Nano Nagle - The Presentation Sisters

The Presentation Sisters

The four vows of the Ursuline Sisters are poverty, chastity, obedience and education of all classes. Nano Nagle wished to concentrate on educating the poorest in society but this was incompatible with the Ursuline vow and so she determined to set up her own order: the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM).

In 1775 she entered with some companions on a novitiate for the religious life. The first house was on Cove Lane (now Douglas Street). That original Ursuline convent on now Douglas Street still survives and is a house of the Presentation Sisters to this day - known as South Presentation Convent. With them she received the habit on 29 June 1776, taking the name of Mother Mary of St. John of God. They made their first annual vows 24 June 1777. She founded the first Presentation convent in Ireland at Cork which was opened on Christmas Day, 1777. Her first order was called the "Sisters of the Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus", but it was later changed to "Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary", or the "Presentation Sisters".