 | |
| Abbreviation | OSU |
|---|---|
| Named after | Saint Ursula |
| Predecessor | Angelines |
| Established | 1572; 453 years ago (1572) |
| Founder | Angela Merici |
| Type | Enclosed religious order |
Prioress General | Susan Flood |
| Affiliations | Catholic Church |
TheUrsulines, also known as theOrder of Saint Ursula (post-nominals:OSU), is anenclosed religious order of women that in 1572 branched off from theAngelines, also known as the Company of Saint Ursula. The Ursulines trace their origins to the Angeline foundressAngela Merici and likewise place themselves under the patronage ofSaint Ursula. While the Ursulines took up a monastic way of life under theRule of Saint Augustine, the Angelines operate as asecular institute. The largest group within the Ursulines is the Ursulines of the Roman Union.
In 1572 inMilan, underCharles Borromeo, theArchbishop of Milan, members of theCompany of Saint Ursula chose to become anenclosed religious order.Pope Gregory XIII placed them under theRule of Saint Augustine. Especially in France, groups of the company began to re-shape themselves as cloistered nuns, undersolemn vows, and dedicated to the education of girls within the walls of their monasteries.[1]
In the following century, the Ursulinenuns were strongly encouraged and supported byFrancis de Sales. They were called the "Ursuline nuns" as distinct from the "federated Ursulines" of the company, who preferred to follow the original way of life. Both forms of life continued to spread throughout Europe and beyond.[2]
At the beginning of the 18th century, the period of its greatest growth, the order was represented by 20 congregations, 350convents and from 15,000 to 20,000nuns.[3][4]
The Ursulinesisters were not the first Catholic nuns to land in the new world. They were preceded by theHieronymites in 1585 in Mexico City, who established the convent of San Jerónimo y Santa Paula.[5] In 1639,Mother Marie of the Incarnation, two other Ursuline nuns, threeAugustinian sisters and aJesuit priest left France for a mission inNew France in what is now theProvince of Quebec, Canada. When they arrived in the summer of 1639, they studied the languages of the native peoples and then began to educate the native children.[6] They taught reading and writing as well as needlework, embroidery, drawing, and other domestic arts.[7][8] TheUrsuline convent inQuebec City is the oldest educational institution for women in North America.[9] Their work helped to preserve a religious spirit among the French population and to evangelize native peoples of New France.
The first Ursulines arrived at Mobile, Alabama, in 1719 (though information is contradictory from remaining and available sources). In 1727, 12 Ursulines from France landed in what is nowNew Orleans. The entire group of Ursulines were the first Roman Catholic nuns in what is now the United States. Both properties were part of the French colony ofLouisiana (New France). They came to the country under the auspices ofPope Pius III andLouis XV of France. Following theLouisiana Purchase in 1803, their charter came under the jurisdiction of the United States.[10]
They instituted a convent and school, both of which continue today.[11]Ursuline Academy (New Orleans) is the oldest continually operating Catholic school in the United States and the oldest girls school in the United States.[12] The Ursuline tradition holds many United States firsts in its dedication to the growth of individuals, including the first female pharmacist, first woman to contribute a book of literary merit, first convent, first free school and first retreat center for ladies, first classes for female slaves (which continued until abolition), free women of color (a unique New Orleans group also known asCreoles of Color) and Native Americans. In the Mississippi Valley region, Ursulines provided the first social welfare center.[13]
TheOld Ursuline Convent is located in the Vieux Carre (New Orleans'French Quarter). The building now houses the Archdiocese of New Orleans' Archives as well as operating as a tourist attraction/ museum with public tours available almost daily. They had a well established presence as a hospital by the time of the US Revolutionary War. Ursuline sisters treated in the same building both British and United States soldiers wounded in the war. They may have been the first group of women propagating the ideals of diversity in a society, which flowed directly from the teachings of St Ursula and her followers.
Ursuline nuns, primarily from France and Germany, settled in other parts of North America includingBoston (1820),Brown County, Ohio (1845),Cleveland (1850),New York City (1855),Louisville (1858),Chatham, Ontario (1860), andBruno (1916) andPrelate (1919) in Saskatchewan. These foundations spread to other parts of North America includingToledo,Youngstown, OH,Mount St. Joseph, Kentucky[14]Santa Rosa, Texas, andMexico City.[15]
The members wore a habit consisting of a black dress bound by a leathern girdle, a black sleeveless cloak, and a close-fitting headdress with a white veil and a longer black veil.[16] Since Vatican II they were no longer required to wear habits and today many opt out of wearing a habit.
