The Ursuline Nuns of the Immaculate Conception (Ursuline Sisters of Louisville) are a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

apostolic congregation of pontifical right, based in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

History

Bishop Martin John Spalding of the

Diocese of Louisville The Archdiocese of Louisville is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that consists of twenty-four counties in the central American state of Kentucky, covering . As of 2018, the archdiocese contains app ...

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 () is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Bavaria, is held. The city is located on the Danube form ...

, 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 Camp Zachary Taylor was a military training camp in Louisville, Kentucky. It opened in 1917, to train soldiers for U.S. involvement in World War I, and was closed three years later. It was initially commanded by Guy Carleton and after the war it ...

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. Sacred Heart Junior College and Normal School opened in 1921. In 1938, it was became a four-year college, Ursuline College, which later merged with

Bellarmine College Bellarmine University (BU; ) is a private Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest ...

in 1968. The Ursuline campus includes Sacred Heart Academy (a high school for girls), Sacred Heart Model School (a 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