OUR HERITAGE
Nano Nagle (christened Honora), Foundress of the Presentation Sisters, was born in 1718 into a wealthy Irish Catholic
family in Ballygriffin near County Mallow, North Cork. During that period in history, the English trying to squash the Irish
Catholics enacted the Penal Laws making it a Capital Offense for Irish Catholics to be taught to read and write or be
educated in their Catholic faith. At an early age, Nano Nagle and her siblings were taught in the
local "hedge school," so named because some lessons were taught by a Hedgemaster in the
shadow of a hedge or in barns. Nano along with her sister Anne, were smuggled into France to
complete their education. Outraged at the injustice of the Penal Laws and widespread poverty
that had caused, Nano Nagle returned to her beloved Ireland. She later used her education and
wealthy selflessly, risking her life, and that of her family, teaching poor Irish Catholic children
by day and caring for the poor and sick at night. In all, Nano Nagle founded seven cabin schools
in the city of Cork and was instrumental in keeping the Catholic faith alive throughout Ireland.
Nano Nagle was often seen walking along the Lanes and Alleyways in Cork, and became know as
the "Lady of the Lantern." On Christmas Eve 1775, in order to ensure the continuation of the
work she had begun, Nano Nagle founded what was to become the Sisters of the Presentation of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nano Nagle along with the four "Sisters" she had invited to join her,
continued ministering to the poor until she died in 1784 at age 65.
Single-handedly, Nano Nagle laid the foundation of an educational system in Ireland,
which was to inspire Blessed Edmund Rice, founder of the Presentation and Christian
Brothers, and a number of valiant women... among them Mary Aikenhead and the
Sisters of Charity, Catherine McCauley and her Sisters of Mercy, and Margaret Aylward,
Foundress of the Holy Faith Sisters, to establish their own schools during the following
century.
UNION: FROM IRELAND TO AMERICA
Despite the meager beginnings of Nano Nagle and her four Sisters in 1775, the Presentation
Sisters spread to many towns throughout Ireland and several parts of the world. Historical and
legal factors caused the various houses of the Congregation to develop into autonomous units,
but the particular charism of their Foundress living on in persons and communities has always
been a source of life and unity. The re-assessment of the Congregation's mission, in the light of
the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, brought many of these autonomous groups of
Presentation Sisters together into The Union of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. The communities involved were mainly those in Ireland and in "mission" which had
gone out from the Irish communities in the twentieth century. This Union was officially
established by Papal decree on July 19, 1976.
There are many other groups of Presentation Sisters, which were founded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although not part of the Union, we collaborate closely as member of the International Presentation Associates (IPA) as well as the Conference of Presentation Sisters (COPS) in North America.
While Nano Nagle's example inspired several other founders of religious orders in Ireland, her own Sisters began to move out to areas to which they felt called. They spread their wings, not only in Ireland, but in Canada (Newfoundland, 1833); England (Manchester, 1836); the West Indies (British Guiana, 1841); India (1842); the USA (San Francisco, 1854);Tasmania (1866); mainland Australia (1873) and Pakistan (1895).
In the following century, foundations were established in Africa (Zimbabwe, 1949 and Zambia, 1970); New Zealand (1951); the first of a new wave of foundations from Ireland in the USA began in Texas (San Antonio, 1952) followed by foundations in the Philippines, (1960); Scotland (1970); South America (Chile, 1982, Ecuador, 1983, Peru, 1993); Slovakia (1992); Romania (1998); Israel (Jaffa, 1999) and Thailand (1999) so that the Presentation Sisters became truly a worldwide organization in the spirit of their foundress, Nano Nagle, whose vision had always had a missionary dimension. In a letter to a friend in 1769, Nano Nagle had written: "If I could be of any service in saving souls in any part of the globe, I would willingly do all in my power."