its primary and distinctive object
the education of the poor, and with them she continued
to toil unceasingly for this great end, until death sum
moned her to her reward. After her death the infant
institute which she had established, gradually, but slowly,
extended the sphere of its action, despite the constant
difficulties that embarrassed its progress, and the nume
rous obstacles that stopped its way, until it can reckon at
present seventy-three convents, scattered over four conti
nents, and tenanted by 1,200 nuns, who have in charge
the education of more than 30,000 of the little ones of
Christ. One hundred years ago the wise ones ofthe world
smiled at the germ of the Presentation Order, whith they
regarded as the humour merely of a well meaning but
crazed woman ; to day that Order is a fact— visible, appa
rent, obvious, palpable — a great institution, flourishing in
our midst — surprising in its origin, amazing in its growth,
astonishing in its magnitude, almost bewildering in its re
sults. And where shall we find an explanation of this
fact ? Surely, it cannot be the outcome of any ordinary
human combinations ; for, humanly speaking, Miss Nagle's
work had within it, from the beginning, the elements of
weakness, while it has had all along to struggle with
powerful and determined opposition from without. Nano
Nagle was but a poor, weak, delicate young lady, without
influential friends, without experience, without money, so
that she was even compelled to beg, in order to support
her schools. ¦ She had opposed to her several schools,
richly endowed for purposes of proselytism, all the terrors
of the Penal Code, then in full operation, the coldness of
some friends, the avowed hostility of others, the spirit of
the times, nay, even the ecclesiastical superiors of that

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 477
Church in whose service she was engaged. What, then,
was the secret of her success ? She partially supplies the
answer herself in the extract given above, by saying that
it was "God's work;" and though this would of itself be
more than sufficient to account for the extraordinary success
of the Presentation Order, we think a further explanation
may be found in the correspondence of the Irish people
with the designs of Providence, in the horror with which
they regard every system of" godless" education, and in the
indestructible force by which they are attracted to a system
which combines secular instruction with the knowledge
and practice of religion.
Whether we regard the circumstances which preceded,
or those which accompanied, or finally those which fol
lowed the establishment of the Presentation Order, we
cannot fail to see in Nano Nagle's great work the finger
of God's providence accomplishing wondrous ends through
weak and, in themselves, inadequate instruments. When
the terrors of brute force had failed to destroy the faith,
and to stifle, the natural aspirations of the Irish people,
the English Government attempted, in the beginning of
the last century, to compass both these objects by intro
ducing into Ireland an educational system, as diabolical in
principle as it was well contrived to be baneful in its re
sults. For this purpose the charter schools were established
in 1733 — just a little while before Miss Nagle thought of
Starting her schools in Cork. The promoters of these in
stitutions took no trouble to conceal the motive which
actuated them — namely, first to Protestantise, and then to
Anglicise the Irish. This we learn from a letter addressed
by Primate Boulter to the Bishop of London (May 5th,
*73°): — "The great numbers of Papists," he writes, "in
this kingdom, and the obstinacy with which they adhere
to their own religion, occasions our trying what may be

478 Nano Nagle:
done with their children to bring them over to our Church ;
and the good success the corporation established in Scot
land for the instruction of the ignorant and barbarous part
of that nation has met with, encourages us to hope, if we
were incorporated for that purpose here, that we might
likewise have some success in our attempts to leach the
English tongue, and the principles ofthe Christian religion;
and several gentlemen here have promised subscriptions
for maintaining schools for that purpose, if we were once
formed into a corporate body."* Primate Boulter and his
friends were, accordingly, constituted a corporate body
in 1733, under the name of the Incorporate Society, and
received most extravagant powers from Parliament to aid
them in carrying out the programme sketched in the ex
tract, which we have just quoted. They were empowered
to compel all poor children, between the ages of five and
fifteen, to enter charter schools, where they were to be
educated as Protestants, no matter what might be the
creed of their parents (23rd Geo. II. , chap, xi., sec. i.) ;
and they might afterwards be apprenticed out to Protes
tant masters until they were twenty- four years of age {Ibid,
sec. 2). The charter schools were not the only institutions
established about this time for the avowed object of pro-
selytism. In the year 1769 the Royal Hibernian Military
School was established, " to save the sons and daughters
of absent or deceased soldiers from Popery, beggary, and
idleness;" and in 1775 the Hibernian Marine School was
opened to receive the children of sailors for the same pur
pose. Indeed, the Royal Commissioners of Inquiry on
Endowed Schools have not failed to notice these prosely
tising attempts of the Government, for they write : — " It is
deserving of notice that most of the endowments from
* "Boulter's Letters," Vol. IL, p. 9 (Dublin, 1770.) ;

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 479
J733 to 1781, some of which were on a very extensive
scale, follow the leading principle of the Protestant charter
schools, their object being to bring over to the Protestant reli
gion the children of the poor, and to preserve them in the same
by apprenticing them to Protestants, or by giving portions to such
-of them as intermarried with members of that persuasion
{"Report," 1858, p. 15). Now, in the face of this well
organised and persistent endeavour to proselytise the
children of our poor, it is evident that they must have
either abandoned their faith, or grown up in gross igno
rance of it, unless some one was inspired by God to devise
means for imparting to them Catholic instruction — and .
this not merely occasionally, by temporary or isolated
efforts, but by some permanent, united, and thoroughly or
ganised association, which, if less wealthy, would be even
more zealous for good than were the agents of the Govern
ment for the spread of evil. This, we believe, was the
work which God called Nano Nagle to perform. She
herself did not fathom all that Vjod designed to accom
plish through her; but. she was in His hands as clay in the
hands of the potter, and His Providence so disposed mat
ters that she actually went much further than she had ever
intended ; and in introducing the Ursulines into Ireland,
and in laying the foundation of the Presentation Order,
she gave a decided and effectual check to the efforts of
those who wished to stifle the nationality, and to destroy
the faith of her people.
The indications of God's all-direqting Providence are
equally clear in every circumstance attending Miss
Nagle's first efforts for the education of the poor. She
herself tells us (see p. 32, supra) that her relatives thought
the person mad who first informed them of the work on
which she was engaged ; and little wonder indeed that
they should have thought so, for the matter seemed so

480 Nano Nagle: '
strange as to be' incredible. Every human power was opposed
to the success of her projects, and yet she succeeded. Suc
ceeded ? Yes ; beyond anything she had ever dreamt of;
and stranger still, she succeeded partially in spite of herself
For Nano Nagle had been labouring for many years before
a thought of the Presentation Order crossed her mind.
She introduced the Ursulines into Ireland, but, after all,
she did so in mistake, so far as she was concerned (see
chap, ix.), and she would never have introduced them
at all had she not imagined that they would devote them
selves principally to the education of the poor. Yet, in
this is God's special providence shown forth; for the Pre
sentation Order could never have existed had not the Ursuline
or some similar institute been first established, which, by
educating the children of the rich, would prepare them for
discharging afterwards the duties of instructing the chil
dren of the poor in the Presentation Order. Thus, Nano
Nagle gave to her country not one but two religious Orders,
and by the introduction of the Ursulines secured, without
foreseeing it, tbe permanence and stability of the Presenta
tion Order, in which she was specially interested, as being
exclusively devoted to the education of the poor little ones
of Christ, who were always dearest to her loving heart.
Providential in its origin and establishment, the Pre
sentation Order is, also, in its preservation and wonderful
extension, a living argument of the power and wisdom of
God. In reading the preceding pages, one cannot fail to
remark the fact that, with, perhaps, half a dozen exceptions,
all the houses of the Presentation Order were founded
under circumstances of peculiar trial and difficulty.
In some cases these difficulties were so great that the
foundation had to "be temporarily abandoned. We some
times find the sisters taking up their abode in a road-side
hovel ; at other times in a third-rate tavern, while a

Her Life,' her Labours, and their Fruits. 481
butcher's stall serves them as a school-room. We have
met with many instances in which they had to borrow the
chairs on which they sat, and the tables off which they
ate, and the very beds on which they took their short
repose ; and we have even seen communities forced to
borrow a chalice, that they might have the Holy Sacrifice
offered within their convent. We have seen them so
pressed and straitened by poverty that, on one occasion,
they were forced to strip the lead off the roof of the house,
that, by selling it, they might procure the price of their
dinner ; and again we have seen them in treaty for the sale
of the convent bell to meet the same inexorable want. We
know how the very elements warred so against one con
vent that, on two occasions, they razed it to the ground ;
and we have seen another so terribly tried by sickness:
that there were once only two active members in the com
munity. We have met them exposed to all the influences
of the climate in a Californian " shanty," and we have
seen them huddled together, " homeless and houseless,"
one dreary winter's night, beneath the chilling blast, and
amid the ice and snow of Newfoundland. Everywhere
and always, during the century of its existence, the cross
has marked the progress of the Presentation Order, and
that Order has ultimately shared in the triumph of the
cross. Can this be explained on human principles ? Is it a
result produced by human causes ? We unhesitatingly say,
No ! For were we, in explanation, to reckon upon purely
human agency, Nano Nagle's poor, weak work should have
perished long, long ago, and in its stead we should find
the charter schools flourishing — those charter schools
founded by Act of Parliament, richly endowed by Parlia
ment,, protected by Parliament, privileged by Parliament,
and supplied — abundantly, lavishly supplied — with every
human aid to success. And what of these petted and
2 1

