For over 160 years many people have passed through Sacred Heart College.

We acknowledge here some of these people - from the pioneers who helped establish SHC

to those who continue on the tradition of what it means to be a member of this wonderful community.

1. CATHERINE MCAULEY
2. MOTHER XAVIER MAGUIRE
3. ARCHBISHOP GOOLD
4. PAST PRINCIPALS OF SHC
5. SISTERS OF MERCY
6. BOYS
   
7. ST JOSEPH’S INDUSTRIAL ​SCHOOL
8. BOARDERS
9. DEBUTANTES
10. THE OLD COLLEGIAN’S SOCIETY/ ​ALUMNI COMMITTEE
11. THE CHILDREN OF MARY
    

CATHERINE MCAULEY

Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1778. Both her parents died when she was ​young and she, her brother and sister went to live with relatives, the Armstrongs, who were ​Protestant in their faith. While members of her family converted, Catherine remained a ​committed Catholic.

When she was 25, Catherine became the live-in companion to Mr and Mrs Callaghan, friends of ​the Armstrong's. Although they too were Protestant and did not approve of Catherine's Catholic ​faith, they did support her charitable work.

For almost 20 years she taught young women needlework and gave Catholic instruction to ​household servants and poor village children from Coolock House, the Callaghan's home.

Before William Callaghan died he became a Catholic, as did his wife, and appointed Catherine as ​his sole heir. This allowed her to provide social services to educate and provide for poor women ​and young girls.

In 1824, Catherine leased a property in Baggot Street, Dublin. Here she began educating young ​girls and set up a home for poor young women. Catherine also had a group of women who were ​prepared to help at the house as well as visit the sick and poor at their homes. After a time, there ​were 12 women living at Baggot Street with Catherine, who adopted a common timetable and ​dressed simply.

Their lifestyle and dedication led Catherine to consider establishing a religious congregation and ​in 1830 Catherine joined the novitiate of Presentation Convent in Dublin, with two companions ​from Baggot Street. They were professed in 1831 and the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy was ​founded.

Catherine's dream was now a reality. She encouraged her Sisters to "educate poor girls, to lodge ​and maintain poor young women who are in danger and to visit the sick poor". Within 10 years ​Catherine founded a further nine Convents of Mercy in Ireland and England. Each new foundation ​was independent of the motherhouse in Baggot Street but they were all linked to Catherine and ​each other by visits and frequent letters.

Catherine died on November 11, 1841 after a short illness.

MOTHER M. XAVIER MAGUIRE

Mother Xavier Maguire was born Eliza Maguire, in 1819 at Newgrange, County Meath, Ireland. She ​was educated in a convent in France and grew to become a refined, cultured woman of high ​social standing.

On 1 May 1843, she entered the Convent of Mercy in Baggot St Dublin and was professed 2 years ​later. She was elected Novice Mistress and later became Mother Superior of the Convent. She ​established two branch convents in Ireland, sent sisters to Buenos Aries and also to the ​battlefields of England during the Crimean War. Mother Xavier Maguire was a born administrator ​and organiser, being both practical and thorough.

In June 1859, Dr J Goold, the first Archbishop of Melbourne attended the Convent of Mercy in ​Dublin to request a community of Sisters for the growing town of Geelong.

On 5 September Mother Maguire sailed for Australia with five Sisters.

When they arrived, Mother Maguire and her little group were extended hospitality at the Convent ​of Mercy, Fitzroy after which they continued on to their destination, arriving in Geelong on 3 ​December. With nothing prepared for their arrival, Mother Maguire and the Sisters stayed at St ​Augustine’s for 3 months.

In March 1860, Mother Xavier and the Sisters took possession of their new home called Sunville, ​their temporary convent. Over the next 3 years they paid for the property in instalments, as well ​as for extensive repairs and furnishings. Mother Xavier Maguire envisaged a complex which ​would include all their intended works of Mercy, consisting of a Convent, Orphanage, Boarding ​school, Day school and refuge for poor young women. Lacking space, money and staff for such an ​ambitious project she began to do what she could with what means and materials she possessed.

In the latter part of 1860, Mother Maguire looked to the future needs of the school and Convent. ​She called for tenders and began planning to build a much larger building, similar to the Convent ​in Baggot St, Dublin. Through her efforts, she oversaw and paid for a program of building from ​1863 to 1874, including Our Lady’s Orphanage, the quadrangle complex and the Convent Chapel ​that forms the foundation of the college today.

Mother Xavier, although suffering extreme rheumatism and being confined to a wheelchair for ​many years, continued to carry out her duties, including being elected Superior for 20 years.

She died aged 60, on 30 August, 1879. Her death caused deep personal grief to her community. ​For twenty years, her inspiration, her courage and above all her deep unfailing trust in God had ​been the driving force for Mother Xavier Maguire to establish a Mercy foundation here in ​Geelong.

