The woman who said ‘no’ to the Pope. - Mary Manning

Mary Manning talks to Saint Angela Merici, the founder of the Ursulines. Her feast day is 27 January.

MM: We know you were born on 21 March 1474, at Desenzano on Lake Garda. Can you tell us more about your early life?

AM: I became orphaned when I was only ten and moved with my sister who was three years older to Salo, a town nearby, to live with our uncle. Then my sister died suddenly and to cope with my grief I buried myself in prayer and good works. Later, when my uncle died and I returned to my home town, I began to notice how little education the girls had. I think all these things set me on my path for life.

MM: That was a time when society had such entrenched views about women that it neglected even to educate them.

AM: There was no place for women who chose not to marry or become nuns. As nuns they received an education but were unable to leave their cloisters to share their education with other women. Most women grew up without even an education in religion and I came to realise that the best way for girls to learn good Christian values was for people like me to teach them in their own homes. But this was difficult because it was frowned on for unmarried women to go out by themselves, even to serve others.

MM: What led you to join the Third Order of St Francis?

AM: I had attended the Franciscan church when I lived with my uncle. Like Saint Francis, I wanted to dedicate my life to helping other people. The Third Order of St Francis, now known as the Secular Franciscan Order, allowed me to feel part of their community while living and working outside it. It gave me the freedom to bring together unmarried women who lived in their own homes and met to pray and to teach girls we came in contact with. We believed strongly that this was what Christ called us to do.

MM: Your group did not become a religious order until years after your death. Why was this?

AM: We needed to be out in the community with the girls we taught, not enclosed in a convent and constrained by vows and special habits. But as the group grew in size we needed guidelines to help us work efficiently so I formed the Company of St Ursula.

MM: Ursula was patroness of medieval universities. Is this why you chose her as patron?

AM: That, and her reputation as an independent and courageous woman, a risk taker dedicated to Jesus. The legend says she was the daughter of a Christian king living in Britain. On a pilgrimage to the Holy Land she had a dream that she and her female companions would be martyred on their return to Cologne and when the time came they all faced their deaths with faith and courage.

MM: You must have had some of Saint Ursula’s spirit yourself. You survived your own six-month pilgrimage to the Holy Land on which you lost your sight, and suffered a terrible storm at sea. It was after this experience that you visited Rome and said ‘no’ to Pope Clement VII. Can you tell us about that?

AM: That story makes me sound bold and bossy, but I had no choice. Apparently the Pope had heard of my innovative approach to education so he asked me to manage an order of nursing sisters. I told the Pope that God had called me to do other work. I don’t recollect his response but I am sure he, of all people, would have understand my reasons.

MM: The Ursulines grew greatly over time and eventually received a great deal of support, which suggests people saw the value of your work.

AM: We also met opposition. After expanding from Brescia to Milan and other Italian towns, the order reached France around 1590 where Parisian noblewomen anxious to have girls educated helped set up religious houses. The order had to leave Germany, however, when Chancellor Bismarck’s laws dictated that education would be controlled by the state and all teaching religious orders were to be dissolved or expelled and their property confiscated.

MM: Our readers will be interested in how the Ursulines came to Australia.

AM: Some nuns expelled from Duderstadt opened a school in Greenwich in England where a priest promised to help them. When he was made the bishop of Armidale in New South Wales in 1879 he invited them to his diocese to help carry out the work of Catholic education and that year ten German Ursuline nuns and three trainees arrived by ship.

MM: Australia must have been a totally different environment for them.

AM: Imagine it! Most of the sisters were highly-educated and cultured German upper class women who were suddenly living and working in Armidale, a small Australian country town, for the Australian Catholic Church that was historically Irish. Ironically, their differences worked to their advantage. They welcomed students from different religious backgrounds to their school in Armidale as they had in Germany, and it is recorded that people in Armidale were particularly impressed by the school’s standards in music, art and languages.

MM: The Ursulines went on to establish a strong presence in Australian education through their schools in the eastern states. Are they still carrying out this role?

AM: Most of those schools were initially for girls but some have now been amalgamated with boys’ schools. The Ursulines have always adapted to the country they are in and are not afraid of change. In some countries the nuns live in convents and work in a range of different areas. In Australia they seem to have more freedom and independence and they live in twos and threes in houses and do parish work, counselling and health care according to the needs of their community.

Prayer to Saint Angela

Saint Angela, you were not afraid of change. You did not let stereotypes keep you from serving. Help us to overcome our fear of change in order to follow God’s call and allow others to follow theirs. Amen.

See www.australianursulines.org.au.