Nun recounts 140 years of history for Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN

Sister Mary McCormick, the 21st general superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, recounted the order’s founding to its current ministries during Mahoning Valley Historical Society’s Bites and Bits of History lunch program Thursday at the Tyler History Center, 325 W. Federal St.

The Ursulines marked their 140th anniversary in the Valley in September. The founder set the tone — to meet the needs of the people. The Ursulines have adapted their ministries to changing times to fulfill that directive.

The order, named for St. Ursula, was founded in 1535 in Brescia, Italy, by Sister Angela Merici, who is now a saint. Ursuline life, Sister Mary said, spread in Europe. The first women religious to come to North America were the Ursulines, who arrived in Quebec in 1639 and New Orleans in 1727.

Members of the order came to Cincinnati in 1845, Cleveland in 1850 and then to Youngstown in 1874 at the request of the Rev. Patrick Brown, St. Columba Cathedral pastor, who wanted the nuns to teach elementary school.

“The Ursulines arrived to stay in a house by St. Columba on Sept. 18 [1874],” she said. They went to teaching assignments at churches including Immaculate Conception, Sacred Heart, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, St. Joan of Arc and later St. Patrick.

Read more of their history in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.