The Collected Letters of Nano Nagle

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The Collected Letters of Nano Nagle
A collection of the surviving letters of Honora (Nano) Nagle (1718-1784), foundress of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM). Nano Nagle brought the Ursuline congregation to Ireland, before founding the Presentations. This collection represents a digital reunification of the surviving letters. A cousin of Edmund Burke, Nano was a member of a prominent Catholic landowning family in Munster. The material is collated from three separate archival collections: the Presentation Sisters Congregational Archives, Cork (PSCA); the archives of the Presentation Convent, George's Hill, Dublin; and the Presentation Archives, San Francisco, USA. Within the PSCA, there are letters originally belonging to the Archives of the Ursuline Convent, Blackrock, Cork; these letters were gifted to the Irish Presentation Sisters on the occasion of the tercentenary of the birth of Nano Nagle (2018). There is also one letter that was gifted by the Presentation Convent, New Windsor, USA, on the occasion of the tercentenary. The digital collection comprises of seventeen manuscript letters; the letters are from Nano Nagle to Eleanor Fitzsimons (later Sr. Angela Fitzsimons), an Irish religious novice in Paris, and from Nano Nagle to Teresa Mulally, educator of the poor, in Dublin.

Works

All works are fully transcribed.
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons discussing the establishment and success of her first schools in Cork, and the method of education employed therein. Nagle states that it is always a pleasure to hear from Fitzsimons. She also refers to early reactions to her ministry from the...

3 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons in which she speculates about her investments in Paris and expresses her disappointment at the low interest paid. Nagle complains that Mr. Waters, banker, would not tell her anything about the East India Company. She appears fretful and vexed;...

2 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons. Nagle reflects on herself and believes she has many faults. She compares the former novice mistress in the Ursuline monastery in Paris to the mustard seed in the Gospel, and expresses hope that the Cork foundation will succeed with her at the...

2 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons expressing her pleasure at receiving another letter from her and hoping they will meet in person soon. Nagle mentions her delight that Fitzsimons will be professed in Cork, and that the former novice mistress of the Ursuline monastery in Paris...

3 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons giving an account of a "very desirable" young lady (Miss Lawless) whom she is seeking to take on in Cork. The lady's father is strongly opposed to her taking the veil and he has offered her a substantial sum of money should she reconsider and...

3 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter sent from Bath, England, written while Nano is visiting her brothers there. She alludes to previous correspondence which detailed the foundation of her first schools in Cork, and how she withheld this from her family who until lately were uninformed of her work. While aware that her...

2 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons apologising for her lack of contact due to time constraints. Nagle struggles to express her joy on hearing Mary Kavanagh has joined the group bound for Ireland. She communicates that [Fr. Patrick] Doran is eager for the prompt departure of Miss...

2 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Fitzsimons

Letter from Nano Nagle to Miss [Eleanor] Fitzsimons noting the writer's anxiety at not receiving letters from Fitzsimons or Dr. Moylan. Nagle comments that the proposed date of the novices’ arrival in Cork has not yet been fixed and discusses the problem of finding a professed religious to act...

3 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Mulally

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Mulally

Letter from Nano Nagle to Teresa Mulally apologising for not replying to her letter sooner and expressing regret that her precarious finances would not allow her undertake a foundation in St. Michan's Parish, Dublin. She hopes that Mulally lives long enough to see the Sisters of Charitable...

4 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
Nano Nagle writing to Miss Mulally

Nano Nagle writing to Miss Mulally

Letter from Nano Nagle to Teresa Mulally indicating that, at the behest of Dr. Moylan, she had taken in three women to assist in her education ministry the previous Christmas. She reveals that two of the women will establish a foundation in County Kerry and encloses a copy of their rule, "its...

2 pages: 100% complete (100% indexed, 100% transcribed)
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