Celebration of 250 Years of Presentation Sisters: 18.12.25
St. Peter & Paul’s Church, Portlaoise
Introduction:
We gather on sacred ground this Thursday morning, exactly six days ahead of the date of the founding of the Presentation Sisters by Venerable Nano Nagle and her three companions on Christmas Eve, 1775. Christmas Eve 2025 will see the beginning of a year of celebration worldwide continuing through 2026, honouring Nano’s legacy of education and service to the poor.
A proud legacy that has deep roots in our Diocese. Tullow Street, Carlow was founded in 1811 and from Carlow, Portlaoise was founded in 1824; Kildare in 1830; Stradbally in 1852; Portarlington in 1854; Mountmellick in 1854; Clondalkin in 1857 and Baltinglass in 1873.
And from Portlaoise, Bagenalstown was founded in 1837 and Clane in 1839. From Kildare, Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia was founded in 1874. Indeed the Sisters were accompanied by a priest from St. Patrick’s College, Carlow then on that missionary voyage, he is buried out at Emo. And from Clondalkin, Lucan was founded in 1867, Warrenmount in 1892, Lismore, New South Wales in 1896 and Rockford Manor in 1958.
I am conscious this is a lot of information to take in on one sitting. I promise I won’t examine you on these dates later, and I hope I have accurately reflected them.
I warmly welcome the Presentation Sisters who are present, I welcome the staff and students from Scoil Chríost Rí. I welcome all of you who join us. We are indeed on sacred ground. It’s a pleasure to be with you all this day as Scoil Chríost Rí takes its moment to honour the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the Presentation Sisters. And so as with all celebrations we look back, in order to be stronger going forward and so we pray …
Homily:
“We go forward in hope, in trust and in love.
Thank the Lord for the blessings that flowed from above.
We remember the times that have served us so well.
Two hundred and fifty years to tell”
So the chorus goes of Cecilia Molloy’s hymn that honours the 250th Anniversary. The Book of Sirach captures beautifully the legacy of those who planted the initial seed in Cork in 1775 “their family line will go on forever, and their fame will never fade”.
A line from the book ‘Nano Nagle – the Life and the Legacy’ tells us that the new congregation began like all, very simply with a group of women gathering to live together. “The group comprised Nano, and three other Cork women: Mary Fouhy, Elizabeth Burke and Mary Ann Collins. On 24 December 1775, they commenced their novitiate, delivering themselves up unreservedly to the practice of the most severe monastic discipline”[1]. They were initially called ‘The Sisters of the Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus’, quite a tongue twister! A year later they were professed by Dr. Butler, the Bishop of Cork as Nano continued to examine continental societies to find a rule and a constitution that might best meet the needs of her convent. In other words students of Chríost Rí, she was trying to find what might best serve her purpose.
I mentioned many dates earlier, Scoil Chríost Rí opened in 1969, so in comparison to the foundation dates of convent communities referenced earlier, Scoil Chríost Rí is only a toddler. But a very special one. One that continues to exude all that Nano inspired a school to be. The great JKL, Bishop James Doyle, sent the Sisters to Portlaoise “to promote religious instruction and provide education for the poor of the town”. The first three Presentation sisters here were Magdalen Breen, Angela Mooney and Chantal Wilmerding.
It’s hard for us 250 years later to get our heads around how an 18th Century Cork woman could have a vision then that still unfolds in your classrooms, laboratories, corridors and sports halls. It shows us that the Congregation of the Presentation Sisters remains strong, while the number of sisters is obviously not what it was in the past, the values instilled by Nano are lived out by staff and students. Nano’s life was animated with the Spirit of God. As Nano’s love for God grew, so too did her call to serve the poor, to establish her congregation and to become a champion of Catholic education. In a world that is very bruite agus briste, we only need to think of Ukraine, Gaza, Bondi Beach to mention but a few, where the polemic has become highly charged, volatile and as we are seeing daily, with a huge loss of life. This is not the world Nano sought to create.
Our gospel from St. John comes from the later Mass on Christmas Day: “In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God”[2]. It was in Mary, Our Lady that the Word of God became flesh, that the Word became a living person. Dr. William Coppinger in a eulogy for Nano said “how often we seen her, returning through the darkness of the night, dripping with rain, moving along by the faint glimmering of a wretched lantern”[3]. Staff and Students on your shoulders rests the future of our planet. May the ‘Lady with the Lantern’ be your guide, may Nano continue to take flesh in the life and the ethos that is Scoil Chríost Rí.
And the last verse of the earlier hymn I mentioned:
“Weaving a world of new colours
Finding blest moments of grace.
Calling us now to new places
Our earth home has changed its face”.
[1] Raftery, Deirdre et al, ‘Nano Nagle the Life and the Legacy’, Irish Academic Press, 2019, pg. 32
[2] Jn.1:1
[3] Delivered in 1794 to raise funds for Cork Amicable Society