The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph

Who are the Ursulines? The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph are a part of a worldwide Ursuline family founded almost 500 years ago by Saint Angela Merici, a visionary woman of the Italian Renaissance. In 1535, in Brescia, Angela brought together 28 women to form the Company of Saint Ursula. These were consecrated women who were not to live in a monastery but in the everyday world, taking an active part in their society — to be examples of holiness and to act as peacemakers in the marketplace, as Angela did. Like Angela, these first Ursulines were to be available to help and advise family, friends, and others among whom they lived. Reforms in the Church through the Council of Trent (1545-1563) resulted in thorough changes in Angela's original model for her Company. Ursulines were required to live in monasteries and to wear traditional religious garb. They were no longer allowed to minister among the people. Angela had told her daughters to adapt to their times, and these cloistered Ursulines did so by opening convent boarding schools for girls, first in Europe, then in many other parts of the world. Angela's spirit of gentleness, harmony, respect for each person, and total dependence on God became the spirit of these schools, which were established on six continents. For nearly four centuries, to be an Ursuline was to be a teacher. In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council urged religious communities to return to the example of Jesus and the charism — the spirit — of their founders. Ursulines, again following their founder's rule of adaptation, moved outward into diverse ministries, reflecting Angela's emphasis on recognizing and responding to the signs of the times. Today, Ursuline Sisters live and serve all over the globe, from Australia to Zimbabwe. They are joined by a growing number of Ursuline Associates — lay men and women who share in the mission and goals of the sisters through non-vowed commitment. The Ursuline family also includes several foundations of the Company of Saint Ursula, whose members follow Angela's original rule.

In August 1874, five Ursuline Sisters rode a flatboat down the Ohio River from Louisville to Owensboro to begin a boarding school for girls in the wilderness of western Kentucky. Just 16 years earlier, the first three Ursulines in Kentucky had come to Louisville from Straubing on another river — the Danube — in Bavaria. Now they had been invited by a German pastor, Father Paul Joseph Volk, to establish a school in his parish.

The chapel at Mount Saint Joseph

After a difficult beginning, Mount Saint Joseph Academy grew and flourished. Many young women from the area felt the call to become Ursuline Sisters. By 1912, there were 81 professed sisters living at the Mount. In that year, the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph became an independent community, with Mother Aloysius Willett — a graduate of the Academy — as the first Mother Superior. By 1920, 210 Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph were teaching in Kentucky, Indiana, Nebraska, and New Mexico.

Today, 170 Ursuline Sisters serve God's people in a variety of ministries in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and Chile. Freeing and nurturing women and children is the focus of their ministries.

The Ursuline Sisters operate two sponsored ministries: Brescia University in Owensboro, and Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center on the grounds of the Ursuline motherhouse at Maple Mount.

Sister Fran Wilhelm leads a workshop with a group of young Hispanics. Sister Fran was one of the first Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph who served in Chile. She now directs the Owensboro Centro Latino, assisted by Sister Rosemary Keough, who served for several years as pastoral minister in Chillán.

The Ursuline motherhouse is located about 15 miles from Owensboro on a working farm in the rolling hills of western Kentucky. Environmental responsibility is a key element of their management of their land.

The community website — www.ursulinesmsj.org — gives an up-to-date introduction to the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, their charism, their ministries, and their dedication to serving the Church and God's people in the spirit of Saint Angela Merici.

 

 

THE URSULINE SISTERS OF MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH IN CHILE

Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph have been ministering in South and Central America since 1965, when the Church made a strong call for American religious communities to serve the people of Latin America. Countries in which they have served include Chile, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Mexico.

The first three Ursulines came to Santiago as teachers in a Jesuit School in 1965. For several years sisters from the Mount worked exclusively in schools. In 1975, responding to the call of the poor, Sister Luisa Bickett moved from teaching into parish ministry in the Población Vicente Pérez Rosales in Chillán. Other Ursulines joined in this ministry, including Sister Mimi Ballard, who came in 1978.

Sister Luisa Bickett (center), was a member of the first group of Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph to work in Chile and the first to minister in Chillán. Now an outreach pastoral minister in Ohio County, Kentucky, Sister Luisa has often been called upon to translate for women preparing for birth.

With the exception of the years between 1986-93, there has been a continuing presence of Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph in Chillán. When Sister Mimi returned in 1993 after seven years working elsewhere in Latin America, she again served in pastoral ministry. During this time also, she and a core group of Chilean women began working toward beginning a ministry for women — an initiative that led to the founding of The Dianna Ortiz Ursuline Center for women, Casa Ursulina, in 1997.