ARCHBISHOP GOOLD AND THE SISTERS ​OF MERCY

James Alipius Goold, first Archbishop of Melbourne, went to Ireland to request the Sisters of ​Mercy to establish a community in Geelong in 1859. The invitation was accepted and five sisters ​and a novice, including Mother Xavier Maguire, arrived in Geelong on 3 December 1859.

To Mother Xavier and the sisters at Geelong, Archbishop Goold proved to be a true friend and ​benefactor, visiting the convent often, celebrating mass, assisting with elections of superiors and ​overseeing professions.

In a letter dated January 25, 1864, Mother Xavier writes to the Baggot St convent,

We had a nice quiet ceremony on the Feast of the Holy Name. Sr. Eliza now Sr. M. Juliana. The ​ceremony was in the evening, and the Bishop preached a little sermon. He is all we would wish, and ​does everything to make us happy – most kind to me, and leaves me free to act. Thanks be to God for ​all His goodness to me and for removing so entirely all my most bitter crosses.

When Archbishop Goold died in 1886, he bequeathed to the Geelong convent his chalice, ​inscribed with his name and given to him by Pope Pius IX on a visit to the Vatican, and also his ​embossed silver tea and coffee service.

A legacy of £2338.15.3 from the estate of the late Archbishop was received in 1888 as well as ​another legacy of £60 and a £50 donation towards the convent cemetery. Also left to the sisters ​was an alabaster and marble crucifix made by the Italian sculptor Guiseppe Andrea in Pisa in ​1856.

PAST SUPERIORS AND PRINCIPALS OF SHC

SISTERS OF MERCY

BECOMING A SISTER OF MERCY

From the 1920s a young woman who had a genuine desire to give her life to God ​and considered she had a vocation to the Congregation, would complete her ​studies at the Sisters of Mercy Juniorate, “Stella Maris”, in North Geelong, before ​entering the Novitiate.

After entering, the aspirant would remain a postulant for 6 months, taking part in ​daily prayer, instruction, study and household duties, training in the elements of ​Religious Life.

At the end of this period, she would receive a habit of the Sisters of Mercy and also ​her religious name. She would now be called a novice and would commence what is ​known as the Spiritual Year of her training. She would be instructed by the Mistress ​of Novices in all that relates to the daily life of a Sister of Mercy.

During the second year of the novitiate, the she may take on external works of the ​Congregation, so that while still under the direction of the Novice Mistress, she may ​learn how to combine the life of prayer and that of activity, which is the essence of ​her vocation.

At the conclusion of this time, she makes the three vows of Poverty, Chastity and ​Obedience for one year. She is now a professed Religious Sister of Mercy signified ​by the letters RSM added to her name. Usually, then, the Sister leaves the novitiate ​house to commence a specialised course of training which will fit her for her ​respective work in the Congregation, such as teacher training, nursing, social ​service or domestic work.

After a further three years of experience in the Congregation, when she has tested ​herself and given evidence of the sincerity of her purpose, she makes her vows for ​life. This is the final profession and her life is completely dedicated to Christ.

BOYS

Boys were enrolled at Sacred Heart College from at least 1889 until the phasing out of the ​primary classes, which commenced in 1974. Boys were enrolled in the lower primary classes only, ​usually to Grade 3 level. The first boy found in our enrolment records was Laurence Whelan of ​Herne Hill. He was born in December 1881 and was enrolled in Grade 3 at Sacred Heart College in ​January 1889. There were 18 boys enrolled in the lower primary levels at Sacred Heart later in ​that year.

For a brief time in the 1890s, boys were transferred to the first St Joseph’s College for their higher ​primary years and secondary level classes. When the Christian Brothers transferred their St ​Joseph’s College operation to Ballarat in 1895 to form St Patrick’s College, some of the Sacred ​Heart boys would become boarders there.

When the second St Joseph’s College opened in 1935, the relationship with Sacred Heart College ​was rekindled. Once again boys in Sacred Heart’s lower primary school went on to St Joseph’s ​although some went on to other schools in later years. The uniform the boys wore at Sacred ​Heart was the same as St Joseph’s, including the blazer with the SJC crest.

Boys returned to Sacred Heart College in 1989 with the introduction of the Victorian Certificate of ​Education when our senior students again took part in joint classes with boys from St Joseph’s, ​and continues to this day.

