About 500 people gathered Aug. 9 on the campus of Ursuline College in Pepper Pike to begin a yearlong celebration of the 175th anniversary of the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland’s ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Sister Laura Bregar, OSU, president, and other members of the leadership team, mingled with attendees under large tents in the parking lot near the college’s tennis courts. Sister Bregar spoke briefly and pointed out a framed proclamation from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb congratulating the congregation for its contributions and ongoing service.
(See photo gallery above.)
Attendees could sign a banner with messages for the sisters, many of whom visited with their guests.
The Ursulines were established by St. Angela Merici in 1535 in Italy. Over the years, the congregation grew, expanding across Europe, including France.
In 1850, responding to a request from Amadeus Rappe, the first bishop of Cleveland and a native of France, four sisters and an English laywoman, led by Mother Mary of the Annunciation Beaumont, arrived from France to establish the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland. Within three weeks, they opened Ursuline Academy with an enrollment of 300 students. It was renamed Beaumont School in 1942, after moving to a larger location in Cleveland Heights. Beaumont also is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.
Throughout the years, the sisters continued their ministry, primarily in education. They are credited with establishing a diocesan school system after opening St. Patrick School (Ohio City) in 1853. Ursuline College, the first chartered women’s college in Ohio, opened in 1871. As it grew, the college moved to its current Pepper Pike location in 1966.
The sisters also operated Sacred Heart Academy a girls’ high school in East Cleveland, from 1919 to 1972.
Villa Angela, their boarding school and day school, transitioned in 1941 to an all-girls high school. It merged in 1990 with the nearby all-boys St. Joseph High School, a ministry of the Society of Mary (Marianists) forming the coed Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood.
In 1854, the Ursuline sisters began ministries in Toledo and Tiffin, Ohio and 20 years later, in Youngstown.
The sisters also served at the diocesan mission in El Salvador. Sister Dorothy Kazel, OSU and lay missionary Jean Donovan were among four church women killed during the Salvadoran civil war in 1980. They are remembered at both Merici Crossings, the sisters’ Pepper Pike motherhouse, and Beaumont School.
In addition to their ongoing work in education, the sisters also serve in parish and health care ministries, social justice and social services.