Today the monastic Order of St. Ursula (post-nominals OSU) has as its largest group the Ursulines of the Roman Union (described in this article) which consists of Ursulines of the Eastern Province, Ursulines of the Central Province and Ursulines of the Western Province. The other branch is theCompany of St. Ursula, commonly called the "Angelines", who follow the original form of life established by their foundress.
Ursuline Academy, Springfield, Illinois was founded in 1857 by Mother Mary Joseph Wolfe and operated from 1857 until 2007.
In 1767,Nano Nagle stayed with the Ursuline Sisters on Rue des Ursulines in Paris while visiting her cousin Margaret Butler who had been professed just one year previously. In 1771, she established the first Ursuline convent in Ireland on Cove Lane in Cork. The community was made up of four Cork women – who were professed at the Ursuline Convent in the Rue St. Jacques in Paris – together with a reverend mother.[17][3] In 1825, the sisters and their boarding students relocated toBlackrock. The first Ursuline primary and second-level schools were founded at Blackrock.[18]
At the request of James Butler, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Anastasia Tobin went to Cork to train as a religious. She was professed at the Ursuline convent in September 1787, and returned toThurles where she commenced teaching. Joined in 1796 by two others also trained at Cork, a small Ursuline community was founded at Thurles. In 1816, four sisters from Thurles established a community in Waterford.[19] In 1932, Providence School was opened to serve the needs of the travelling community.[20]
In 1839,George Joseph Plunket Browne,Bishop of Galway, brought the Ursuline Order of nuns to Dangan on the Oughterard road. In 1844, Browne was translated to theDiocese of Elphin. The Ursulines Order followed him to Elphin, first to Summerhill in Athlone and then to Sligo. He raffled his carriage to raise funds to compensate the sisters for the financial loss they suffered by removing to Sligo. There they took up residence at "Seaville", the former house ofBishop Burke, Browne's predecessor, and renamed it St. Joseph's Convent. Nazareth free primary school was built in 1851.[21] In 1952 the Ursulines establishedSt. Angela's College, Sligo for the training of students and teachers in Home Economics, which became recognised college of theNational University of Ireland in 1978, and since 2003 is a college of theNational University of Ireland, Galway. in 2022 St Angela's College became a constituent college ofAtlantic Technological University[22]
The Irish Ursuline Union was established in 1978.
In theUnited States, the Ursulines founded two well-knownCatholicwomen's colleges.Ursuline College inPepper Pike, Ohio, was founded in 1871 by the Ursuline Sisters ofCleveland. It was followed in 1904 byCollege of New Rochelle, now closed, but was located inNew Rochelle, New York.
In 1919, the Ursulines founded a university-levelliberal arts college for women inLondon, Ontario, Canada. Currently calledBrescia University College (Brescia College at its foundation), it remains the only women-only university-level college in Canada and is affiliated with theUniversity of Western Ontario.
From 1922 to 1975 theMary Manse College inToledo, Ohio, was operated by the Ursulines. It was awomen's college until 1971, then wascoeducational for its final four years.
In 1927, the Ursuline Sisters of the Eastern Province restructured Catholic education inElkton, Maryland, by assisting in the founding of Immaculate Conception School, originally located at the corner of Cathedral Street and Singerly Avenue in historicElkton, Maryland. The Ursulines ministered within the schoolhouse from 1927 to 1930, followed by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, Glen Ridde.
in 1931, The Ursulines establishedSt. Ursula's College inToowoomba alongsideDownlands College which was established by theMissionaries of the Sacred Heart
In 1932, the Great Falls Junior College for Women was founded inGreat Falls, Montana. Now theUniversity of Providence, it has an open admission policy.
In 1921, the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville established Sacred Heart Junior College, which was expanded into a four-year college, Ursuline College, in 1938. Ursuline College merged withBellarmine College in 1968, now Bellarmine University.[23]
The Mount Saint Joseph Junior College for Women operated between 1925 and 1950 inMaple Mount, Kentucky, with the Ursulines offering co-educational extension courses at Owensboro. The Ursulines merged their extension courses with Mount Saint Joseph Junior College in 1950, creating the co-educationalBrescia University that remains in operation.
In 1966, the Ursulines established inTaiwan what became theWenzao Ursuline College of Languages.
From 1968 to 2003 the Ursuline Order operated Ursula College at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. It is a co-educational residential college for approximately 200 undergraduates. In 2003 the college was sold to the university and was renamedUrsula Hall. The Ursuline tradition has been retained in the Hall's high educational standards, retention of Ursuline symbols and livery, and the observance in October of Ursies Weekend for relaxing and socializing before November exams.
