Ursuline Nuns Of The Immaculate Conception
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The Ursuline Nuns of the Immaculate Conception (Ursuline Sisters of Louisville) are a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
apostolic congregation of pontifical right, based in
Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...
.


History

Bishop Martin John Spalding of the Diocese of Louisville sent Father Leander Streber, OFM, pastor of St. Martin of Tours Church in Louisville, to Bavaria to seek sisters to teach the German children in the diocese. The congregation was founded in 1858 in Louisville, Kentucky by Mother Salesia Reitmeier, and two others sisters, all Ursulines, from
Straubing Straubing (; Central Bavarian: ''Strauwing'') is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the Districts of Germany, district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Ba ...
, Bavaria. The following year they established the Ursuline Academy boarding school. By 1880, Ursuline Academy was taking day students, while boarders attended Sacred Heart Academy. (With decreased enrollment, Ursuline Academy was phased out in 1972.) In 1874, the Ursulines took charge of Immaculate Conception School in Columbia, Illinois. The motherhouse, which had been at the old Ursuline Academy of the Immaculate Conception on East Chestnut Street, moved to Lexington Road in 1877. The Ursuline Chapel of the Immaculate Conception was dedicated on Dec. 8, 1917. Although the sisters' work is primarily in education, in October 1918, fifteen went to nearby Camp Zachary Taylor to serve as nurses during the influenza epidemic. The Ursuline campus served as a refuge for people displaced by the
Ohio River flood of 1937 The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, 385 people died, one million people were left homeless and property losses reached $500 million ...
. Sacred Heart Junior College and Normal School opened in 1921. In 1938, it became a four-year college, Ursuline College, which later merged with Bellarmine College in 1968. The Ursuline campus includes Sacred Heart Academy (a high school for girls), Sacred Heart Model School (an elementary and middle school for boys and girls), Sacred Heart School for the Arts, Sacred Heart Preschool, and the Motherhouse Chapel. The campus serves about 1,800 students and underwent significant upgrades and modernization in 2016.Elson, Martha. "Ursuline Campus undergoing $7 million upgrade", ''Courier Journal'', June 2, 2016
/ref> The congregation numbers more than 120 members; there are more than 15 houses in United States and Peru (2010).


References

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External links


Ursuline Sisters of Louisville
Catholic female orders and societies Catholic Church in Kentucky Christianity in Louisville, Kentucky 1858 establishments in Kentucky Catholic religious orders established in the 19th century