Ursulines - Role in education

Worldwide congregations of sisters engaged in the education of girls. The principal and oldest congregation was founded in 1535 by St Angela Merici as the Company of St Ursula, after the 4th-c legendary saint and martyr.

The Ursulines are a religious order founded at Brescia, Italy by St. Angela of Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy.

In the following century, the Ursulines were powerfully encouraged and supported by St. Francis de Sales. They were called the "religious Ursulines" as distinct from the "congregated Ursulines," who preferred to follow the original plan.

By 1639, there were Ursulines in Canada who taught the catechism to Aboriginal children.

Towards the beginning of the 18th century, the period of its greatest prosperity, the Ursuline order embraced some 20 congregations, with 350 convents and from 15,000 to 20,000 nuns.

Role in education

Colleges and universities

In the United States, the Ursulines have founded two well-known Catholic women's colleges. Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio was founded in 1871 by the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland.

In 1919, the Ursulines founded a university-level liberal arts college for women in London, Ontario, Canada. Currently called Brescia University College (Brescia College at its foundation), it remains the only university-level college for women in Canada and is affiliated with the University of Western Ontario.

The Mount Saint Joseph Junior College for Women operated between 1925 and 1950 in Maple Mount, Kentucky, with the Ursulines offering co-educational extension courses at Owensboro. The Ursulines merged their extension courses with Mount Saint Joseph Junior College in 1950, creating the co-educational Brescia University still in operation today.

Secondary education

Ursuline secondary education schools are found across the United States. The Ursuline School in New Rochelle, New York is a school for girls in grades 6-12 and is closely affiliated with the nearby Iona College.

Other notable Ursuline secondary schools in the United States include the all-female Ursuline Academy of Dallas in Dallas, Texas and the all-female Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Delaware.

Like their colleges, not all Ursuline secondary schools have remained single-sex. The aforementioned Ursuline Academy in Delaware permits male students in grades 1-3, and Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Ohio, founded in 1905, is fully co-educational.

Other Ursuline secondary schools in the United States include Ursuline Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio (founded in 1898), St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ursuline Academy in Saint Louis, Missouri (founded in 1848), the Ursuline Academy of Dedham in Dedham, Massachusetts and Ursuline High School in Santa Rosa, California (founded in 1880). There is also an Ursuline high school in the Bronx, the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula.