| THE STORY OF THE PRESENTATION SISTERS BEGINS WITH NANO NAGLE BORN IN IRELAND DURING THE PERSECUTION OF IRISH CATHOLICS UNDER THE ENGLISH PENAL LAWS. HAVING RECEIVED HER EDUCATION ON THE CONTINENT SHE RETURNED TO CORK, IRELAND, ONLY TO BE CONFRONTED BY THE SQUALOR, IGNORANCE AND ACCOMPANYING SOCIAL ILLS WHICH SURROUNDED HER. NANO NAGLE CONCERN FOR HER PEOPLE, HER COURAGE AND HER PERSEVERANCE ENABLED HER TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS AND SUPPORT OTHER WORKS OF CHARITY FOR THOSE WHO WERE POOR AND OPPRESSED. TO GIVE STABILITY TO HER WORKS, SHE SOUGHT THE SERVICES OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY AND ARRANGED FOR THE URSULINE SISTERS TO COME TO IRELAND. WHEN NANO REALISED THAT THE URSULINE RULE DID NOT ALLOW THE SISTERS TO LEAVE THE CLOISTER AND THUS TO SEEK OUT AND SERVE THOSE WHO WERE POOR IN THEIR OWN ENVIRONMENT, SHE ESTABLISHED, IN 1775 A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY, THE SISTERS OF CHARITABLE INSTRUCTION OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS, LATER TO BECOME THE SISTERS OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. IRONICALLY AFTER HER DEATH THE SISTERS THEMSELVES WERE TO CHOOSE ENCLOSURE BELIEVING IT WOULD BRING SECURITY TO THE NEWLY-FOUNDED GROUP. BY 1800 FIVE MORE FOUNDATIONS HAD BEEN MADE AND IN 1805 POPE PIUS VII NAMED THE CONGREGATION AS AN INSTITUTE OF PONTIFICAL RIGHT WITH SOLEMN VOWS. THE GROWTH OF THE YOUNG CONGREGATION WAS SLOW BUT STEADY. THE NUMBER OF FOUNDATIONS IN IRELAND GREW AND FOUNDATIONS WERE ALSO MADE IN NEWFOUNDLAND, ENGLAND, INDIA, THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. TODAY THE WORLDWIDE FAMILY OF PRESENTATION SISTERS CONTINUES THE WORK OF HELPING THE POOR AND OPPRESSED AS NANO NAGLE HAD INTENDED. |
| ON FRIDAY 20 JULY 1866 THE FIRST PRESENTATION SISTERS LEFT THEIR HOMELAND, FAMILY AND FRIENDS, AND SET OUT FROM FERMOY TO MAKE THE LONG PERILOUS JOURNEY TO AUSTRALIA. A GROUP OF FOUR PROFESSED SISTERS AND FIVE POSTULANTS ARRIVED AT HOBART THREE MONTHS LATER TO OPEN, AT RICHMOND, THE FIRST PRESENTATION CONVENT AND SCHOOL IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. SEVEN YEARS LATER SIX SISTERS AND A POSTULANT FROM LIMERICK ARRIVED IN MELBOURNE TO FOUND A CONVENT AND SCHOOL AT ST KILDA IN VICTORIA. MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE BORDER IN NEW SOUTH WALES IN THE FLOURISHING BUT SPARSELY POPULATED RIVERINA, THE RECENTLY ESTABLISHED TOWN AND DISTRICT OF WAGGA WAGGA WAS APPEALING FOR RELIGIOUS. AGAIN THE PRESENTATION SISTERS ANSWERED THE CALL AND IN MAY 1874, FIVE SISTERS ARRIVED FROM KILDARE. TWO MORE FOUNDATIONS FOLLOWED, IN 1886 FROM THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF LUCAN, TO LISMORE AND IN 1891 TO GERALDTON FROM SNEEM. ON THEIR ARRIVAL IN THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES THE PRESENTATION SISTERS CONTINUED TO ANSWER THE CALL OF THE NEEDY THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT. THIS SOMETIMES INVOLVED MAKING LONG, HAZARDOUS JOURNEYS TO SCATTERED OUTPOSTS. SISTERS FROM WAGGA WAGGA ESTABLISHED NEW FOUNDATIONS IN ELSTERNWICK (1882), HAY (1883) AND LONGREACH (1900). FROM HAY A GROUP TRAVELLED IN 1900 TO THE GOLDFIELDS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. THIS GROUP FORMED A UNION WITH THE GERALDTON CONGREGATION IN 1969. VAST OUTBACK DISTANCES AND INTENSE HEAT WERE NO BARRIER TO THESE INDOMITABLE WOMEN. FOUNDATIONS, BOTH RURAL AND URBAN, FLOURISHED IN SPITE OF EXTREME POVERTY AND GREAT HARDSHIP, LARGELY BECAUSE OF THE CLOSE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE SISTERS AND THE PEOPLE THEY SERVED. IN 1966, THE CENTENARY OF THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN FOUNDATION, FIVE SISTERS ARRIVED IN THE AITAPE REGION OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA TO BEGIN A NEW FOUNDATION. NANO NAGLE’S VISION CONTINUES IN THE CHOICE OF PRESENTATION SISTERS TO WORK WITH AND ON BEHALF OF THE MANY INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES AND GROUPS ON THE MARGINS OF SOCIETY. |
