In May 1875, ten intrepid women set off from Dublin, Ireland, for a two-month voyage to Victoria. By late September that same year, they had established the first of what is now a network of schools in four states operated by the Loreto Sisters Australia and South East Asia.
The women were led by Mother Gonzaga Barry, a religious sister of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Sisters of Loreto. At the age of 40, she left behind friends and family, knowing it was probably forever, to head to the other side of the world to continue her commitment to the education of girls.
Mother Gonzaga and her nine companions were answering a call from the then-Bishop of Ballarat, Michael O’Connor, for nuns to establish a school for the daughters of the goldrush-era miners who had flocked to the Ballarat area seeking their fortune.
‘I suppose no one will ever know what it cost me to leave Ireland and my Irish friends. It nearly broke my heart. Though I was told by Superiors I would not be sent against my will, I felt I had to do it, or be unfaithful to grace.’
Gonzaga Barry wrote this 25 years after arriving in Australia but, in the same passage, expressed gratitude to God for giving her the strength to consent, saying that ‘little sacrifice’ had been more than offset by what she had achieved.
Loreto schools are acknowledging the sesquicentenary of the arrival of their founding sisters through a travelling art exhibition and a play that beautifully connects past to present.
Creator and curator Loreto sister Sandra Perrett says the students had a brief for their contributions but that they were free to interpret it in their own way. She says this approach is an indication of the diversity of the school network, underpinned by a 400-year-old tradition started by the Sisters of Loreto founder Mary Ward focused on the virtues of ‘freedom, justice, sincerity, verity and felicity‘.
Mary Ward was a recusant Catholic linked to the Jesuits in the north of England during the reign of Elizabeth I, when it was illegal to practice Catholicism or attend Mass. ‘So they were underground,’ Sr Sandra explains. ’ The Jesuits came into their houses to celebrate Mass. It’s a fabulous story,’ she says, adding that that time of persecution has coloured the philosophy of Loreto schools.
‘I think you wouldn’t speak about it necessarily, but our students would know it, teachers would know it and it’s part of the DNA. Everyone would know about Mary Ward. Every school has a big statue of her.’
Sr Sandra says one part of the exhibition, the striking 3-metre tall mannequins of religious women, are a recreation of an earlier art installation by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Abbotsford titled Feminine Fortitude.
’I wrote to the artists and asked if we could steal their idea, and that’s how that came about,’ says Sr Sandra. ‘It was very effective.’
The habits are similar to those worn by Mother Gonzaga and her companions in the 19th century. The girls—all Loreto schools are single sex, except for affiliate school John XXIII in Perth—designed the skirts in patterns inspired by their schools’ histories and the traditional owners of the lands on which the schools sit.
The Loreto school that sits within the Melbourne Archdiocese, Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, writes that its skirt design depicts the chapel’s stained-glass windows and symbols belonging to the Wurundjeri and Bunnurong people, included with the permission of a descendant of William Barak, Wurundjeri man Murrundini.
The playwright of Serious Business, which is being performed at each school during the 150th year, is classical musician Brigid Coleridge. The Loreto Toorak old girl was there to watch the opening-night performance of her play on 19 March.
The play takes the form of a conversation between a student and Gonzaga Barry, who is never seen, only heard. Brigid read through Mother Gonzaga’s copious letters to get to know her. Then, using the format of a play written for the centennial in 1975 by Sr Veronica Brady, imagined how a conversation would evolve between the great educator and a young woman of the 21st century.
‘It was just important to me that it also be an updated voice because I think that she lives in the tradition as it is today as well,’ says Brigid. ‘So it’s important that her voice feels fresh and alive.’
Find out more about the history and 150th anniversary celebrations of the Loreto Sisters of Australia and South East Asia here.
Banner image: Visitors admire a mannequin in an art show marking the Loreto Sisters’ 150th anniversary.