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Ursulinesecondary education schools are found across the United States and other countries. The first school wasUrsuline Academy, began in 1727 inNew Orleans, Louisiana. It is the oldest all-girls school in the country. TheAcademy of Mount St. Ursula High School[24] in theBronx is the oldest all-girls Catholic high school in New York State, founded in 1855, the same yearSacred Heart Academy in Louisville, Kentucky, was founded.
In New York City, in 1873, James Boyce (1826–1876) invited the Ursuline nuns to found a girls' academy in St. Teresa's parish on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The new school, called St. Teresa's Ursuline Academy, located at 137 Henry Street, was incorporated in 1881 and as of 1891 had a faculty of five sisters teaching 62 pupils.[25] In 1899, the Ursulines bought a two-story, wood-frame house farther uptown in Manhattan, at the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 93rd Street, converted the house to a school building, and changed the name of their school to simply "Ursuline Academy". In 1905, a news article announced plans for a twenty-four-foot wide, four-story seminary building to be built on the site to the design of architect Joseph H. McGuire.[26] The new building was constructed immediately to the west of Gen. Scott's old house, in its former garden.[27] The order occupied both buildings until selling them in 1912, and moving the school to the Ursuline Provinculate at Grand Boulevard and 165th Street in the Bronx, New York.[28] (Both the house and school building were demolished for the construction of theFrancis F. Palmer House beginning in 1916.
The Ursuline School inNew Rochelle, New York, is a school for girls in grades 6-12 and is closely affiliated with the nearbyIona Preparatory School.[citation needed]
Other notable all-female Ursuline secondary schools in the United States includeUrsuline Academy of Dallas, Texas,Ursuline Academy in Saint Louis, Missouri (founded in 1848), andUrsuline Academy inWilmington, Delaware.[citation needed]
In theLondon Borough of Newham, United Kingdom, is the all-female girl schoolSt. Angela's, named after the founder of the Ursulines. Only the sixth form centre of the school allows males. The same applies to theUrsuline High School in Wimbledon, which was selected as a Regional Winner - "London Secondary" in the Church School Awards 2011.[29] Ursulines also haveSt Ursula's Convent School in Greenwich which educates girls aged 11 to 16 andcoeducationalUrsuline College, Westgate-on-Sea.
The British philosopher and authorCelia Green has written extensively about her time at the Ursuline High School (nowUrsuline Academy Ilford) inIlford, London.[30] Angela de Merici inspired the Ursuline Sisters to provide young women with an opportunity to achieve their full potential. Throughout their lives, students continue to remain part of the Ursuline community and continue to carry forward the legacy of Angela de Merici, by serving their society.[31]
There is an Ursuline Convent, inRanchi,Jharkhand, India.[32]
In Thailand, the Ursulines established Mater Dei School inBangkok in 1928. Its elite alumni include KingsAnanda Mahidol andBhumibol Adulyadej.[33] Although an all-girls school, it enrolled boys from Kindergarten through Primary 2.
In Indonesia, the Ursulines established thePrincess Juliana School inBatavia (1912), after its initial establishment as an Ursuline Convent in 1859. Now the school is known asSt. Ursula Catholic School and is an all-girls school.[citation needed]
Like their colleges, not all Ursuline secondary schools have remained single-sex. Villa Angela Academy, founded in 1878, in Cleveland, Ohio, merged with Marianist (Society of Mary) St. Joseph High School in 1990 forming the coed Villa Angela St. Joseph High School. The aforementioned Ursuline Academy in Delaware permits male students in grades 1–3, andUrsuline High School inYoungstown, Ohio, founded in 1905, is fully co-educational. Other Ursuline secondary schools in the United States includeBeaumont School inCleveland Heights, Ohio (founded in 1850); Ursuline Academy in San Antonio, TX (founded 1851 - closed 1992);Ursuline Academy inCincinnati, Ohio (founded in 1898);St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio; theUrsuline Academy of Dedham inDedham, Massachusetts;Ursuline High School inSanta Rosa, California (founded in 1880);Ursuline Academy in Springfield, Illinois (founded 1857), which was coed from 1981 until it closed in 2007; and St. Joseph's Ursuline Academy in Malone, New York (closed in 1977 and was coed at least from the mid-1960s). There are Ursuline secondary schools in Ireland inThurles,County Tipperary;Waterford,Blackrock,County Cork; andSligo, Ireland, which have remained single sex.[citation needed]
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