ST JOSEPH’S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

In 1864, the Government passed the Neglected and Criminal Children's Act, allowing for the ​establishment of reformatories and industrial schools. On 23 December 1865, the Sisters of the ​Newtown Convent opened St Joseph’s Industrial School with nine girls aged between 10 and 15 ​who had received court sentences, had been deserted by their parents or had been labelled ​uncontrollable. Like the orphans at Our Lady’s of Mercy, they often had tragic life histories. Many ​were thought to be living in slums, brothels or on the streets, where they could be schooled in ​crime instead of becoming the industrious, obedient and sober workers that the colony needed. ​Prostitution was one of the more insidious dangers for neglected girls and abused girls. In the ​1860s, the age of consent was 12 years and not raised to 16 until 1885.

On admission to St Josephs a girl’s educational standard was assessed according to their skills in ​reading, writing and ciphering (arithmetic). In the period 1865 to 1880 the school register showed ​that only two girls entering the school were judged as having reached a ‘fair’ standard and the ​rest were illiterate. The Sisters intention was to give these children a basic education and also to ​prepare them for useful lives as servants. The sisters took the radical step of housing these ​troubled children with the ‘respectable’ orphans.

Orphanages were designed to assist the 'deserving poor' - this meant families who were considered the innocent victims of misfortune. 19th century philanthropy had a deep suspicion about how ​and why people became destitute, and people who drank alcohol, gambled, were unemployed though able-bodied, spent money on indulgences, or associated with criminal or 'disreputable' ​people, were often seen as 'undeserving' of charitable assistance. It was a social experiment that worked and in 1872 Royal Commissioners observed that the girls in the Industrial school ​appeared not only bright and healthy but natural and home-like and had nothing of the ‘cowed and restrained listless aspect’ of reformatory children elsewhere. In spite of the success of the ​school the sisters found it hard to pay bills for food, clothing and bedding and our foundress mother Xavier Maguire often wrote of her embarrassment at being unable to meet the financial ​obligations of maintaining the orphanage and industrial school. The industrial school closed in 1883.

BOARDERS

A TYPICAL BOARDER'S DAY AT SCHOOL

For the early boarders the ringing of the Angelus bell at around 7.00am signalled time to rise for ​the girls to morning prayers or Morning Offering. Whilst it rang, “dresses still want fastening, ​collars adjusting, shoes buttoning.”

When ready the students proceeded in line from their dormitories along St Angela’s walk, ​beneath the reception parlour window and round to Mass in the boarder’s chapel. Mass was ​followed by breakfast, eaten in silence.

At 8.45am all students assembled for home exercises, study and religious instruction. Classes ran ​from 9.15am until 11.45am, with recreation followed by dinner at 12.30pm. Afternoon classes ​ended at 3.30pm “when the rosary was said. Lunch was immediately afterwards, and study began ​at 4.00pm.”

Afternoon recreation was a time for relaxing with other activities, such as walking in the grounds. ​A smaller meal - supper or tea - was eaten later in the evening. What seems to us an unusually ​early time to have dinner was in fact common for most social classes of this period. Dinner ​consisted variously of soup, boiled or roasted meat, rice, potatoes and occasionally other ​vegetables, for breakfast and supper there was bread and tea. Fruits such as apple and rhubarb ​constituted dessert or ‘sweets’.

DEBUTANTES

A debutante ball, sometimes called a coming-out party, is a formal ball that includes presenting ​debutantes during the season, usually during the spring or summer. Debutante balls may require ​prior instruction in social etiquette and dancing.

Debutante Balls became an important annual event at Sacred Heart College from the 1920s. The ​idea of a debutante ball was to formally introduce young women in to society in a civilised ​manner. Partners were known to the families of the girls and the Sisters ensured that a strict ​code of conduct was enforced during functions. Despite this, dancing and perhaps even ​eventually marriage was certainly encouraged.

The debutante balls were organised by the Sacred Heart Past Pupils Association which was later ​known as the Old Collegians Association. Girls making their debut would be officially presented to ​the Association President and the Dean of St Mary’s Church.

The girls wore elaborate and elegant full length white or off-white gowns, although photographs ​from the 1920s show shorter hems were the fashion, as were Nellie Stewart bangles (popular ​gifts at the time associated with Nellie Stewart, famous singer and actress). More colourful satin ​dresses were worn in the 1960s. On occasion flowers were worn by the girls near their left ​shoulder or in their hair, and earlier debutante balls show girls holding delicate fans in their ​hands.

Early balls were held in the Corio Club Hall in Villamanta Street whilst others later held in the ​1950s were conducted at St Mary’s Hall in Myers Street. The balls were colourful spectacles and ​hundreds of guests watched as the debutantes were introduced. Streamers of blue and gold ​were hung from light fittings and school pennants decorated the stage on which flowers ​intermingled with the green foliage of pot plants.

Formal photographs were taken by a professional photographer and these photos with full ​descriptions of the dresses worn by the girls would be published in the Geelong Advertiser.

