Sister Joseph, who was a Postulant in the original group which arrived in Armidale in 1882, died 100 years ago and the centenary of her death is recalled this week, along with the centenary of when a local girl, Mary Ann Cuskelly, joined the Ursulines. Their stories show that the Sisters were not all school teachers, but that the Convent staff included women with a diversity of talents. This is the fifth and final feature about the Ursuline Sisters in Armidale.
Born on November 24, 1848 at Hannover in Germany, Christina Montag was a daughter of James Montag and his wife Mary née Kellner. Christina, who was usually called Regina, was engaged by the Ursuline Sisters in Duderstadt in 1870 as a servant. When the Sisters fled from Germany to England in 1877, she carried the large clock which later made its way to Armidale. Meanwhile, Regina became a Postulant in 1881 and was one of the group who came to Armidale in 1882. On December 24, 1882 Bishop Torreggiani received her into the Novitiate in a ceremony in the Cathedral, and she was professed in January 1885, taking the name Sister Joseph. At that time Armidale was still in a state of excitement after a mad man had attempted to gun down Bishop Torreggiani during Mass on Christmas Day 1884.
A faithful and energetic housekeeper, cook and gardener, Sister Joseph toiled in the kitchen, bakery or garden from early morning until late at night. Her garden had lettuces, cabbages, cauliflowers, potatoes, spinach and peas. She also had splendid flowers. Her responsibilities included the greenhouse, poultry yard, pigs and cows. Generous with the surplus produce, she gave pigs’ trotters and vegetables to needy families. In her final years she suffered severe rheumatism and had a tumour. She died on August 2, 1911 aged almost 63, and her grave is in the Nuns’ Section in the Catholic Portion of the Armidale Cemetery. May she rest in peace.
Over the years there were many memorable cooks and housekeepers in the Ursuline Convent, including Mary Ann Cuskelly, a daughter of Owen Cuskelly and his wife Annie née Maguire. Born in Armidale on November 2, 1887, Mary Ann joined the Ursulines on October 21, 1911, became a Novice on May 12, 1912, and was professed on May 12, 1914, taking the name Sister Dominic. Her places of service included Armidale, Brisbane, Guyra, Toowoomba and Tweed Heads.
Sister Dominic achieved considerable fame from an accident in the kitchen in the Armidale Convent. As was the custom, she put the plates in the oven to warm them before the meal was served. What she did not know was that those cherished, valuable and historic pewter plates which the Sisters had brought with them from Germany should not have gone in the oven. They melted. After long service in the Order she grew old and became unwell. During her final illness she was a patient at the Armidale District Hospital, and was later transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital, Toowoomba, where she died on May 23, 1967, aged almost 80, and was mourned by her many relatives, including my family.
This series about the Ursuline Sisters and St Ursula’s College has evoked a wide range of responses. One reader who had been a student in Armidale at De La Salle College in the 1950s pointed out that there was a Golden Era in the schools in Armidale at that time. NEGS, TAS, PLC, St Ursula’s, De la Salle College and Armidale High School turned out some students who went on to have outstanding careers. Some of the names which come to mind are: Mary Gaudron (a High Court Judge); Leonie Glynn (the first female Judge on the Industrial Bench in NSW), Frances Letters (a writer); Chris Willcock and Daniel Herscovitch (acclaimed musicians); John Kennedy (a Rhodes Scholar); Alex Reichel, Peter Flood, and Peter Dodds (notable academics). And the list could go on and on.
All good things come to an end, sadly. In April 1974 the De La Salle Brothers advised they would be closing their College from the end of that year, and the solution to the problem was that St Ursula’s College would also close and a co-educational school would be established. There can be no denying that it was the Ursulines who made the greater sacrifice. Boarding at St Ursula’s was phased out over three years after the new school opened in 1975 as O’Connor Catholic High School – it is now called O’Connor Catholic College. Ursuline Sisters gradually withdrew from the schools in Armidale, but some remained in the historic Convent until vacating it late in 2011. It was indeed the end of an era.
