Ursuline sisters celebrate years of service

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Neighbors | Submitted .St. Columba Cathedral parishioners, from left, Ken, Kayla, Kim, Gina and Gillian Cerimele joined Sister Isabel Rudge before mass. Rudge is the pastoral associate for Youngstown church.

The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown celebrated the 475th anniversary of the founding of their order Thursday at a mass and celebratory brunch at the Motherhouse.

The anniversary marked the day when St. Angela Merici of Italy, founder of the Ursuline order of Catholic nuns, decided it was not right that women go uneducated and that the poor be left to their problems unaided.

Now 475 years later, with the last 136 years of them in the Mahoning Valley, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown can be found ministering in all levels of education, in hospitals and health care facilities, in parish ministries and in outreach ministries to the poor and disadvantaged.

Some of their past and present good works in the Mahoning Valley include the founding of and continuing educational endeavors in Ursuline High School, Youngstown Community School, Ursuline Preschool and Kindergarten, Ursuline Center and Millcreek Children’s Center.

The sisters also serve a variety of people through social work at the Beatitude House, area hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers.

A video of the reflection offered by Sister Mary during the mass is available for viewing via YouTube at www.theursulines.org.