THE OLD COLLEGIAN’S SOCIETY / ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

EARLY DAYS OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 1924 - 1945

The Alumni Association began in 1924 officially under the name of the Sacred Heart ​Past Pupils Association. This coincided with the first official reunion at Sacred Heart ​College in the same year. Prior to this there had been formal get-togethers of past ​students at the convent including a large gathering of up to 300 for the 1910 silver ​jubilee of the College.

The first president of the association was Mrs Mary McCabe Doyle (nee Ryan). She ​remained in office for many years, and in the 1930s, Mrs Margaret McNamara, Mrs ​McCabe Doyle and Mrs Teresa Kerley (nee Munday) alternated the role of ​president. In 1932, the Association changed its name to the Sacred Heart Old ​Collegian’s Association.

The Association quickly became very active once it was formalised – arranging ​annual sports days, deb balls, fundraisers and by the 1930s had not only a Geelong ​committee but a Melbourne president and committee who arranged ‘at homes’ and ​dinner dances at the Menzies and Wentworth Hotels, and also frequently held card ​games at chic places like the Green Door in Collins Street, and the Piccadilly Café.

The Old Collegians went on to begin the Mercedes club - between 1935 and 1942, ​and it had rooms in the Block Buildings, on the ground floor, Lt Malop St (now ​Market Square shopping centre). The club rooms had a piano, tables and chairs, a ​stove, heating, crockery a table tennis table (on loan from the Commonwealth ​Bank) and a library of 100 of the most up to date books. The club rooms are ​mentioned in the pages of the College Annual Mercedes between the years 1936 ​and 1942, with descriptions of improvements, such as stippled paint decoration on ​the walls, bookcase installation and carpeting to beautify and increase comfort for ​members (sadly there are no pictures of the rooms).

Other activities run from the club was a birthday fund, where a member marked ​her birthday by making a donation to the association and a thrift club, where a ​bank account was opened, encouraging members to make deposits, helping ​members begin saving. ‘Jam Days’ were held annually, where members would make ​and sell jam to raise funds for the children in St Catherine’s and St Augustine’s ​Orphanages.

THE CHILDREN OF MARY

In May, 1935, St Catherine Laboure received a revelation from the Blessed Virgin ​Mary during a series of apparitions while at the convent Rue du Bac, Paris. “It is the ​Blessed Virgin’s wish that you should found a Confraternity of the Children of Mary. ​She will give them many graces. The month of May will be kept with great splendour ​and Mary will bestow abundant blessings upon them.”

Over subsequent decades the grotto at the College became a focus for devotional ​gatherings and photographs of the Children of Mary. The Sodality of the Children of ​Mary originated from the Church’s acceptance of three visitations by the Virgin ​Mary in 1830 to Catherine Laboure, a novice of the Daughters of Charity in Paris. In ​1876, Pope Pius IX formally extended admission to girls at all Catholic schools. They ​were identified by the Miraculous Medal (said to bestow ‘a promise of great graces ​to those who wear it when blessed’), the blue ribbon from which it hung and the ​blue cloak, normally sewn by the student. The Children of Mary Sodalities first ​embraced the pupils and orphans of the schools and institutions of the Sisters of ​Charity of St Vincent de Paul. In 1847, Blessed Pius IX affiliated them to Jesuit ​Roman Sodality.

At Sacred Heart Boarding School on July 1867, six students, (including Ellen Killen, a ​foundation student), were first received into ‘The Congregation of the Children of ​Mary’. They were identified by the wearing of the Miraculous Medal and the blue ​ribbon from which it hung. On 28 November, 99 ‘members’ (including the four ​founding sisters) were formally enrolled in the ‘proper Church of the Sodality of the ​Sacred Heart in Rome’ (also known as the Association of the Sacred Heart).

Later students would make and wear cloaks of blue, with a white veil and a ​scapular. The school later offered “two Sodalities, one of the Blessed Virgin ​(presumably the Children of Mary) the other of the Holy Angels”. However, ​admission to either was not automatic; it was based on reward for exemplary ​conduct and having received first Holy Communion. Apart from daily mass, the ​Sodalists “had a further privilege of daily communion”.

On leaving school a Child of Mary would go to the Oratory. Kneeling before the ​statue of our Immaculate Mother, she ‘promised with the help of her protection never ​to contract marriage with a non-Catholic. She usually kept that promise, thanks to her ​own goodwill and the protection of Divine Providence.’

On the wedding day of a Child of Mary, her fellow members would form a guard ​outside the church, the bride would arrive wearing her blue cloak over her wedding ​dress and as she passed under the threshold of the church her cloak would be ​removed and her time as a Child of Mary over.

As a result of Vatican II, the Children of Mary Sodality was perceived to be ​outmoded and less relevant. With a renewed focus on modern teachings, Sacred ​Heart College followed the world-wide trend and established a Legion of Mary ​Congregation for the students.