Presentation Sisters Union North East Ireland Union of Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Nano Nagle was a prophet of love. Her dying words were: “Love one another as you have hitherto done”.
Nano Nagle died on Monday 26 April 1784 aged 65 years.
Her vision is still relevant
Nano Nagle is not a figure confined to the past but someone whose vision is as relevant today as it was in her own time. As Jesus says: “The poor you will always have with you” (John 12:8)
Nano’s life and vision sparked an answering fire in the hearts of her first companions. And on her death bed she entrusted to Sr. Angela (Mary Ann Collins) her handful of faithful followers, and tasked them with continuing her mission.
“She merely wished them to become as she herself was, the servants of the Poor … This was the road pointed out by Miss Nagle, to be trodden by the members of her Congregation – she walked in it herself – her example traced the way for them and they faithfully followed”. (An extract from the South Presentation Annals of the time).
Raphael Consedine, pbvm refers to Sr. Angela as a woman ‘whose contribution was essentially personal and in the order of faith … without her fidelity, Nano’s Institute* would certainly have perished within a year of her death. When humanly speaking there was nothing to hope for, Mary Ann Collins listened, not to the dictates of self-interest but to the Divine Call in her life’.
Nano’s cherished hope and global vision began to flower after her death. Presentation history evolved as each new call was answered. Let us not forget the dynamic courage of those early women, who, fired by the self-same spirit of Nano, and filled with Nano’s zeal and vision, they travelled to the peripheries of the earth in response to repeated appeals.
“They were women of listening hearts to whom the Spirit spoke: Come! So they rose up to follow”.
Such was this continued expansion across the globe, that Presentation Sisters are now to be found carrying the flame of the Gospel to the ends of the earth!
Could Nano ever have dreamt how far-flung would be the impact of her life?
Nano Nagle – a prophet of Love
Nano Nagle was a prophet of love. Her dying words were: “Love one another as you have hitherto done”.
Across the globe today the charism of Nano Nagle ‘to be love in the world’, is cherished by a strong network of sisters, colleagues, associates , students and friends of Nano – the entire Presentation Family. With commitment and creative imagination, they seek to find an entry point into human life where they can make a difference.
They identify systemic injustice and its causes, and seek to listen to the ‘cry of the earth, and the cry of the poor’. No effort is spared to raise awareness of the burning issues of today’s world. They work and collaborate with like-minded groups in beaming the lantern flame of hope and transformation across geographical, political and cultural borders. By being collaborators with God in the ‘Care of Humanity and or Earth’, they make the gospel vision a reality as they place themselves daily in the path of the poorest of the poor.
“Nano Nagle bids us move from our safe and comfortable nests, from our self-isolation and complacency, and to move to the peripheries, to life at the razor’s edge.
Nano wouldn’t want us simply to replicate her life, but rather to seek new pathways, new strategies, new and imaginative responses that can act as the counterpoint to the lack of love in today’s world”. (Anne Lyons, pbvm: ‘The Story of Nano Nagle: A Life Lived on the Razor’s Edge’).
God put Nano Nagle in the path of the poor of Cork and they in turn were put in her path and changed her.
May we continue to let Nano’s vision change us and the way we see the world. May our ‘Yes’ be one of passionate action. The centrality of her pray and her commitment to the Gospel allowed Nano’s work to remain firmly rooted and held in a love that was both human and divine.
May this be so for each of us!
[The text used here is adapted from ‘The Story of Nano Nagle: A Life Lived on the Razor’s Edge’, by Anne Lyons, pbvm: pages 54 to 58].Note: *With the approval of the new constitutions in 1791, the title of the Congregation was changed to ‘Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary’ (PBVM), from the initial name of the foundation (1777): ‘The Society of the Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus’.