482 Nano Nagle :
favoured charter schools ? Hear, 0 ye British statesmen !
the verdict, not of Catholics, but of your own Commis
sioners, who report: — "That charter schools, parish,
royal, and diocesan schools have not answered the intenr
tions of the founders ; that parish and diocesan schools,
with very few exceptions, have been of little use to the
public ; and that the benefits derived from schools of royal
foundation have been totally inadequate to the expectations
that might have been justly formed from their large en
dowments ; that in many of the charter schools the cloth
ing, cleanliness, food, health and education of the children
have been shamefully neglected ; and that the great
national charity has not yet produced those salutary effects
which the public expected from the institution."* Such
have been the results of Primate Boulter's celebrated
charter schools, which had at their disposal for educational
purposes an annual income of ^8,179 ! ! f Their failure
was so notorious and shameful that the parliamentary
grant had to be withdrawn, and the charter schools are
now few in number, and confined exclusively to Protestant
pupils. How different, on the other hand, has been the fate of
the schools founded by poor, weak, helpless Nano Nagle.
They are to be met with in every city, and in most of the
large towns of Ireland. They have . been opened in Eng
land, and in British America, and in the United States,
and in India, and in Australia, and in distant Tasmania ;
and in all these places they are flourishing. Friends and
foes alike speak well of them — the former in words of en
thusiastic admiration, the latter in terms of forced respect.
* " Report of 1791." Quoted bythe Commissioners of Inqukyinto
Endowed Schools, 1858, p. 18.
t " Endowed Schools (Ireland) Commission Report," 1858, p. 97.

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 483
The Commissioners of National Education publish an
nually the reports of their School Inspectors, and these all
bear ample testimony to the zeal of the Presentation Nuns,
to the order and scrupulous cleanliness of their schools,
to the habits of neatness and propriety which they culti
vate and foster in their pupils, to the watchful care and
more than maternal anxiety which they evince in forming
their character, and to the sound and liberal secular edu
cation which they impart. In the course of this work we
have cited many of these authorities, and we could easily
fill several pages with the testimonies of others to the
same effect were we not unwilling to swell this volume
unnecessarily:* The Order is at this moment more flou
rishing and vigorous than at any previous period of its
existence. As we remarked at the beginning of the last
chapter, it is only within the last decade that the institute
has properly begun to develop itself, by sending out mis
sionaries to foreign lands ; and there is very little room for
doubt that by the end of the present century there will be,
at least, one hundred convents of Presentation Nuns out
side of Ireland. And to what, we again ask, are we to
attribute this wonderful success, which cannot be satisfac
torily accounted for by recurring to mere human causes ?
* The limited space at our disposal does not permit us to do more
than refer our readers to the sources where they may find some of those
testimonies. See, especially, " Reports of the National Board," Vol.
III.p. 156; Vol. IV., p. 147; "TteportofMr. Coward, Assistant Commis
sioner " (Royal Commission of Inquiry into Primary Education, Ireland,
1870, Vol. IL, p. 100). " Report of Mr. Harvey," Ibid. Vol. IL, p.
497. " Report of Mr. Balmer," Ibid. pp. 461, 467, 470. " Report of
Mr. Laurie," Ibid. Vol. IL, p. 302. As regards industrial training,
see " National Board's Sixteenth Report," pp. 156, 388; "Seventeenth
Report," p. 147 ; " Eighteenth Report," pp. 760, 783, 784, 785, 786,
794. 795 ; " Nineteenth Report," p. 25 ; " Twenty-third Report," p.
224, &c.
2 12

484 Nano Nagle :
And we again reply that the real reason must be sought,
where alone it can be found, in the special, and active
interference of God's Providence ; for, as Nano Nagle her
self said, " it was His work."
But it may be permitted to examine still more deeply,
but with all humility, this great work of God, and to ask
ourselves what special design had He in thus watching
over and protecting the Presentation Order. We believe
that God specially raised up this great Order to co-operate
with Him in accomplishing the great destiny which His
Providence has allotted to the Irish race. For it must be
admitted that races and nations, as well as individuals,
have their destinies, and that nothing happens by what
some unreflecting people call blind "chance." Now,
what is the destiny of the Irish? We think it is too clearly
defined by past and present events to be easily mistaken.
We have been chosen by God to be the Apostles of His
faith, the builders of His Church, in all English-speaking
nations; and to prepare us for the better accomplishment of
this glorious destiny He raised up Nano Nagle in His own
good time, and through her established the Presentation
Order. The first of these propositions scarcely needs demon
stration. Let us cast a hurried glance over the English-
speaking countries of the world, and then put the question,
to whom do they owe the .gift of the true faith ? Who
form the bulk of the Catholic population in England,
Wales, and Scotland ? The Irish, and the children of the
Irish. Who have given most of their first bishops, and
priests, and monks, and nuns, and almost all the laity to
that wonderfully vigorous young Church in America, which
has amazed the world by, its rapid growth ? In reply, we
need only mention the names of Carroll, Egan, Connolly,
Kelly, England, Conwell, Kenrick, Clancy, Hughes, Pur-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 485
cell, Byrne, O'Reilly, Smyth, Barry— all of them Irish by
birth, with one exception, and he, John Carroll, of Balti
more, was the son of an Irish exile. Who are they who
have built up the glorious Church of Australia ? Why,
almost every mitre there rests upon the brow of an Irish
man — the members of the religious Orders and the clergy
are, for the most part, Irish, and the lay Catholics are
almost to a man the children of the exiled Celt. Who
holds the helm of the Church in Tasmania ? An Irish
Bishop.with Irish priests and nuns to help him in govern
ing and educating his flock. Who constitute the bulk' of
the Catholic population in New Zealand ? The Irish; and
of the three bishops there two are Irish by birth, while the
third is so by descent. Who are the English-speaking
Catholics in British India? They are mostly the descen
dants of the brave Irish soldiers ; and though French and
Italian missionaries have laboured well in this portion of
the Vineyard, we cannot forget the numbers of Irish priests
who have toiled and still are toiling there, nor the Irish
nuns belonging to the Presentation Order and the Order
of Loretto, and the Sisters of Mercy and Charity, who are
wearing out their lives there, nor the Irish bishops — the
O'Connors, and Carews, and Fennellys, and Murphys, and
Whelans — who kept the faith alive there, many long years
ago, among the English-speaking population. Who are
the English-speaking Catholics at the Cape of Good
Hope? Again they are the Irish or their descendants,
with their Irish bishops — Griffiths and Grimley and Moran
— and while we are writing there is in Ireland another Irish
bishop from that distant land, seeking for Irish priests and
nuns to return with him to teach the faith of Patrick in
Southern Africa. Finally, who constitute the members of
the Catholic Church in Newfoundland ? Here, indeed,
is a truly Irish Church; for the French colonists left New-

486 Nano Nagle :
i
foundland shortly after its cession to Britain in 1713, and
the Irish alone remained to represent the Catholic Church.
Their children have kept the faith ever since under a line
of illustrious Irish bishops — O'Donnell, and Lambert, and
Scallan, and Fleming, and Mullock, and Dalton — and to
day there is an Irish bishop there, too, with Irish Sisters of
Mercy, and twelve convents of Irish Presentation Nuns.
These are facts which cannot be gainsayed. Now, these
facts cannot have been brought about by accident, for it
would be impious to assert that God is indifferent to the
propagation and preservation of the true faith, or leaves
these to mere chance. Therefore we may legitimately
infer from this constant preponderance of the Irish element
in the Catholic population of every English-speaking nation
that in the designs of God's providence the Irish race has
been chosen to plant the standard of Catholicity wherever
the English tongue is heard.
But what connection, it will be said, has this with the
establishment of the Presentation Order ? We think that
between these two facts there exists a close and sufficiently
clear connection ; for we believe .that God brought about
the establishment of the Presentation Order principally to
prepare the Irish for the better accomplishment ofthe great
destiny which His providence had allotted to them.
It was, and is of the first importance that the Irish, wh6,
by leaving their own country, multiply the children of the
Church abroad, should be not only thoroughly instructed
in the doctrines and practices of their faith, but should,
also, be so trained and" formed as to be worthy represen
tatives of Catholicity, reflecting to some extent in their
own persons the sanctity ofthe Church. For, if they were
found ignorant of the creed which they professed, or if
their lives, instead of being conformed to the Gospel, were
corrupt and scandalous, far from being effective mission-

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 487
aries, they would grievously injure the cause of religion,
, and would make the name of Catholic a by-word among
the nations. Now in connection with this we must bear
in mind —
1. That the Presentation Order was established shortly
before the tide of Irish emigration had set in, but yet at a
period sufficiently remote from it to have already influenced
in a large degree the religious education of the masses.
2. That the extension of the Presentation Order has
kept pace with the progress of emigration. •
3. That the Presentation Order has for its sole object
the education and religious training of the lower, or emi
grant classes ; and,
4. That it is able to effect this most readily ahd effec
tually through the education of women.
The three first of these statements may be easily verified
by reference to the preceding pages ; the last deserves a
little further notice. Some people may be led to think
that, whereas there are only fifty-two or fifty-three Presen
tation Convents in Ireland, the teaching imparted in them
cannot affect the masses of the nation in any very remark
able degree. This would be a mistake of the first magni
tude. Every child educated in a Presentation School becomes in
after-life a lay apostle and a missionary; and the effects of
the nuns' teaching, so far from being confined to those
immediately under their control, are felt as surely by thou
sands with whom they are never brought in contact. This
may be best illustrated by example, and we shall select the
school attached to the North Presentation Convent, Cla
rence-street^ Cork, though any other would suit our pur
pose equally well. If we enter those schools on any day
we shall find there, under the charge of the nuns, about
800 pupils, varying in age from the child of four or five
years to the young girl who is just e itering into woman-

488 Nano Nagle:
hood. Everything surrounding these girls impresses them
with religious ideas. Their mistresses wear a distinctive
dress, with the rosary and crucifix dangling from their
cincture ; the walls of the school-room are decorated with
devotional prints and religious emblems. We observe
that many of the. children themselves wear medals attached
to the neck with ribbons of various colours, which indicate
the different sodalities or pious confraternities to which
the wearers belong. Should the clock strike during the
time of our visit, we cannot fail to remark that a most
perfect silence ensues, the children leave off whatever
had until then occupied them, and, signing themselves
with the Cross, recollect themselves for a few moments in
silent prayer. They are trained to celebrate certain feasts,
and even to sanctify certain months of the year by special
devotions, on which occasions they often join in proces
sions and other religious ceremonies. In a word, these
800 children are constantly living under the immediate,
powerful, active control of religion during the years when
the human mind is most susceptible of deep and lasting
impressions, and it would be contrary to all our knowledge
of human nature if this early training were not to develop
itself in a very marked manner in their after-life.
Now the question arises — what, will become of those
young children after they have left school ? Well, some
of them will, no doubt, die young ; some will enter reli
gious Orders ; some will lead a single life in the world,
either from choice or from necessity ; but the vast majority
of these 800 young girls will be, in a few short years hence,
wives and mothers, with another generation growing up
around them. Some of them will marry in Ireland, others
in England and Scotland, others in Canada and the United
States, others in Australia or New Zealand ; but be the
place of their future abode where it may, that they will

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 489
marry and be the mothers of families is certain. And
what powerful Catholic missionaries will they not he as
matrons ? Then all the old lessons learned in the Presen
tation Convent long ago will begin to bear fruit. Their
houses will be decorated with religious prints, as the
school-room used to be in the old times ; the children will
be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the little blue and
white dress, or blue ribbon, with the medal attached, will
proclaim the fact to the Catholic eye. As the little ones
grow up they are taught their prayers and catechism, and
are sent, yet very young, to confession. As they are grow
ing older they are kept at good Catholic schools, where
they are taught to be staunch little Papists, even though
they were to be cut to pieces for it, and thorough-going
little Irish boys and girls, too, even though that, also, were
to bring its punishment. The husband may be a good-
natured, warm-hearted fellow, but just a little bit careless
sometimes about his prayers, and the sacraments, and such
matters, but his Irish wife, taught at the Presentation Con
vent, pulls him up before he has gone too far, and quietly
coaxes him to accompany her now and again to the chapel,
and not to spend so much of his time on Saturday evenings
in the company of "the boys." But why waste time in
details. It is simply impossible to over-estimate the amaz
ing influence which the vast majority of those 800 young
girls will afterwards exercise in the world as wives, mothers,
sisters, and neighbours, for whatever may befal them they
will ever retain the memory of childhood's days, and can
never forget the lessons and practices which they then
learned. And if this be so, what shall we say of the vast ser
vices rendered to religion by the many thousands of young
girls trained in that one convent alone during the seventy-
six years that it has been in existence ? And what shall
we say of the many other thousands educated by the seventy-

40O Nano Nagle :
two other Presentation Convents year by year ? And
what, finally, shall we say of the services rendered to the
Church by all the many millions of good Irish mothers
who owe their religious training to the grand Presentation
Order, which is so soon to celebrate the hundreth anni
versary of its establishment ? So much for the past ; but
what of the future ? This much — that the seventy-three
convents now in existence will work on with the same zeal
and earnestness which they have exhibited heretofore,
and with equal, if not greater, advantages to religion, and
that many other houses will spring up in many lands to be
partners in their toil and sharers in their reward. Thus
it is that God's Providence watched over the Presentation
Order from its birth, marking it out as the most powerful
agent to co-operate with Him in accomplishing the great
destiny of the Irish race — to spread the faith in every
corner of the earth where the English tongue is spoken.
We have said that the success of Nano Nagle's great
work must be attributed mainly to the disposition of God's
Providence ; but it must be also acknowledged that the
seed fell upon a fruitful and grateful soil, and that, after
God, the astounding success of the Presentation Order
must be attributed to the fact that the Irish love education,
and that while they will have Catholic education at any
cost, they have rejected, arid will continue to reject with
horror the " godless system," no matter how cleverly and
lavishly statesmen may gild the pill. What has induced
all these Presentation Nuns, ladies all of them, of refined
education and easy means, to devote themselves to the
terribly arduous life of teaching the outcasts of society,
the children of the poor ? What has tempted the Irish
Catholics — the poorest people in Europe — to contribute
out of their slender means so many hundreds of thousands
of pounds for the foundation of convents and' convent

Her Life, her Labours, and their Fruits. 491
schools when the State supplies abundantly the means of
a purely secular education ? What induces Irish parents,
wherever a convent school is established, to withdraw their
children immediately from all other schools — not unfre-
quently at considerable inconvenience, and even at pecu
niary loss ? For these strange facts there is but one
explanation — that the Irish are essentially a God-loving,
deeply religious people, and that they will not tolerate any
other educational system except one based on arid con
trolled by religion. This consideration may be worth the
attention of those statesmen who foolishly hope to make
the Irish, not well-instructed Christians, but superficial
infidels.

" The book is completed,
And closed like the day ;
And the hand that has written it
Lays it away."
' Our task is, done — unskilfully and imperfectly done, it
is true, but conscientiously withal, and as fully as the ma
terials at our disposal would permit. The execution of
the task which we imposed upon ourselves of tracing the
life arid labours of Nano Nagle, and of recording the fruit
, which they have borne, has cost us many a long hour, and
no small share of trouble, and yet the feeling uppermost
withjn us, now that we are writing the last page, is one of
sadness — " A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles rain."
We feel lonely at having to part company with these
noble souls with whom we have, as it were, lived so long,
and the record of whose deeds makes one judge mankind

492 Nano Nagle.
less harshly because they were children of humanity, and
think all the better of the world because they once lived,
and moved in it. What a long and brilliant bead-role of
illustrious names we have counted, of whom even the least
distinguished was an honour to her sex, to her country,
and to the Universal Church of which she was a member !
What simple piety, what generous self-sacrifice, what
enduring perseverance, what loving charity, what profound
humility, what strong faith, what heroic patience, what
exalted types of every natural and supernatural virtue have
we met in the annals of the Ursuline and Presentation
Orders ! Well and nobly have they done, in their day, the
.great work appointed^ to them, and now they are at rest —
" In the heart of the city they lie, unknown and unnoticed,
Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them ;
Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and for ever,
Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy,
Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their
labours,
Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their jour
ney ! "
They rest, brave-, noble, generous souls ! But their spirit
lives and works in their children all the world over, and
will continue so to live and work for many ages yet to
come. God's book will disclose many great secrets on the last
accounting day, and not the least among them will be the
real stupendous magnitude of the blessings which have
flowed from — THE LIFE AND LABOURS
OF
Nano Nagle.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.

