"Fortiter et Suaviter - Strength and Gentleness"
From
aMUSine "The museums, galleries and collections zine by interesting people for interested people:
Kerri Genovese
Archivist, Brigidine College St Ives.
On April 16, 1883 six brave young
Brigidine Nuns left their convent in Mountrath, Ireland to travel to Coonamble
in New South Wales. They were chosen from 17 volunteers at the convent to
set up a catholic school at the request of Dr Murray the Bishop of the Maitland
Diocese which included the Parish of Coonamble. Their journey took just
over 2 months, leaving London on April 20 on a small 5,000 tonnage ship ‘The
Chimborazo’. They arrived in Melbourne for a short stay on June 3 after only
two stops at Naples and Port Said. The Sisters continued on to Sydney then
Newcastle by ship and finally reached their destination of Coonamble on June 21
after many days travelling overland by train and coach.
Coonamble was a small town of some
800 residents many of whom went out many miles to meet the nuns and lead them
into town to the welcoming peals of the church bell. A grand dinner was
held and after grateful speeches the nuns could retire to their new home, the
small four room presbytery. The kitchen would serve as the refectory,
community room and high school classroom while the primary school would be held
in the humble slab church building.
After the warm welcome the nuns set
to work opening their school on July 9 and by the end of the year a wooden
building was commenced which would house day students and boarders. The
reality of their situation would soon hit home as the long hot summer rolled
around, water could only be bought by cask and lighting was by candle or
kerosene lamp. One sister wrote home, ‘the heat ranges from 110 to
117. Violent dust storms rage from 2 to 36 hours at a time….at times the dust
clouds look like moving walls’. The difference between their
beloved green Ireland and this harsh brown land would have been enormous.
Despite the tough conditions the
sisters led by Mother John Synan would be joined by other young women wanting
to be trained as a novice before becoming a Brigidine nun. Sadly five of
these young novices would die in the first few years. However, after
hearing about these courageous women other Catholic communities were asking the
Brigidine sisters to establish schools for them. In 1887 five sisters
went to Cooma, seven were sent to Cowra in 1894 and another six to New Zealand
in 1898.
As the community grew the Brigidine
sisters realised that Sydney offered greater opportunities for the training of
the novices. Therefore, another convent, novitiate and secondary girl’s
school were established in Randwick in 1901. However, within forty years
it was decided the novices should be moved to a more peaceful area and so the
search began for land in the countryside of St Ives. In 1949 seven acres
of land was purchased on the corner of Mona Vale Road and Woodbury Road with
another three acres acquired in 1951.
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The Brigidine sisters established a
secondary girl’s school in St Ives and on February 9 1954 classes began with
nine students. Although the new two storey building was for the school,
the nuns would also live here until the convent was also built. Upstairs
consisted of four classrooms, however, the last room was partitioned off into
four sleeping quarters and a community area for the sisters. The ground
floor had a store room, cloak room, toilets, chemistry lab, kitchen and
laundry. The kitchen of course was used for the students learning home
economics but also for the sisters own cooking. Two sisters taught the
secondary girls here and another two taught the primary students at the local
Catholic Church, Corpus Christi.
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The Convent and Novitiate were
completed by the end of 1958 and the Brigidine community steadily grew over the
years. The college added more buildings and took over the novitiate
building in 1978 when it closed. The sisters enjoyed many happy years at
St Ives until they too moved out in 1994 relinquishing the convent to the
college. Although the Brigidine order is diminishing their legacy
continues through the ethos and teaching of the Brigidine schools throughout
the world.
Brigidine College St Ives now has over 900 students but acknowledges and
appreciates the heritage given to it by the original Brigidine nuns from
Mountrath, then Randwick and the new arrival of students in 1954. The
original students formed strong friendships being a small group and still join
together each year for a ‘Pioneer’ lunch and reminisce their fun times.
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The Brigidine College of St Ives is still going strong*. From their website:
Brigidine College St Ives is dedicated to the education of girls in the Catholic tradition. Founded by the Congregation of Sisters of St Brigid in 1954, the school models the charism of St Brigid and Bishop Daniel Delany, strength and gentleness.
The College prides itself on providing a holistic education for girls, combining the spiritual, academic, physical and cultural dimensions of learning, creating women of spiritual, moral and ethical strength.
Girls at Brigidine are challenged to think and experience beyond their boundaries, to have the courage to question their world and model Christ’s teachings in their lives.
They are challenged in their learning to see possibilities, grow in understanding and value success.
Browse through our website to gain a deeper understanding of our community or join us onsite for a tour. There is a spirit in this school worth experiencing.
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