Matlock: Presentation Sisters celebrate 250th anniversary

On Saturday, 6th June, the English Province of the Presentation Sisters gathered in Matlock to celebrate 250 years of their foundation as a Congregation and their Jubilarians - Srs Catherine, Helen, Rosario and Anne celebrating 60 years and Sr Bernadette celebrating 70 years of faithful service. Bishop Patrick McKinney was the principal celebrant.

On Christmas Eve, 1775, Nano Nagle, their foundress, along with three companions, in a city where it was against the law for Catholic women to do what she was about to do, started the Congregation. She could not have known then that the congregation would spread across 19 countries - carrying the flame of light that she had lit that day. Known as the Lady of the Lantern, she had a deep love for the poor and a conviction that "by degrees, with the assistance of God, we may do a great deal."

In 1836, Presentation Sisters came from Clonmel, Ireland to make a foundation" among the dark, satanic mills" of Manchester. Other Presentation Sisters made foundations in several other places and the Sisters, true to Nano's call to "prefer the schools to all else" opened schools and taught thousands of children from that day.

250 years ago, a woman in Cork lit a lamp against the law and the night darkness of poverty and impoverishment. That light is still burning - though each Presentation Sisters and those jubilarians we remember especially today.

We pray that the Sisters will continue to carry the flame wherever they find themselves.

For more information please visit our website - www.pbvmengland.co.uk