THE MOST REV. DR. MOYLAN, BISHOP OF CORK.
" "Vir virtute potens, divino plenus amore,
Ore sagax, menteque vigil, et fervidus actu." Alcuin.
The name of Most Rev. Dr. Moylan is so closely connected with
the history of the Ursuline and Presentation Orders, that a brief
notice of that eminent prelate must prove interesting to our
readers. Francis Moylan was horn of respectable and wealthy parents
in the parish of St. Finbar, Cork, on September 17th, 1785. In
common with the other young Catholic gentlemen of^that time,
lie was forced to seek abroad that education which was denied at
home, and at an early age proceeded to Paris, where he prosecuted
his studies with great success, until his failing health obliged him
to seek the milder climate of Montpellier. After a stay of some
years in France he was called home by his father, who wished him
to engage in mercantile pursuits; but young Francis felt no
inclination to enter upon any secular career, however honourable
or lucrative it might be, and had already formed the resolution of

494 Appendix.
devoting his life to the service of God. With this end in view, he
determined to retire' from the world and enter la grande chartruese,
but, fortunately, his uncle, Father Doran, S. J., discovered his in
tention in time to dissuade him from this course, which he did
by representing to him how ill-suited was his delicate constitu
tion for the observance of the austere rule of the Carthusians.
Abandoning, therefore, his first resolution, Francis Moylan now
determined to join the ranks of the secular priesthood, and
accordingly returned to France to pursue his theological studies
in the University of Toulouse, where, in due time, he took a
Doctor's degree. He received the Holy Order of Priesthood in
March, 1761, and was soon after appointed to a parish in Paris by
Monsigneur de Beaumont, archbishop of that city.
Dr. 'Moylan did not remain long in Paris. His conscience
reproached him with bestowing his services on a diocese in which
there was an abundant supply of zealous and learned ecclesiastics,
while his labours were sadly needed among his own poor country
men in the city of his birth. He accordingly resigned his benefice
in Paris, and returned' to Cork, where he was appointed to the
pastoral charge of the parish of St. Finbar. Here his prudence,
zeal, and piety, soon attracted to him universal attention ; and his
advice was eagerly sought both by the clergy and the laity in all
affairs of importance. To his piety and wisdom we are indebted,
under Providence, for the success of the great work which Nano
Nagle undertook about this time in Cork ; for he was, from the
first, her chief, and almost sole counsellor, and when others
regarded her projects with coldness or hostility, he supported her
throughout, and continued to his death the warmest friend of the
Ursuline and Presentation Orders. Dr. Moylan's high character
and rare abilities soon became known beyond the limits of his
native diocese, and it was justly thought that he would confer
immense services upon the Irish Church if he were placed in a
more exalted and influential position than that of a Parish Priest.
The Holy See, therefore, appointed him Bishop of Kerry in 1775,
whence he was recalled twelve years afterwards to fill the
Episcopal chair of Cork, and repair the scandal caused by the
lamentable apostacy of Lord Dunboyne (see page 57).

Appendix. 4ge
The period of Dr. Moylan's episcopacy was indeed a trying one,
and promised most unfavourably for the progress of religion.
Ireland had to pass through the horrors of civil war and famine,
and the people of the southern province lived, moreover, in a
constant state of panjc through fear of a French invasion. The
times were agitated by religious as well as by political questions,
and one of these subjects— the Veto— kept the people of Ireland,
and indeed of the empire, in anxious suspense for many years. Dr.
Moylan, as we have elsewhere seen (chap, xv., ante), was one of
the ten prelates assembled at Maynooth, in January, 1779, who
consented to allow the Government a modified and conditional
Veto in the appointment of Catholic bishops; but he did it
through a misapprehension of the object which the Ministry aimed
at in seeking for a power of " Veto," having been, in common
with the other bishops,* grossly deceived by the wily, unscru-
* There was not a single bishop in England or Ireland (Dr. Milner
even included) who was not willing to come to some compromise or other
with the Government on the " Veto " question, with the exception of
the Venerable Dr. Coppinger, who was from first to last a most deter
mined opponent of the " Veto " in every form. The following vigorous
letter on the subject from the pen of that patriot Bishop of Cloyne will
repay perusal, as it gives us a clear insight into the merits of the
conditional veto. The letter is addressed to Dr. Bray, Archbishop of
Cashel. " Midleton, November II, 1808.
"Mr dear and Honored Lord— . . . . With regard to the dis
content of our Catholic aristocracy at the late ( ) resolutions of
our bishops, it proves, in my mind at least, that these gentry are more
interested in their individual aggrandizement than they are in the welfare,
or perhaps, in the existence of Catholicity in Ireland. The more I have
reflected on this matter the more settled is my conviction that even
their negative interference would destroy our. religion here. The King
certainly neither knows nor cares anything about the fitness or unfitness
of our priests for the prelacy. Governors of counties, Parliament -squires,
Duignans, Eagers, &c, &e., would be exclusively active for the
respective objects of their choice. The very qualities which Catholic
electors would look to — zeal, piety, learning, rigid virtue, and exemplary
conduct— would be sufficient ground of rejection with these men ; for this

49° Appendix.
pulous, and treacherous Castlereagh. When Dr. Moylan after
wards understood how he and his confreres had been entrapped by
the minister, he repudiated the construction which was sought to
be put upon their act, and if additional proof were needed of the
soundness of his views upon this vital question it may be found in
the following letter, which was one of the very last which the
good bishop ever penned. It is addressed to Dr. Milner at
Rome : —
obvious reason, that bad bishops would be more efficient in the projected
ruin. Again, if in Dr. Milner's plan they should be limited to his
reasonable number, viz., three or four rejections, the bare power of
laying aside four of the most worthy and best qualified men in every
diocese in this kingdom is a most tremendous concession. How many
Sees in Ireland which have not even two men fit for the prelacy ? Unfit
men will, of course, be appointed, and what deplorable injuries must
thence result to religion in the lapse of time. With regard to limiting
the executive to the single point of loyalty, were it practicable, these
subtle malignants will contrive to make every one ofthe above episcopal
qualities to clash with their notions of loyalty, and continue objecting
till they get their immoral blockhead — their drunken infidel — their
cringing, tale-bearing sycophant consecrated. But the above limitation
is impracticable. The usurped ecclesiastical headship of Henry has
descended to his successors. What we should deem a concession,
would in interpretation of law be pronounced a right. The courts would
sneer at our limitations ; we should be scouted, silenced, and con
temptuously dismissed. Moreover, it is notorious that ministers and men
in power have been long, though very unwisely, representing the Chief
Magistrate to the Catholic population of Ireland as the settled, irreconcil
able enemy of their religion ; andit is also notorious, that that unfavourable
idea is almost indelibly imprinted upon our poor people. What, then, can
be their confidence in, or their respect for, a bishop presented to them from
that quarter, or for the clergy set over them by such a bishop ; and what
must those have to answer for to the Sovereign Judge who can delibe
rately lend themselves to so ruinous an innovation ?
"I trust his Holiness will be fully and fairly put in possession of the real
state of the case by prelates of more weight than, my dear Lord, your
devoted humble servant, "William Coppingeb."
" See Dr. Renehan's Collections on Irish Church History." Edited by
the Kev. Dr. M'Carthy. Vol. I., pp. 381-82.

Appendix. 497
" Cork, December 7th, 1814.
"My deab and honoubed Lord, — I am the oldest of the
Catholic prelates in this kingdom, and expect soon to appear before
the awful tribunal of the Almighty Judge, in whose sacred
presence I solemnly declare, that any compromise made or control
whatever given to our Protestant Government or Ministers, in the
appointment or nomination of the Catholic bishops or clergy
of this kingdom, or any interference whatsoever, or influence over
them, in the exercise of their spiritual functions, will eventually
lead to the subversion of our venerable hierarchy, and in consequence
to the ruin of the Catholic religion in this long suffering and
oppressed Catholic country. It would most certainly cause the
greatest dissatisfaction in the minds of the Catholic body, lessen
their attachment and respect to the Holy See, and by degrees
dispose them for every bad change. But under our present
enlightened and most venerable Pontiff, we have nothing to appre
hend. The Almighty God has preserved him from his enemies, and
restored him to his Church, for its support, and the glory of his
own holy name. Could I presume through you, my dear and
honoured Lord, to present the sincere homage of my heart to the
Holy Father; prostrate most humbly at his sacred feet, I kiss them
with all my reverence, respect, and affection, and on my knees I
most earnestly supplicate his paternal benediction."*
The period of Dr. Moylan's episcopacy was marked by many
signal blessings to religion. To him is Cork indebted for the
establishment ofthe Presentation and Ursuline Convents, and for
the introduction of the Brothers of the Christian Schools into the
diocese; and even though he had never done another act to hand
down his memory to posterity, these alone ought for ever to make
his name specially honourable among the honoured names of the
many great prelates who have grasped the crozier of St. Finbar.
But Dr. Moylan's cares were not confined to his own diocese ; he
was one of those humble, yet distinguished men who do not seek
greatness but have it thrust upon them, and his brothers in the
episcopacy had continual recourse to him in the perplexing
difficulties which daily beset their path. Thus when it became
•Husenbeth's Life of "Dr. Milner," chap, xvi., p. 284.
2 K

498 Appendix,
desirable, in 1812, to bring about more amicable relations between
the Irish bishops and their agent, Dr. Milner, on the one hand, and!
the English Vicars Apostolic' on the other, his episcopal brethren
unanimously selected Dr. Moylan as the person most likely to>
effect this desirable object by his prudence and conciliatory
disposition. ' Dr. Moylan did undertake this mission of peace, and
proceeding to England had a conference with the Vicars Apos
tolic at Durham, on the 22nd and 23rd of August, 1812 ; but he
discovered that while Dr. Milner and himself were prepared to
make every concession which could be made, without sacrifice of
principle, the English bishops, influenced largely by Dr. Poynter,.
could not be moved from the position which they had taken up in
favour of the Veto. Dr. Moylan's mission, therefore, proved abor
tive, though not through any fault on his part.*
His contemporaries all speak of Dr. Moylan as having been,
personally, a man of a most gentle and amiable disposition, and
pre-eminently distinguished by his charity and solicitude for the
poor. In the administration of his diocese he was a rigid disciplhi-
arian, and his gentleness, notwithstanding firmness, seems to
have been the quality which most strongly marked his character.
He was not precipitate in arriving at conclusions, but once he, had.
determined what he judged to be right, he could no-|j be moved
from it by any considerations of what might be expedient. Of
this there are many instances on record. Thus, when the French
fleet appeared off Bantry Bay, Dr. Moylan believed it to be
his duty to remind his flock of their allegiance, and he issued a
pastoral to them in which he says: — "At a moment of such
general alarm and consternation, it is a duty I owe to you, my /
beloved flock, to recall to your minds the sacred principles of
loyalty, allegiance, and good order, that must direct your conduct
on such an awful occasion. Charged, as I am, by that Blessed
Saviour (whose birth with grateful hearts we this day solemnize)
with the care of your souls, interested -beyond expression in your
temporal and eternal welfare, it is incumbent on me to exhort you
to that peaceable demeanour which must ever mark His true and.
* " Life of Bishop Milner," by Provost Husenbeth, ch. xi., pp. 217
et teg.

