Responding to an invitation from Elzear Torreggiani, the Catholic Bishop of Armidale (1879-1904), a contingent of Ursuline Sisters and three others left England on the sailing ship ‘Duchess of Edinburgh’, on May 24, 1882 and arrived safely in Sydney on August 31. Guests of some Sisters of St Joseph for two weeks, the new arrivals visited several schools and also attended the grand ceremonies in Sydney on September 8, when Archbishop Vaughan preached for over an hour at the opening of a usable section of the new St Mary’s Cathedral. Bishop Torreggiani and two future bishops (Dean O’Connor of Armidale and Dean Doyle from Lismore) then travelled with the Sisters by steamer from Sydney to Newcastle. The train took them to Uralla (then the terminus), where they boarded a coach for the final leg to Armidale, arriving late on the evening of September 12. The story continues now in the second of a four-part series on a history of the Ursuline Sisters in Armidale, with a focus on the context, their Convent and St Ursula’s College buildings.
Mother Bernard (who was already 58 and in poor health) was in charge of the group which comprised Sisters Xavier, Hildegarde, Ignatius, Cecilia, Cordula, Elizabeth, Agnes, Thekla and Monica. There were also two postulants (one became Sister Joseph, but the other left) and an aspirant, Mademoiselle de Percivale, who became famous for her contribution to music.
Bowing to pressure from parents and the bishop, the Sisters commenced teaching on September 19, just one week after their arrival. Through the local press the Ursulines announced that “a High School for Young Ladies” had opened and was receiving pupils. Terms were moderate and those seeking further information were requested to apply to “the Lady Superior”. On the first day 16 pupils attended. The Convent dining room served as a classroom until a new building was erected near the Convent on the site of the former stables and coach-house. From January 1883 the Sisters also ran the parish school in Dangar Street. So about two hundred boys and girls were entrusted to the Sisters. There were also Protestant pupils in both schools. Many of the pupils at the Convent High School were there to complete their education in music and art.
People on the outside often do not understand that the various religious orders who ran schools had very different aims for their pupils. On the one hand, Mother Mary MacKillop, who founded the Sisters of St Joseph in 1866, wanted schools for poor children, who could be taught basics, such as how to write a letter and add up a grocery bill. The Dominican Sisters, who came to Maitland in 1867 and opened a school in Tamworth in 1876, aimed at something more up market, training young ladies to be suitable as wives for the wealthy. The Ursulines in Armidale catered for a whole range of pupils.
Typical of the religious orders which came from Europe, the Ursulines had an established educational philosophy and long experience. For them, education was total, embracing all the years of the child’s life from about seven to 17. It was also strongly cultural, with special emphasis on such subjects as music, art and needlework, which were considered by European educators to be the necessary accomplishments of a well-educated lady.
Ursuline Sisters could supply what the parents wanted, including refinement. Indeed, in 1882 when Bishop Torreggiani was negotiating with the Ursulines to come to Armidale, he wrote: “Nearly all the people in this Town promised me to send their children to our Convent school if the Sisters can teach the above accomplishments. ”¦ When you start a middle class school here I think you will do well. The people pay liberally for this Education.”
The two schools which the Ursuline Sisters ran in Armidale catered for all who came, whatever their age or educational standard, and pupils were offered those subjects normally taught in an Ursuline school on the Continent. In the Convent High School there was a strong emphasis on cultural subjects. Concerts, entertainments of various kinds and exhibitions of work became an established part of the social life of Armidale. Secular subjects included English literature, French, Natural Philosophy, Botany, Italian, Spanish and Latin.
Numerous buildings were added. A chapel, opened by Cardinal Moran in January 1886, had a belfry with a bell, which rang out the Angelus thrice daily, just like the Cathedral bell does today. A two-storey wooden building in the Convent courtyard was opened in 1886. The upper storey was the novitiate, for new members joining the community, while the ground floor housed the bakery, serving room and several storerooms. While Mother Xavier was the Superior, she planned and oversaw the building of the three-storey brick building which was opened in 1888. It was called St Ursula’s College. Sleeping accommodation was excellent, with dormitories which were “large, lofty and airy”. By about 1900 the Convent had a new wing (on the Jessie Street side), which contained a dining room and a chapel and a common room.
Pictures paint a thousand words, so photos and their captions will take up the narrative. A special thank you to Bill Oates and his staff at the UNE Archives for their help.
