Clonard was founded in 1956, after Parish Priest, Father John Tressider, invited the Brigidine Sisters to Geelong to accommodate more students seeking a Catholic education.
The founding sisters acquired the site of Clonard in Herne Hill and began teaching in February 1956 to a student population of 40. Clonard House, one of the original buildings dating back to the 1850s retained its name and the sisters decided to call their school ‘Clonard’ as Saint Brigid of Kildare, the Patroness of the Brigidine Order, was a companion of Saint Finian of Clonard.
The Brigidine motto Fortiter et Suaviter, Latin for Strength and Kindliness was adopted by the founding sisters and became Clonard’s motto, setting before us the virtues of Saint Brigid of Kildare. In more than 60 years since, Clonard has grown to accommodate 900+ students, expand its physical footprint and offer a 21st century education ingrained in the values of the Brigidine tradition.
The Brigidine story begins in 1807 when Daniel Delany, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Ireland, invited six women to form a religious community in Tullow, Co Carlow. He named them the Sisters of Saint Brigid, after the great 5th century Saint of Kildare. Bishop Delany’s legacy focused on:
Priority for the gospel message of love; Eucharistic spirituality; The spirit of strength and kindliness and an expansive vision of education. From the beginning, Brigid’s ministry was associated with deeds of hospitality and compassion.
Brigidines began the work of proclaiming the Reign of God through their lives and work in Ireland and then in other parts of the world. In 1883, six sisters from Mountrath set sail for Australia to found the first Brigidine convent in Coonamble, NSW. From there other foundations were established throughout Australia. For more than two hundred years the belief that education has a fundamental role to play in spiritual, personal, social and intellectual development has engaged the imagination and energy of Brigidine women.
The oak leaf represents our rich Irish heritage joined together with the gum leaf from our Australian tradition.
The oak became significant when Bishop Daniel Delany, founder of the Brigidine Sisters, planted an oak sapling from Kildare (‘Cill Dara’ Church of the Oak) in the grounds of what is now the Brigidine Convent in Tullow. He did this to make the link between Brigid’s monastic foundation at Kildare and the newly re-founded Order of St. Brigid (Brigidine Sisters) on 1st February 1807. Kildare Ministries adopted the gum leaves, indigenous to Australia, to mark the beginnings of our new story.
Brigid’s Cross is a homage to Clonard’s founding sisters, The Brigidines inspired by Saint Brigid of Kildare.
Clonard’s founders, the Brigidine Sisters embody Brigid’s Cross as their emblem. Woven by her from the green rushes that formed the ‘carpet’ on the floor of a chieftain’s house as he lay dying, she explained the life and death of Jesus. When he listened to her story, he asked to be baptised before he died. The tradition of weaving the Brigid’s cross is carried on throughout Ireland and in other parts of the world.
The lamp of learning combines fire a central image in the Brigidine tradition with a lantern that is iconic with the revolutionary work of Nano Nagle.
When St. Brigid built her monastery and church in Kildare she continued the custom of keeping the fire alight. The fire represented the new light of Christianity along with warmth and hospitality. Nano Nagle, in the 1700s gave her life to educate the poorest Catholic children who were living under the penal laws of the times. Through dark city lanes Nano travelled by the light of the lantern she carried, and across the city of Cork she became known as ‘Miss. Nagle, ‘the Lady of the Lantern’ as she visited the sick and destitute.