Appendix, 499
faithful disciples."* The good bishop must have felt keenly that
in issuing such a pastoral at such a time he was doing something
which was likely to make him very unpopular with his people ;
but he cared not so long as he did what in his conscience he judged
to be right. Agajn, when the celebrated historian, Dr. Lanigan,
•was nominated to the Chair of Hebrew and Scripture in
Maynooth, he was excluded mainly through the exertions of Dr,
Moylan. Dr. Lanigan, with his vast learning and brilliant talents,
would, no doubt, have been a most desirable acquisition to the pro
fessorial staff of Maynooth ; but, rightly or wrongly, Dr. Moylan
suspected that he was tinged with Jansenism, and he was,
therefore, inflexible in his opposition until he finally succeeded
in excluding him from the College.t Provost Husenbeth relates
another remarkable instance of Dr. Moylan's firmness, which is
well worth recording because of the noble sentiment uttered
by the Bishop of Cork upon the occasion. When the " Veto"
question was under discussion at a meeting of the Irish prelates,
in 1814, some of the bishops urged the expediency of .delay before
coming to any fixed resolution. On this Dr. Moylan arose, and
uttered this noble sentence : — " Let us put expediency out of
consideration; let us consider what is right, and. let us act like
Irish bishops."% The Duke of Portland, once the Premier of
England, gave a just idea of Dr. Moylan's character, when he
wrote, in a letter dated Bulstrode, 27th July, 1800 : — " There can
be, and there never has been, but one opinion of the firmness,
the steadiness, and the manliness of Dr. Moylan's character,
which it was agreed, by all those who had the pleasure of meeting
him here, was as engaging as his person, which avows and
bespeaks as much good-will as can be well imagined in a human
countenance."§ This good prelate was called to his reward on the 10th of
February, 1815, being then in the eightieth year of his age, and
the fortieth of his episcopacy.
* " Irish Wits and Worthies," by J. W. Fitzpatrick, LL.D., p. 72.
t bid. chap. xii.
t Husenbeth's "Life of Dr. Milner," p. 286.
5 Fitzpatrick's "Irish Wits and Worthies," p. 71.
2 K 2

( 5oo )

APPENDIX II.

Return of the Pi'esentation Schools, George's Hill, in answer to the
Queries proposed by Sis Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry
into the State of Education in Ireland (1824).
Answer to No. 1.
These schools for the education of poor female children are
situated on George's Hill, in the parish of St. Michan, in the city
of Dublin. No. 2.
They are kept by ladies who form a branch of a Religious Order,
instituted in Ireland, about forty years back, for the gratuitous
education of female children, and known by the name of Sisters
of the Presentation. The schools are attached to the convent in
which these ladies reside. The sisters, together with one young
¦woman, who is paid for her attendance, are the persons employed in
teaching. The name of the superior of the convent is Mrs. Knowd.
The schools are open from 9.30 till 3 o'clock each day, Saturdays,
Sundays and holidays excepted ; and continue so the whole year
round, with the exception of short vacations at Christmas and
Easter, and of about three weeks in August. On Sundays the
children assemble from one to two o'clock in the afternoon to re
ceive moral instructions given by the sisters.
No. 3.
The ladies of the convent being the persons who instruct, all, of
course, are Catholics, and they have been induced to devote them
selves to the life they have embraced by merely following the bent
of their own religious inclinations. No. 4.
These ladies are individuals of independent rank, and were edu
cated in various schoola corresponding with the sphere in which
they would have moved had they remained in the world.

Appendix. 501
No. 5.
The average number of pupils in attendance for the last three
months might amount to 280 ; and though the school is open for
the reception of children of every religious persuasion yet none but
Catholics frequent them. Nos. 6 and 7.
The average number of pupils for the last winter and for the
summer of 1823, was from 200 to 280 or 300. The parents of these
poor children evince the greatest possible desire of having them
come to these schools on account of the strict attention which is
paid to their religious education. No. 8.
The greater number of the children read. Cannot ascertain the
time in which a child could be taught to read. Depends on the
capacity of the child and attention to school.
No. 9.
The only individual connected with these schools who receives
any remuneration for her attendance, is a young woman who during
school hours assists in teaching, but a principal portion of whose
duty is to superintend the domestic concerns of an orphanage, united
with these schools, and in which twenty-one orphans, or children
equally destitute, are not only instructed, but lodged and provided for
in every respect, till at a suitable age they are apprenticed to useful
trades. This personreceives twenty guineas per annum. None of the
children pay anything whatever for their education ; it being con
trary to the rules of this institute for its members to teach any but
the children of the poor, whom they bind themselves to instruct gra
tuitously. The Religious are supported upon their own properties.
No. 10.
There are three schools — each an oblong room. No. I. is 33 feet
in length, and 18 feet in breadth. No. IL, 28 feet in length and 16§
feet in breadth. No. HI, 35 feet in length and 16J feet in breadth
— all well lighted, aired, and furnished with desks, forms, labels,
slates, books, tables, &c. The first of these school-rooms is part of

502 Appendix.
the convent house ; the two others belong to what is properly
called the school-house. This latter is a large brick building,
four stories high, the first and second floors of which are occupied
by the schools, while the third and fourth are appropriated for the
accommodation of the orphans. The erection of these schools cost
£800, and it might cost perhaps a similar sum to erect them at
present, and the only means by which the expenses of constructing
them, furnishing them, &c., were defrayed were the vdluntary
private contributions of charitable Catholics.
No. 11.
These schools, as has been stated, are conducted by the Religious
Sisters of the Presentation, an institute formed in Ireland for the
moral education of poor female children. The history of its found
ation will be found briefly detailed in the last paragraph. Here it
is only necessary to state that the rules of this Order were drawn
up by Catholic divines, eminent for their prudence, learning, and
piety, and have been adhered to by all the members of this most
useful institute, consisting at present of twenty communities,
established in the several cities and towns in Ireland .
No. 12. -
The only patrons of these schools are the Most Rev. Dr. Murray;
the parish priest, Rev. Mr. Wall; and his coadjutors. The visiting
clergyman is Rev. William Meagher, chaplain to the convent, who
attends generally every day to hear the children's confessions, &ft,
and occasionally examines how the business of the schools is
going on. No. 13.
These schools have been always patronised by the persons
alluded to above.
No. 14.
The text of the Sacred Scriptures is not read, but there are books
used in which the leading facts recorded in histories of the Old and
New Testaments are contained. The expenses of procuring books,
&c, are defrayed from the sources that have been already specified
in answer to the tenth query.

Appendix. 503
No. 15.
It has been already stated that, though these schools are open
for the reception of children without regard to religious distinction,
jet the instances in which any but Catholics have sought for ad
mission have been extremely rare ; owing in all probability to the
numerous Protestant schools opened in the city. Perhaps it has
not occurred on an average more than once in four or five years.
But whenever it has happened, no undue means have ever been
sused to induce them to become Catholics ; as neither bribe nor
-threat nor misrepresentation has ever been employed ; but, if instruc
tion in the tenets of the Catholic faith were sought by young
jpersons arrived at an age of discernment, it would not be deemed
an impropriety to impart it. No efforts of any description have
been resorted to in order to cause any increase of numbers, which
have been generally pretty uniform. But as it is notorious that
there are many schools in the city in which vigorous efforts have
heen made to weaken the religious principles of the Catholic pupils,
it often happens that the ladies of these schools feel themselves
obliged to overlook numerous breaches of school discipline through
an apprehension that the children, if corrected as such fault
would merit, might be induced to quit the school, and seek admis
sion into schools where their faith might be endangered, and into
which admission is always obtained with the utmost facility.
[The concluding paragraph may be omitted as it is merely a brief
sketch of Miss Mullaly's early efforts to establish the schools in
George's Hill.]

(S°4)-
APPENDIX III.

