Religion: Brigidine Tradition & Kildare Ministries

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Article by J. Ryan from New Catholic Encyclopedia volume 2 2nd edition p 617 published by Gale 2003

Article by J. Ryan from New Catholic Encyclopedia volume 8 2nd edition p 167 published by Gale 2003

 Nagle, Nano Honoria
J. J. MEAGHER
New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. p133-134.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning
 

Educator, foundress of the Presentation Sisters; b. Ballygriffin, near Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, c. 1718;
Page 134  
d. Cork, April 26, 1784. She was the eldest of seven children of Garret Nagle and Ann Mathew, members of the remnant of the dispossessed Catholic landowners and JACOBITES in politics. During an unexplained change in family fortunes (c. 1728), she was sent to France. On her father's death (c. 1746), she returned to Dublin with her mother and sister, Ann. Since 1733, Dublin Catholics in addition to struggling against the disabling penal laws had had to contend against a new threat to the faith, the heavily endowed government-supported exploitation of poverty, contrived through the Charter Schools and their proselytizing institutions. The discovery that her sister, Ann, had disposed of a dress-length of silk—Nano liked to be fashionable—to help the poor, followed shortly afterward by Ann's death, fired her determination to devote the remainder of her life to God in the service of the poor. The first step was a return to the family home to begin her apostolate in the immediate district. However, overwhelmed by the immensity of the problem compounded of poverty and ignorance, she entered a convent in France, but not for long. Solemnly advised by her Jesuit director, she returned to begin a school in a mud cabin in Cove Lane, Cork, c. 1754 or 1755. In nine months, at a time when Catholic schools were illegal, 200 girls were attending. In 1757 she was aided by a considerable inheritance, and within two years she was conducting seven schools, five for girls and two for boys, that provided a rudimentary secular education, religious instruction, and an assiduous preparation for the encounter with Christ in the Sacraments. To expand and make permanent this apostolic work for the poor, she introduced the Ursuline nuns in 1771, at great cost to herself. But her heart was set on the specific needs of the Irish apostolate, and so she founded in 1775, with a very few companions, the Society of the Charitable Instruction, "which excluded every exercise of charity, which was not in favour of the poor" (Walsh, Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters 1959), and which, after her death, grew into the famous Presentation Order. An inspiration to the men of her time, this small, physically weak woman radiated a Pauline energy in her zeal for the Christian education of youth.

SISTERS OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. p684

A congregation (PBVM, Official Catholic Directory #3320 for the U.S. foundations, #3330 for the Irish foundations) of religious women begun in 1775 by Honoria (Nano) NAGLE, in Cork, Ireland. Because the Penal Laws banned the Catholic education of youth, Miss Nagle resolved to devote her life and fortune to the education of poor children. She began her noviceship with three companions in Douglas Street, Cork; on June 24, 1776, they received the habit of the newly established community to which Nano gave the title, Sisters of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One year later the novices pronounced their vows in the presence of Bp. John Butler of Cork, who appointed Nano, now Mother Mary of St. John of God, as superior of the community, which she directed for seven years.

During her years as superior Mother St. John examined the rules of three orders and, meanwhile, on Oct. 30, 1779, she accepted temporarily the rule drawn up by the curé of Saint Sulpice. Before she reached a final decision in this matter, Mother St. John died (1784) and was succeeded by Sister Angela Collins. Shortly afterward Bp. Francis Moylan and Rev. Lawrence Callanan of Cork drew up constitutions based on the Rule of St. Augustine; these were completed in 1793 and approved by Pius VI; final approbation was granted by Pius VII in 1805. The society was renamed Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The special purpose of the congregation is to educate the young, and to minister to the sick, elderly, dispossessed and marginalized. Each motherhouse of the congregation is independent, but all are united in the observance of the same rule and traditions and in the recognition of the same foundress. The expansion of the Sisters of the Presentation included foundations in England, North America, Asia, Oceania and Africa. The first filiation from the motherhouse in Cork was established in the Kerry diocese, and the second in Dublin. In 1833 the first Presentation establishments were made in Newfoundland and England. Madras, India, received its first foundation in 1841. In 1875 the community was established in Australia, and by 1886, in Tasmania. Other foundations include Zimbabwe (1949); New Zealand (1950); and the Philippines (1960).

The first U.S. foundation was established in San Francisco in 1854. In the U.S., Presentation Sisters are engaged in education, youth ministries, campus ministries, parish ministries, healthcare, nursing, chaplaincies, care of the elderly and disabled, pastoral ministries, social outreach, retreats and spiritual direction. Since 1953 the U.S. Presentation houses have been amalgamated in the North American Conference of Presentation Sisters (Official Catholic Directory #3320). In addition to the U.S. foundations, a number of Irish foundations sent their members to the U.S. beginning in the 1950s to supplement the efforts of the U.S. foundations. In 1989, the Irish sisters established the U.S. Province of the Union of Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Official Catholic Directory #3330).

At the beginning of the 21st century, there were more than 1600 sisters in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Africa, China, New Zealand, the Philippines, Latin America, India, Pakistan, North America, England, Ireland and Slovakia. In 1991, the Society of Australian Presentation Sisters, the Union of Sisters of the Presentation and the North American Conference of the Presentation Sisters established the International Presentation Association (IPA), with its headquarters in New York City, as a vehicle to promote international collaboration in joint projects and sharing of resources.

Bibliography: T. J. WALSH, Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters (Dublin 1959).

[M. R. O'CALLAGHAN/EDS.]