FCJ Sisters leave Middlesbrough

Sister Brid Liston

After more than 135 years educating Tees area girls, the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) congregation of nuns is pulling out of Middlesbrough.

Their leader Sister Brid Liston, of Dublin, described it as a "bitter-sweet" occasion when a special Mass was held at St Mary's Cathedral, Middlesbrough, on Saturday April 1.

She thanked the diocese of Middlesbrough for all its support to the nuns, who ran Newlands convent school, now part of Trinity Catholic College, Middlesbrough, for decades.

Bishop Terry Drainey, in turn, thanked the FCJ sisters for playing a "major part" in the development of the diocese from their early days of arrival in 1872 when they "battled on."

He said the sisters were held in the "highest esteem." He went on: "So many individuals have been supported, so many disappointed dreams regained and the Gospel has been proclaimed to all."

Only three nuns remain in Middlesbrough - Moira Cashmore, Jo Barron and Margaret Frain. Some 70 sisters are buried in Middlesbrough, which gives an idea of the numbers who have worked in the town.

During refreshments after the Mass an impromptu rendition of the school song was sung by many of the 300 present. More than 12 priests attended from all over the diocese, which stretches from the Tees to the Humber.

Bishop Drainey also thanked another order of nuns the Daughters of Mary and Joseph, who have worked in Tees parishes from a base at St Thomas More's church, Beechwood, Middlesbrough, from 1968 until recently. The last three remaining sisters are Dymphna Dineen, Anne Jordan and Mary Matthew O'Sullivan.