THE IRISH BRANCH OF THE INSTITUTE OP CHRISTIAN BROTHERS.
The establishment in Ireland of the institute of the Christian
Brothers may be reckoned one of the many blessings which have
followed t^he labours of Nano Nagle ; for had the daughters of the
Presentation never existed, it is doubtful whether Ireland could
now point with legitimate pride to the invaluable services of the
Brothers of the Christian Schools. The existence of the one
naturally suggested the establishment of the other.
Mr. Edmond Rice, a pious and opulent citizen of Waterford,
having witnessed the immense benefits conferred by the schools of
the Presentation Sisters on the female poor of his native city, de
termined to employ his great wealth in establishing similar schools
for the education of boys. This project having met with the warm
approval of the Most Rev. Dr. Hussey, Bishop of Waterford, the
erection of a building suitable for school purposes was commenced
in the year 1803 ; and, two other gentlemen having meanwhile
associated themselves with Mr. Rice, the schools were opened on
the 1st of May, 1804. They had not been long in operation when
their utility became widely known and highly appreciated. Young
men of piety and ability were not wanting who felt a divine call
to join Mr. Rice in the noble work which he had undertaken, and
their reputation, as teachers, stood so deservedly high, that their
class halls were crowded to the utmost capacity, and other commu
nities were anxious to secure their services. At the beginning of
1808, the new institute had already extended itself to Carrick-on-
Suir and Dungarvan ; and, as it now numbered nine members, these
determined to bind themselves in a religious fraternity by annual
vows under episcopal sanction. They, accordingly, pronounced
their vows for the first time on the 15th of August, 1808, in pre
sence of Dr. Power, Bishop of Waterford ; and after that event the
association spread so rapidly that, in the year 1816, we find it
flourishing in Cork, Dublin, Thurles, and Limerick.

Appendix. 505
Up to this date the Brothers had no distinctive rule, but followed,
as far as circumstances would allow, that of the Presentation Nuns.
This system, however, was found to be attended with several in
conveniences, and it was deemed expedient to draw up a special
constitution for the government and guidance of the new society.
The Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, happening to
be in France, in the year 1816, on business concerning the Irish
College at Paris, had an opportunity of studying the government
and educational system of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in
that country, and it occurred to him that their rule, if slightly
modified to suit the peculiar circumstances of Ireland, would be
admirably adapted to meet all the ends which Mr. Rice and his
associates had proposed to themselves. On his return from France,
Dr. Murray submitted to the Brothers his views on this subject,
and, at the same time, sent them for examination the constitutions
of the French congregation, with a view to their adoption should
they merit their approval. The Brothers, rightly judging that this
important matter called for their most serious consideration,
assembled in general meeting at Waterford, on August 15th; 1817,
and after much discussion and mature deliberation agreed to adopt
the French rule, with such modifications, however, as circumstances
rendered either necessary or expedient. The constitutions as framed
at the meeting in Waterford were forwarded to Rome for the
confirmation of the Sovereign Pontiff, and were formally approved
of by Pope Pius VH., on the 5th of September, 1820, in the brief
" Ad Pastoralis dignitatis fastigium."* The Apostolic Brief reached
Ireland early in 1821, and it was determined by the Brothers that
Mhey should pronounce their vows vmder the new constitutions
with all the fitting solemnity which such an important occasion
required. They accordingly assembled, on January 11th, 1822,
* The Brief of Pope Pius VII., and the constitutions ofthe Christian
Brothers as drawn up at Waterford, may be read in the Bullarium S.
Cong, de Propaganda Fide. Tom. IV., pp. 379, et seq. (Roma? typis.
Collegii TJrbani, 1841). In the account of their Institute, published by the
Christian Brothers themselves as an appendix to their translation of Gar-
reau's Life ofthe Ven. De la Salle (Dublin, Powell, 1843), the date of the
Brief is erroneously given as February 5th. It should be September.

jo6 Appendix.
to the number of sixteen, at Mount Sion, Waterford, where, after
going through the exercises of a spiritual retreat, conducted by the
Very Rev. Dr. Kenny, S.J., they pronounced their vows with
much solemnity, on the morning of the 20th, after having previously
received the Holy Eucharist.
The Brief of Pope Pius provided that the government of the new
congregation should be vested in a Superior-General (elected for
ten years), with two Assistants, and a Chapter composed of the
Superiors of houses, and the Visitors for the time being. But in a
-chapter, held at Dublin in 1832, it was resolved to petition the Holy
See that the Superior-General be elected for life, and that all
future Chapters should consist of the Superior-General with his two
Assistants, eight Directors of principal houses and eight Ancient
Brothers. His Holiness was graciously pleased to sanction this
change by rescript, dated August '25th, 1833. Mr. Rice had
governed the congregation from its foundation to the year 1838,
hut increasing age and infirmities compelled him in July of that
year to resign the office of Superior-General, in which he was
.succeeded by brother M. P. Riordan.
As regards the system and working of the Christian Brothers, we
¦cannot do better than quote the report furnished to Parliament on
this head by Thomas Harvey, Esq., one of the Royal Commissioners
of Inquiry into Primary Education (Ireland).*
" The teachers themselves," writes Mr. Harvey, "are members of
the Order, and are specially trained and set apart for their work.
The head quarters of the Institute are in Dublin, where it has a
normal or training institution, and large and flourishing model
¦schools. By the kindness of Mr. Grace, the head of this establish
ment, I was able to see all the internal arrangements, and found
them complete and admirable even to the minutest details. The
novice who wishes to enter the Order has to spend two years in the
training school, learning his profession. He is afterwards sent to
one of the branch establishments in Dublin itself, it may bey or
to the provinces. Here he lives a community life, with one, two,
or more Brothers as the case may be, and according as the circum-
* " Royal Commissionof Inquiry into Primary Education (Ireland), 1870.
Report of Thomas Harvey, Esq., Assistant Commissioner," Vol.11., p. 500.

Appendix. 507
stances of the school may require or can support a larger or smaller
staff of teachers. He does not, however, at once become a life
member of the institute, but has to spend a long probation of eleven
years. During that term he is at liberty to leave the Society, or to
attach himself to any other towards which he feels himself drawn.
At the close of his probation, having now learned and practised all
that is required of him, he is finally admitted, after examination, as
a life member of the institute.
" Although not an ecclesiastical corporation, the institute is after
the strictest sort of religious society. Its members live an ascetic
life, spending most of the time that is not occupied with teaching
in silence, prayer, and fasting. They wear a particular dress, and
are bound by vows of celibacy. Teaching, however, is their pro
fession, and through it they seek to promote the interests of their
Church and their own welfare. They entertain ennobled and lofty-
ideas of the vocation to which they have been called. It is the
highest exercise of Christian charity. They who give their lives to
it are engaged in employments of which the holiest men might be
emulous. There is nothing so excellent as this function of charity,
nothing so meritorious, nothing which can lead to more exalted
jiety. It is no wonder that, with such ideas as these, they are
possessed with a burning zeal in the profession which they have
adopted. I mention these things because they help to give an idea
of the nature of the Society, and its peculiarly denominational as
well as its essentially religious character.
"The Christian Brothers are to be found everywhere throughout
Ireland. They have about sixty establishments, with 20,000 chil
dren in round numbers, taught by 335 masters, and an innumerable
army of monitors chosen from the scholars themselves. There is a
constant demand for new schools connected with the Order, and at
jresent there are applications from a score of places in Ireland, be-
isides others from England, Australia, and the United States, for
branch establishments. Whenever they are set down they are at
once filled to overflowing, and the schools round about are drained
of the Roman Catholic children. They are especially favoured by
the priests; and I am boimd to say also that the parents have much
the same preference for them over other schools for their boys, as

508 Appendix.
for the convent schools for their girls. The children who attend
them are not exclusively of the poorer sort, but represent also the
middle and 'well to do' classes of the community. In one school
I found not only the sons of labourers, but of wealthy shopkeepers,
and even professional men. In the way of secular instruction they
learn everything, from the letters up to natural philosophy. The
books in use in the schools are drawn up and published by the
Society. Those for reading and history are full of religious teach
ing of a special character. They struck me also as pervaded by a
certain fervid nationality, with a tendency to make the children
ardent lovers of their own country, well acquainted with its tra
ditions and the history of its sufferings."
In the schools of the Christian Brothers, as in those of the
Presentation Nuns, the education of the poor is gratuitous. When
the national system of education was first introduced into Ireland,
the Christian Brothers, in compliance with the request of some of
their friends, placed some of their schools in connection with the
National Board, merely as an experiment to see how the system
would work. A few years' experience, however, sufficed to con
vince the Brothers that the restrictions imposed on religious
practices and instruction during school hours would destroy the
religious tone of the education which it is their great aim to
impart, and, accordingly, at a special meeting convened for that
purpose, in 1836, it was unanimously resolved to withdraw the
schools from all connection with the National Board of Education,
though in taking this step the Brothers offended many of their
friends, and made very considerable pecuniary sacrifice.
The Institute of the Christian Brothers, which was established
in so humble a manner in Waterford, little more than seventy years
ago, is now a mighty tree covering all Ireland, and stretching out
its branches into England, America, and all the British colonies.
Friends and foes alike are loud in the praise of the Brothers
and of their schools, and we might easily fill several hundred pages
with such testimonies if we chose to do so, but we confine our
selves to a single quotation with which we shall close' this brief
notice of the Irish Brothers of the Christian Schools: — "The know
ledge communicated in these schools embraces not only reading,

Appendix. 509
writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and book-keeping, but
also an acquaintance with such branches of mathematical science
as are suited to the tastes and talents of the pupils, and to the
stations in life they are destined to occupy. Geometry, mensuration,
drawing, and mechanics become special objects of attention. As
to the manner of communicating knowledge, the most approved
methods have been carefully reduced to practice. But it is to the
communication of religious knowledge that this institution is chiefly
devoted. To this object the members direct their main energies.
The teachers are all under a religious obligation ; they are in the
first instance carefully selected and trained, and they are placed
under a strict system of organization and discipline."*
*" Report of Endowed Schools Commission, Ireland, 1858," p. 130.

