History

History of the Ursuline Sisters in Waterville, Maine

by Sr. Rita Bourassa, O.S.U.

The Ursuline community in Quebec grew rapidly and in 1697, twenty-five years after the death of Mother Marie of the Incarnation, the Ursulines of Quebec founded the monastery of Three Rivers which gave Waterville its missionaries in 1888, a period of great need in the area. In 1880, during an era of the great immigration from French Canada, Reverend Narcisse Charland had been given charge of the Parish of Waterville which, at that time, was the home of some 4,000 Catholics, the majority of whom were Canadian-born. History relates that there were over 3,000 children of school age with scarcely one third registered in the existing schools.

Reverend Narcisse Charland

The saintly Father Charland, zealous and entirely devoted to his parishioners, had  untiringly and unsuccessfully pleaded for Sisters from Canadian religious communities to come to Waterville to educate the children of the parish. "Nulle part au monde," he had written, "il y a autant de bien a faire qu'a Waterville. Ca, c'est sur." (No where in the world is there as much good as can be done than in Waterville. For sure.) An appeal such as this fired the zeal of a 42-year old Ursuline from Three-Rivers, Mother Marie Sacre Coeur Buisson.

The first to volunteer for the Waterville mission, she was also assigned to lead the pioneer band of six Ursulines. The group arrived on a bleak Friday afternoon, March 9, 1888, and were enthusiastically received by both Catholics and Protestants who had gathered in the church of St. Francis. A small wooden frame building had been made available for the founding sisters.
 

On March 11, two days after their arrival, the announcement was made at Mass that Catechism classes would begin at two o'clock that afternoon. Three hundred five children presented themselves, and within a short time, approximately four hundred were receiving instruction. Catechism classes for young mill employees were held in the evening.
 

On Monday, the third day after the Sisters' arrival, school opened as the limited facilities permitted. The sisters, all French speaking and none of whom had ever taught boys, immediately organized classes according to the Franco American school system. After an early Mass and breakfast each morning and before the opening of morning sessions, the four teachers among the group of six sisters prepared to teach in English the lessons for the day. Conscious as we are today of the limited number of pupils per class and the requirements to teach in one's field of specialization, we imagine with difficulty the situation in those days.
 

Surmounting many of the hardships that are frequently part and parcel of new foundations, the Ursuline Sisters under the leadership of Mother Marie du Sacre Coeur gave themselves entirely to respond to the many needs of the children and of the whole Waterville community. But Mother Marie du Sacre Coeur's mission covered only a narrow front. Having developed pneumonia while in Augusta to open a school in St. Augustine's Parish, she died in February, 1893, at the age of 46, following a few weeks' illness. The Ursuline Community and the entire city of Waterville mourned this courageous and faith-filled women.

Mother Marie du Sacre Coeur Buisson

Soon the number of vocations to the Ursuline Community grew rapidly. Shortly after the turn of the century, the still young community gave proof of undaunted faith and courage in responding to requests of foundations in various areas of the Diocese of Portland. Between 1911 and 1937 the Ursulines of Maine opened or took over the administration and staffing of additional schools in Fairfield, Skowhegan, Brunswick, Lewiston, Sanford, Springvale, Caribou, Winslow, and two decades later, founded independent, private schools in Dedham and Springfield, Massachusetts.
 

After the purchase of the Chase property, the boarding school and the novitiate were transplanted from St. Francis to Upper Western Avenue in February, 1912. A nucleus of Sisters remained at St. Francis to administer and staff the parochial schools of the city. St. Francis, Notre Dame, Sacred Heart, and St. Joseph Maronite, all Ursuline schools. The Catholic Consolidated School, under the direction of the Ursuline Sisters operated at the College Avenue site of the former Sacred Heart School until 1973, when it too closed its doors.
 

The one Ursuline school that has survived and retains its vitality today is the Mount Merici School. It passed through various stages. Originally dependent upon boarders, Merici once housed as many as 125 students of all ages in any one year. It was not until 1920 that day students were accepted, with the understanding that in order to receive their high school diploma, twelfth year students would spend the year in residence. A change in policy regarding those students was made in 1951. The decision to accept the Seniors as day pupils had the effect of a catalyst, resulting in an influx of students from neighboring cities and towns.

The Original Convent and School

To meet the needs, larger facilities were necessary. Ground was broken in 1954 for a new school building. Within the next few years, the decision had to be faced to discontinue the boarding school and build new facilities to house the Religious Community because the old wooden structure had become unsafe for occupancy. The new convent building, now serving as convent residence and Sisters' Infirmary also houses the student's cafeteria.
 

After the hopeful years of the 1960s with stable registration on both secondary and elementary levels, and in spite of the high praise accorded the school by the evaluation committee of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges with its assurance that the future seemed bright, enrollment on the secondary level began to decrease in the early 1970's. In 1974, the painful decision to close the high school was faced and courageously taken.
 

Mount Merici School

The last twenty years have witnessed additional changes. Today, Mount Merici remains a private, Catholic, elementary school. As such, it is unique in the Diocese of Portland. It operates under the ownership and direction of the Ursuline Sisters, but it is fully administered and staffed by a dedicated lay principal and faculty who keep the Ursuline spirit alive and offer to students, both boys and girls, of the Waterville area a pre-K through 6 program of Christian education and academic excellence. The philosophy of Mount Merici is still today what the Ursuline educational philosophy has been throughout the past centuries: "the full development of the child's God given potentials of intellect, will, and heart, ...the formation of the whole person."
 

Ursulines at Mount Merici

Ursuline presence in Maine has made a difference in the lives of thousands of citizens. Today the Mount Merici faculty and parents are appealing to those whose lives have somehow been touched by Ursuline presence to respond to the present challenge, and assist in "securing a promising future in order to preserve a proud tradition."