July marks 150 years since the Loreto Sisters first set foot in Australia, beginning a legacy of education and social justice. The first group of 10 nuns faced unfamiliar challenges as they took up their task of establishing Catholic education in a distant colony: resistance from bishops, scarce resources and a society sceptical of women’s leadership. Yet within years, they built schools for the poor, trained teachers and advocated for women’s university access.
As the order celebrates this milestone, the Loreto Sisters’ work continues through the impressive alumnae of their schools, their ongoing ministries in prison chaplaincy and refugee support, and their steadfast commitment to First Nations reconciliation. The anniversary is a reflection of a mission that still answers their 17th-century founder Mary Ward’s call to meet the needs of the times with courage and clarity.
The 10 original women were led by Mother Gonzaga Barry, a woman in her 40s whom Loreto historians say was held in high esteem by the others. The group arrived from Dublin on 19 July 1875 and spent the night in the Good Shepherd Convent in Abbotsford before heading to Ballarat.
Loreto Sister Jane Kelly, who is writing a biography of Mother Gonzaga, says they continue to honour what they used to call ‘Landing Day’, now Heritage Day, because it was the start of some almost revolutionary work.
A woman of great, great courage, and also free-thinking.
‘[Gonzaga] was given the task of establishing the school in Ballarat, but all along you watch her mind developing. It was like distance from Ireland freed her to think differently about what this particular group in Australia were all about.
‘Partly because of distance, she always had to do things differently here because there was no access to those who usually would’ve been her authorities in Ireland. So she thought very broadly about where she was, what Australia seemed to need and how to go about doing it.’
Historian Mary Clark was commissioned by the Loreto Sisters to write Loreto in Australia, published in 2009, from an ‘outsider’s’ perspective. Her research backs the perception of Mother Gonzaga as being released from the strict control of the Church in Ireland at the time.
Ms Clark says Mother Gonzaga came to Australia knowing she would never return to Ireland, and the lifetime commitment flavoured her work. ‘She did amazing things,’ Ms Clark says. ‘I think she was a woman of great, great courage, and also free-thinking, really encouraging women to achieve.’
Some of Gonzaga’s own achievements have been attributed to her ‘enlightened’ upbringing. Ms Clark says she understood money, thanks to her banker father. This proved important when it came to property ownership.
‘Many religious orders of women would buy, say, a property in a small town where they’d be teaching,’ the historian says. ‘The local bishop very often insisted on having his name put on [property] title deeds.
‘Mother Gonzaga strictly ordered her nuns never to allow this, and I think that’s an example of her practical wisdom.’
It was while the Loreto Sisters were establishing their first school in Ballarat that Mother Gonzaga developed an idea of education for women from kindergarten to the tertiary level.
‘Within a few years, she established a teacher’s college for young women who could assist—sort of teachers’ aides alongside the nuns,’ Sr Jane says.
She also had a vision of women studying at university. ‘Catholic women were not in the universities, because there was nowhere for them to stay,’ Sr Jane says. ‘Remember, we’re talking about the 19th century, when women needed chaperones, and professional life was very limited. Some of them were very intelligent, and university was a way forward for them that was not just being a nun or a nurse or a teacher.’
Mother Gonzaga was very deaf, but it didn’t seem to stop her from forging ahead and doing great things.
Sr Jane says Mother Gonzaga’s request for a women’s college to be set up on University of Melbourne land given over to the Catholic Church, where Newman College was being built, was knocked back by the then-Archbishop of Melbourne, Thomas Carr, despite him being a champion of education—for men, anyway. She did, however, sow the seeds of the off-campus St Mary’s Hall, which many decades later became St Mary’s College on university grounds.
The celebration of the 150th anniversary has really brought Mother Gonzaga back to the fore, Mary Clark says, because ‘she’s an extremely interesting woman. Apparently she was very deaf, but it didn’t seem to stop her from forging ahead and doing great things.’
One of those things was reuniting the Australian Loreto Sisters with other branches of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the congregation founded by Englishwoman Mary Ward in the 1600s. Gonzaga travelled to Rome to connect with members of the Congretatio Jesu, the European acolytes of Mary Ward.
It was there that Gonzaga was struck by a realisation about her place in the world, writes Ms Clark in Loreto in Australia:
Mother Gonzaga was awed by the great colonnaded courtyard of St Peter’s where she noticed a sturdy little shamrock growing out of a tiny crack in the stone. For the rest of her life, she saw this as a metaphor for the survival of a band of Mary Ward’s Irish women in Australia.
Mother Gonzaga’s legacy: justice in action
The Loreto Sisters continued their mission of education through the 20th century, bringing ideas picked up overseas to Australia, including teacher training methods considered well ahead of their time.
But their work expanded significantly after the Second Vatican Council, as they moved beyond traditional school teaching into broader pastoral and social justice ministries. Government funding allowed laypeople to take on more educational roles, freeing the sisters to address pressing social needs. They became involved in peace initiatives, prison and hospital chaplaincy, and Aboriginal education.
Author and Loreto sister Denise Desmarchelier highlights their work in northern Western Australia and outback New South Wales, where Loreto Sisters supported First Nations communities through education and employment programs.
Sr Denise writes that Vatican II had encouraged congregations to return to their founding documents, so Loreto revisited the words of Mary Ward: serve God’s people by any means congruous to the times. For many sisters, this meant working among Aboriginal people.
The sisters continue working with marginalised communities while also, as one nun puts it, ‘influencing the influential’.
Conditions would have been tough, but the experiences appear to have been positive. Sr Denise reports on the reflections of sisters who worked in the Kimberley, for example, saying they gained ‘love and appreciation of land and culture; commitment to be active in environment and climate issues; support of Aboriginal people to work in their own communities; and helping to change attitudes and bring about reconciliation.’
The sisters continue working with marginalised communities while also, as one nun puts it, ‘influencing the influential’. This may be at corporate, state and federal government levels in Australia, or through its international arm, Mary Ward International, at the United Nations.
The same sister says their work in social justice advocacy doesn’t stop when sisters retire, giving examples like letter writing, petition signing, MP lobbying, and even sisters who are now nursing home residents praying for the needs of the world.
‘We may not all be active in ministry, but we are still part of the mission.’
Banner image: The ‘Pioneer Sisters’ in 1903. Mother Gonzanga is seated second from left. (Photo courtesy of Loreto Australia and South East Asia Province Archives.)