(5io)

APPENDIX IV.

MOST REV. JOHN ENGLAND, FIRST BISHOP OF CHARLESTON, U.S.
" The wise good man is gone —
His honoured head lies low,
And his thoughts of power are done,
And his voice's manly flow,
And the pen, that for truth like a sword was drawn,
Is still and soulless now.'.' — Bishop Doane.
John England was born in the city of Cork on the 23rd of Sep
tember, 1786. In early life his father had been obliged to sup
port himself by teaching mathematics and land-surveying ; and in
order to do this with safety, at a period when most rigorous enact
ments were in force against Catholic schoolmasters, he was forced
to take refuge in the mountains, where he remained until the
partial relaxation of the Penal Laws, which followed the declara
tion of American Independence, pemiitted his return to the city.
Here he attained a position of comparative prosperity before the
birth of his eldest son — the future bishop of Charleston. Young
England pursued his early studies at a Protestant school in hisi
native city ; and, being the only Catholic pupil at the school, he was;
subjected to many galling insults on account of his faith, not only
by his companions, but even by his master, whose bigotry got the
better of his charity and of his sense of public duty. Having been
withdrawn from this establishment, he had as private tutor for two-
years a barrister, then resident in Cork, and it is not unnatural to
infer that he was largely indebted to the training received under
this gentleman, for much of that rigid accuracy of thought and keen
logic which distinguished him as a controversialist in later years.
When he had attained his fifteenth year, John England disclosed
to his parents the design which he had formed of embracing the
ecclesiastical state. From the natural buoyancy of his disposition,

Appendix. 5 1 r
few would have suspected that his inclinations tended towards-
that direction, but he always believed himself that his choice of a
state of life had been directly influenced by heaven, and in confirma
tion of this view, used to relate how his mother took him, while yet
an infant, to the chapel, and consecrated him to God, though she
never disclosed this secret to him until after his ordination. His-
parents having readily consented that he should follow his ecclesi
astical vocation, he placed himself, by desire of Dr. Moylan, under
the immediate direction of the Very Rev. Robert M'Carthy, Dean
of Cork, and after two years left his native city, on the 31st of
August, 1803, to pursue his studies in the college of Carlow.
John England had not been long in Carlow when he exhibited
marked signs not only of extraordinary ability, but of that
apostolic zeal by which he was afterwards so eminently dis
tinguished. In his second year of residence he commenced to de
liver in the parish church a series of catechetical instructions which
soon attracted crowds of admiring listeners. He also voluntarily
undertook to teach the Christian Doctrine to the men of the North
Cork Regiment of Militia, then stationed in Carlow, under the
command of Colonel Longfield; and he was, moreover, instrumental
in procuring the establishment in the town of male and female:
schools, which latter afterwards suggested the expediency of in
troducing the Presentation Order into the parish.
On the completion of his ecclesiastical studies young England
was promoted to the priesthood in Cork, by Dr. Moylan, on October
10th, 1808, and was immediately after appointed chaplain to the
Presentation Convent, and lecturer in the Cathedral. In this.
latter capacity he delivered a series of discourses on the Old and
the New Testaments, which attracted a large share of public atten
tion at the time, and were eagerly listened to by Protestants as well
as Catholics. But it would be a mistake to suppose that his.
labours ended here, for his zeal would never rest, and Cork afforded
an ample field for its exercise. In 1809 he superintended the
buildingandinternal arrangement of the Magdalene Asylum, edited
a periodical called the Religious Repertoire, and established in the
extensive parish of St. Mary Shandon, a circulating library to
check and counteract the evil effects arising from the dissemination

512 Appendix.
of dangerous publications. When his friends would remonstrate
with him, and point out the danger to which he exposed his health
by over-exertion, he would reply : " If I only prevent one sin I shall
consider myself well recompensed for all my exertions ; perhaps
I may prevent many." Actuated by this spirit we find him next
discharging the duties of chaplain to the city gaol — an office which
he undertook gratuitously, as the Government did not at that time
allow a salary for the services of the Catholic chaplain. In 1812
he was appointed President of St. Mary's Diocesan Seminary ; and
having soon after undertaken, through motives of charity,* the task
of editing the Cork Mercantile Chronicle — the organ of the
Catholics and Liberals in the south — we find him taking a leading
part in the absorbing questions of that day, his vigorous pen being
employed principally in advocating Catholic Emancipation, and in
denouncing the " Veto." A Cork paper, reviewing after his death
this period of Dr. England's life, says : — "It was then, when all was
difficulty — when every look was supercilious or doubtful — when
the nation's step was timid — when faction triumphed,' and the
people crouched — it was then that Dr. England stood forth, the
undaunted champion of Ireland and of her religion. Animated
with the loftiest impulses, he looked neither to the right nor to
the left ; the craven Catholic, who would barter his religion for a
mess of pottage, who would give power in spiritual affairs to the
enemies of his holy faith, he encountered with irresistible eloquence,
and was mainly instrumental in silencing the Veto agitation. With
the Orange bigot, fenced round as he was with bad laws, he wrestled
with an energy and zeal which will be long remembered in the city
of Cork. Shut out by his sacred profession from any prospect of
* This act was afterwards alleged against Dr. England as a grievous
fault by an unfortunate schismatical priest in Philadelphia, named Hogan.
The fact was that the then Bishop of Cork and several of the leading eccle
siastics in the diocese, purchased the paper far the benefit of the family
of the proprietor, a most worthy man, who had become bankrupt ; and they
requested Dr. England to look after the management of the journal, and
act as trustee for the children. Thus it will be seen that Dr. England's
conduct, far from being reprehensible, was prompted solely by motives of
charity. See "Bishop England's Works," Vol. V. p. 132, et seq.

Appendix, 513
temporal benefit from Catholic emancipation, he laboured from the
highest motives to cheer on the desponding spirits of the Catholic
community, as well as to extend the influence of the religion he
professed ; and mingling with this religious enthusiasm could be
easily discerned that daring patriotism which, under other circum
stances and in another sphere, would have made him one of the
most successful agitators that ever pressed forward a nation's claim
to a civil and religious freedom. With a massive and impressive
eloquence peculiarly his own — with a depth of thought and bold
ness of action for which few men were his equals — with a character
istic resoluteness —
' Which saw no danger, and confessed no fear,'
he was peculiarly suited to the times in which he lived ; and, had
he remained amongst us, would have assisted in the mighty triumph
of religious principle over bigotry and faction."*
In the year 1817, on the death of the Rev. James Mahony, Dr.
England was appointed parish priest of Bandon, by Most Rev. Dr.
Murphy, who had succeeded Dr. Moylan as Bishop of Cork.
Bandon was at that time a very hotbed of Orangeism; but in a
short time the mildness and conciliatory spirit of Dr. England dis
armed all hostility, and won for him the respect of even the
bitterest enemies of his faith. Having conferred great services on
religion during the brief period of his pastorate in Bandon, he was
selected by the Holy See to labour in another land, where there
was greater need of his splendid ability and apostolic zeal, and was
accordingly consecrated first Bishop of Charleston, TJ. S., on the
21st of September, 1820, the consecrating prelate being Most Rev.
Dr. Murphy, assisted by Dr. Marum, Bishop of Ossory, and Dr.
Kelly, Bishop of Richmond.
In connection with Dr. England's appointment to the Episcopal
See of Charleston, the able biographer of the great Dr. Doyle re
lates an interesting and very curious anecdote. " The late Stephen
Coppinger, of the Catholic Association," writes Mr. Fitzpatrick,
" informed the writer of these pages that he had been himself as-
* See Cork Southern Reporter, May 12th, 1842.
2 L

