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March 2005
What does
Edmund mean to me?
 As we begin
to prepare for the Feast of Blessed Edmund Rice, to be celebrated on 5 May,
let us give some serious thought to the question: “What does Edmund mean to
me?” It is important that we try to answer this question honestly for
ourselves. We, of course, say that we believe that Blessed Edmund is with the
Lord in heaven after his life’s labours, but if we fail to see the relevance of
what Edmund did in his time to what we in the two congregations he founded and
in the wider Edmund Rice Network are attempting in today’s world, and if
there is a lack of enthusiasm for praying through his intercession, there is
little point in proceeding with Edmund’s canonisation! Put another way, “If we
have not already canonised Edmund in our heart, there is little point in
expecting Rome to do so!”
Task
I knew this
would capture your attention! What I want you to do in the lead up to Edmund’s
Feast Day in May is to put a few thoughts together on the question that leads
this article, and send them on to me in Rome. Each year I need to write a
Report for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on the state of devotion to
Blessed Edmund, and this would help me immensely. Please reply immediately (if
your memory, like mine, is faulty) or, at latest, before 30 April 2005.
By snail
mail, I can be reached at::
Donal Blake
CFC,
Fratelli Cristiani,
Via Marcantonio Colonna 9,
00192 Roma, ITALY.
Novena
In next
month’s “Desk”, I will write about some ideas for this year’s Novena in honour
of Blessed Edmund. Hopefully, by then I will be in a position to incorporate
some of the ideas that you yourselves have suggested!
Nano Nagle,
the Inspiration of the “Second Spring” of Religious Life in Ireland
In
remembering Edmund Rice, we should not forget Nano Nagle (1718-1784), foundress
of the Presentation Sisters and inspiration of the many new flowerings of
religious life that originated in Ireland in the hundred years after her death
and that spread all around the world. She was the one who moved first, while
the Penal Laws against “Catholics and Dissenters” were still very much alive on
the statute books. The list of those who followed her makes impressive reading:
1802: Edmund Rice – Christian and Presentation Brothers
1807: Bishop Daniel Delaney – Brigidine Sisters
1808: Bishop Daniel Delaney – Patrician Brothers
1816: Mary Aikenhead – Irish Sisters of Charity
1821: Frances Ball – Loreto Sisters (Irish branch of IBVM)
1831: Catherine McAuley – Sisters of Mercy
1857: Margaret Aylward – Sisters of the Holy Faith
1871: Bishop Thomas Furlong – Sisters of St John of God
Because of
the special bond between the Christian Brothers, the Presentation Brothers and
the Presentation Sisters [the Nagle-Rice Family] and as a token of thanks to
Nano who started the new movement of religious congregations in Ireland, I urge
you to pray for Nano’s beatification, now that that movement is gathering a new
momentum after a slow start.. I subjoin below a short account of her life,
culled from one of the many Presentation Sisters websites. Happy reading!:
Nano Nagle (1718 – 1784)
Nano Nagle,
Foundress of the Presentation Sisters, and pioneer of Catholic education in
Ireland, was born at Ballygriffin, near the village of Killavullen, County Cork,
in the year 1718. Because of the Penal Laws against Catholics, she was educated
first at the local hedge school, and later in France. Upon completing her
education, Nano resided in Paris and enjoyed a leisurely social life with her
sister, Ann, among that privileged set of Irish émigrés associated with the
Stuart cause.
 Upon her return to Ireland, Nano was appalled by the oppression and enforced
ignorance of poor Catholics there. In spite of her desire to be of help, the
task seemed impossible. She decided to enter the religious life in France to
pray for her people. But God had other plans for her. Like St. Patrick of old,
she felt the call of the children of Ireland to return to her native land.
Nano came back to Cork and started what was to be her life's work. In 1752, she
risked imprisonment by opening her first school in a mud cabin in Cove Lane in
Cork City. Within twenty years she had seven such schools in Cork City. She also
visited the sick poor in their homes. In 1771, she introduced the Ursuline
Sisters into Cork, thinking that this would ensure the continuation of her
apostolate. But the rule of enclosure observed by the Ursuline Order made this
impossible. Nano had to think again.
On Christmas Eve in 1775, Nano founded what was to become the
Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation by inviting Miss Mary
Fouhy, Miss Elizabeth Bourke, and Miss Mary Ann Collins to join her in
her apostolate to the poor. Her decision was timely, for Nano Nagle,
worn out by her labours for the Irish people, died on April 26, 1784,
with her beloved friends in the lanes and streets of Cork City mourning
her passing. The following tribute appeared in the Hibernian
Chronicle on Monday, April 26, 1784:
Yet her memory and her work
continue to live on. Nano Nagle's birthplace at Ballygriffin, County
Cork, has been developed by the Presentation Sisters into a Centre in
her memory. People from many places visit the Centre, where an annual
Mass is celebrated in her honour. Prayers are regularly offered there
for the beatification of a valiant woman who roamed the nearby fields as
a child, paddled in the River Blackwater, and wondered what lay beyond
the Nagle Mountains across the way.
Ask Nano to intercede for you, and kindly report favours received
through her intercession to any Presentation Convent worldwide.
Donal S. Blake CFC,
Postulator/Cong. Historian,
00-39-06-360-8971
blake.d@tiscalinet.it
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