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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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PURCELL, MARY CATHERINE (1839-1917)

PURCELL, MARY CATHERINE, Sister St Beatrice of the Congregation of Notre Dame; teacher, and superior at Newcastle, 1879-85, 1886-87, and 1890-97; b. Ontario, 13 Nov 1839, d/o Patrick Purcell and Mary Horohan; entered religious life, 1858; d. Montreal, 1 Nov 1917.

Mary Catherine Purcell, who hailed from Kingston, Ont., was one of two younger members of the Congregation of Notre Dame who accompanied Marie-Eugénie-Odile Montpetit to Newcastle in 1869 to start a convent school for girls, and she was the only one of the three who stayed for a lengthy period. By participating in the founding of the school and remaining on its staff for twenty-five years, she secured her place as the most important figure in the history of St Mary's Academy.

The Academy had an enrollment of only twenty-five girls when it opened on 3 November 1869 and was taught in a small nondescript building. In 1873 it was moved to a spacious former private home. It was described in Sadliers' Directory for 1886 as a "general day school for girls and boarding school for young ladies." Purcell presided, as teacher, principal, and superior, over its physical growth and development, as well as the diversification and expansion of its curriculum. She left temporarily in 1887 to open a new CND convent at Mabou, in Cape Breton, but returned in 1890.

It was not until 1895, when an elegant three-storey, Victorian-style convent was erected at Newcastle that Purcell and her CND colleagues had a building which adequately reflected their educational ambitions. "Les plans de cette bâtisse," stated a CND publication, "sont dans tous les détails, l'oeuvre de nos chère Soeurs Sainte-Béatrice et Sainte-Antonine [Emilie Lecavalier]." An advertisement for the "Boarding School and Academy" in August 1895 was effusive in its praise of the "handsome building, on the point of completion," which would be ready to receive pupils in September. The school was "pleasantly situated in an elevated locality" and commanded "an extensive view of the River and surrounding country." It had a hot water heating system and was "fitted throughout with all modern conveniences."

The course of instruction at the Academy, in English and French, consisted of "the various branches of a solid, refined, and useful education, from the Primary to the most Advanced Studies, including Higher Mathematics, Greek, and Latin." Music was "one of the specialties of the Institution," and painting, needlework, and other subjects were also taught. An elaborate official opening and dedication service was held on 25 November 1895, at which Father John Carter, the first Newcastle-born priest, was the main speaker.

When it opened in 1895 the Academy had ten teachers. At the time, denominational schools were receiving no public funding, and while none of the religious teachers collected salaries, the fact that St Mary's became one of the most successful Catholic schools in the province reflects much credit on Purcell and her fellow teachers, as well as on Father Patrick W. Dixon and the school's many lay supporters.

By the time she left Newcastle for good in 1897 Purcell had achieved a kind of sainthood on the Miramichi, even in the eyes of the Methodist editors of the Union Advocate, who observed that she had worked with "indefatigable zeal" and was "much loved." Her next appointment was as provincial superior of the CND for Ontario and the United States. She filled this role for six years and then served for the better part of a decade as assistant general of the order. Testimonials given at the time of her death, at age seventy-eight, leave little doubt that she was one of the great figures of the Congregation of Notre Dame.

Sources

[b] CND archives [d] Leader 9 Nov 1917 / Advance 8 Aug 1895, 28 Nov 1895; Advocate 20 Nov 1895, 7 Jul 1897; Leader 28 May 1970; MacAllister; Sadliers'

Notes

The records of the Congregation of Notre Dame state that Purcell was born in Ballyragget, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, but she informed three different New Brunswick census enumerators that she was a native of Ontario. In her obituary in the North Shore Leader it was stated that she was born in Kingston. Her parents were from Ireland, however, and one or both of them may have been from Co. Kilkenny.


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