514 Appendix.
sured by Dr. England, Bishop of Charleston, North Carolina, that
he (Dr» England) almost personally organised, in 1828, a force of
40,000 men, which, headed by General Montgomery, the son of an
Irish refugee, was intended for the invasion of Ireland had Eman
cipation continued to have been withheld. Mr. Coppinger added
that Sir T. Wyse, author of an 'Historical Sketch of the Catholic
Association,' was aware of this fact, and made an indirect allusion
to it in that work ; and further, that the Duke of Wellington was
in full possession of Bishop England's scheme. ' This is a very
important historical fact,' observes Mr. Coppingerj ' and by no
means generally known. Even O'Connell himself knew very little
about it.' Reverting to Dr. England, Mr. Coppinger said, ' He had
been editor of an influential Cork paper, and conducted it with
great patriotic spirit and ability. The hierarchy rather feared his
influence and views, which were decidedly democratic, and a memor
rial, signed by nearly all the Bishops in Ireland, was sent to Rome,
praying his Holiness to appoint Mm to some vacant foreign See
Some of the Episcopal body seemed to fear that on the death of the
Bishops of Cork or Cloyne, Dr. England might be elected to the
dignity; and, whether true or false, he was suspected to have been
tinged with revolutionary principles. Dr. Coppinger, the venerable
patriot prelate of Cloyne, entertained a great regard for Dr. Eng
land, as well as a hearty appreciation of his talents, and refused
to sign the memorial to Rome. This fact was communicated to
me by Dr. Coppinger himself.' " *
Dr. England> accompanied by his youngest sister, sailed from
Belfast for the United States on the 10th of October, 1820, and
after an exceedingly perilous voyage arrived in Charleston on the
20th of December in the same year. We do not purpose giving
an account of Dr. England's distinguished career in the Episcopacy,
the more so as we have already lightly touched on the subject in
this volume (see pp. 268, et seqi). Let it suffice to say that it was-
honourable alike to himself and to the country which gave him'
birth, while it was fruitful of incalculable benefits to the infant
* " Life, Times, and Correspondence of Dr. Doyle," by W. J. Fitz
patrick, Vol. II., p. 5

Appendix. 515
Church of America. Notwithstanding the active life which he
led, and the many pressmg demands upon his time, Dr. England
. was a voluminous writer, and has been styled, " the light of the
American Hierarchy." His writings, which embrace a variety of
subjects, all treated with masterly ability, have been collected and
edited in five large volumes by his immediate successor, Most Rev.
Ignatius Aloysius Reynolds, Bishop of Charleston (Baltimore :
John Murphy, 1849). For a further account of Dr. England the
reader may consult the notices prefixed to the first volume of his
works.

5i6 )

APPENDIX V.

RELIGIOUS CEREMONY OBSERVED ON THE OCCASION OF
CELEBRATING THE JUBILEE OF A NUN.
As very few nuns live to pass the fiftieth anniversary of their
religious profession, the celebration of a Jubilee is an event of
rare occurrence, and is consequently attended with much solemnity.
We subjoin an account of the religious ceremony observed on the
occasion. Places are prepared in the choir for the Bishop and two deacons;
on a table are laid a staff decorated with flowers, and a beautiful
wreath of roses. At the end of None, the Bishop and deacons
come to the choir, and the Jubilarian is led to the place prepared
for her by the eldest religious, where she is interrogated by the
Celebrant as follows: —
Celebrant. Quid petis Soror ?
Jubilarian. Peto veniam negligentiarum a me in hoc Sacro
Ordine commissarum et gratiam perseverantias usque in finem.
(I petition for the pardon of all negligences that have been
committed by me in this Holy Order, and beg the grace of perse
verance to the end.)
She then offers her candle, and the choir sings the Anthem : —
Ne projicias me Domine.
(Cast me not away from thy face, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me).
The Chantress chants the Fiftieth, Hundredth, and Hundred and
Fiftieth Psalms. After which the Antiphon m repeated, with
Pater Noster, Kyrie Eleison, Versicles, and the following
prayer: —
Almighty and Everlasting God, who didst appoint the fiftieth
year to be observed of old by the Fathers, distinguishing it by the
mystical name of Jubilee, and making it joyful to all by imparting

Appendix. 5 1 7
-to them full remission and liberty ; grant, we beseech Thee, to
this Thy servant, who has now, by Thy mercy, completed her
•fiftieth year in this Sacred Order, that she may obtain a plenary
Indulgence of all the sins and negligences which she has com
mitted through human frailty, whether in this state of religion,
or before her entrance into it, that, persevering in her holy resolu
tion with joyfulness of heart and thanksgiving, she may arrive by
;an immaculate path to the promised joy of eternal felicity, through
'Christ our Lord. Amen. Let us pray.
Lord God Almighty, who by a singular mystery of the number
fifty, deliveredst by thy servant Moses, Thy law to the children
of Israel on the fiftieth day from their coming out of Egypt, and
-again didst infuse the law of grace by the coming of the Holy
Ghost on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of thy only
.begotten Son, our Lord, we submissively entreat Thee to look
with a propitious eye on this thy servant who has persevered the
-same number of years in Thy holy service, that being humbly
.subject to Thy law, she may be enabled to receive the grace of the
Holy Ghost, and continue in it until the end, through Christ our
JLord. Amen. Let us pray.
Protect, O Lord, this Thy servant by the patronage of the
Blessed Mary ever Virgin. Grant we beseech thee, O Almighty
God, that we, who are weighed down by the burden of our sins,
may be relieved by the prayers of our holy Father, St. Augustine,
thy Bishop and Confessor. Amen.
Tlie Celebrant sprinkles her with holy water; she then stands up
and the Chantress sings : —
Spes mea Domine, a juventute mea.
Jubilarian sings: —
In te confirmata sum ex utero ; de veutre matris mese tu es
Protector meus.
She then kneels ,whilst lie says tlie following prayers : —

51 8 Appendix. Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who art the true way which leads to lift,
and without whom no one comes to the Father, and who hase
mercifully conducted this Thy servant through the way of
monastic discipline, from her youth unto this time of her venera
ble old age, during a course of fifty years ; grant us, we beseech
Thee, that, being confirmed in Thy charity, she may run in the way
of Thy commandments with an unwearied mind'; and, burning
with the flames of Thy love, she may, obtain the recompense of
eternal salvation, which she desires with her whole heart, who
livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
Let us pray.
O God, who hast not only delivered us from the vanity of the
world, but likewise enkindled a love of supervocation, descend
and purify our breasts, and pour forth grace on us, by which we
may persevere, so that, under Thy protection, we may faithfully
comply with what, through Thy bounty, we have promised ; and
being ever mindful of our profession, we may come to the
enjoyment of the things which Thou hast vouchsafed to promise
to those who believe in Thee, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Then lie blesses the staff, and says : —
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, the Author of
invincible virtue, and Sanctifier of all things, who vouchsafest to
redeem the world, and subdue our enemies by the most Sacred
Cross, bless, .J. we beseech Thee, this staff, which is an emblem of
the same Holy Cross; and grant that she who makes use of
it, in remembrance of Thy Passion and Death, may be replenished
with heavenly benedictions and graces, to the end that she may
direct her steps in such a manner, as to make it her earnest
desire, above all things, constantly to please Thee ; and by the
assistance of Thy inspirations to perfect with her whole heart
those things which are agreeable to Thee ; and may the right
hand of Thy power always and everywhere accompany her,
through our Lord Jesus Christ; Amen.'

Appendix. 519
At the blessing ofthe crown the Celebrant says: —
0 Lord, who hast vouchsafed to promise a crown of glory to
those who fight with fidelity and persevere to the end, propitiously
extend the right hand of Thy blessing .J. upon this crown, a
symbol of future reward ; and grant to Thy servant, who is about
to wear it, so to complete the course of her life, that she may be
worthy to receive from Thee, that beautiful diadem of the
Kingdom of God, a crown of glery and h<m°ur, composed of
precious stones, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Deacon then incenses and sprinkles the staff and crown
raying : —
Asperges me, &c.
(Sprinkle me O Lord, with hyssop and I shall be cleansed,
wash me and I shall become whiter than snow.)
Presenting tlie staff to the Jubilarian, the Celebrant says : —
Receive this blessed staff, a type of the Cross of Christ, for the
support of your age and Jubilee, and as a sign that the Divine
assistance, protection, and help will never be wanting to you.
It is given not so much for a relief of corporal strength as to
obtain from Jesus Christ, our Saviour, spiritual fortitude against
all your enemies, whether visible or invisible ; so that, supported
by it, and strengthened by the Divine assistance, you may securely
pass through the Jordan of this world, and happily arrive at the
land of eternal promise. In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Placing the crown on her head, he says : —
Receive this crown, which is most acceptable for its beauty
and odour, as a sign of joyfulness and incorruption, to remind you
of the crown of justice which the Lord will bestow on those who
love FTim to the end. In the name of the Father, &c.
The Celebrant then gives her tlie lighted taper, and blesses her with
the following benedictions : —
May God the Father, who created you, bestow His'hlessing •{•
and preserve you from all evil of sin, and from pain, both of body
and mind.
Jubilarian answers: Amen.
May God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed you

520 Appendix.
with His precious blood, blefes you «J. and grant you peace of heart
in this present life, and the grace aud peace of eternity in the
' future. Jubilarian. Amen.
May God the Holy Ghost who sanctified you, look upon you,.
have mercy on you, and bless you »J« with the privilege of a sacred
Jubilee, and every spiritual benediction in heavenly things, by
means of which you may hereafter be found in the company of
those of whom it is said, Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house,,
O Lord ; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever.
Jubilarian. Amen.
The Anthem "Asperges," is repeated.
The "Te Deum," is solemnly sung, during which she is greeted by
the Religious with the kiss of peace. After the "Te Deum," the-
Celebrant sings the Versicle and Prayer of the Blessed Trinity, which-
concludes the ceremony.

THE END.

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