Written in 1962 for the 50th Anniversary of Ascension School
Four years after Ascension Parish was formed, Father McDevitt recognized the ever growing need for a school, so he made a trip to Springfield, Illinois to talk over his problems and ideas with Mother Paul Nagle, Superior of the Order of St. Ursula, a semi-cloistered order of nuns with an outstanding reputation as teachers.
“Mother,” he said half apologetically, “I need some teachers. I have a new Parish in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb. Already we have many children and no school and you know how my Archbishop feels about that. The only thing we really have at Ascension is a debt. So your sisters wouldn’t have many comforts. I don’t want to deceive you. It isn’t the best situation in the world. But I will tell you one thing: we have good Catholics and you and your sisters will have the great satisfaction of helping make their children even better Catholics.”
Father McDevitt's words must have impressed Mother Paul. Simply, and with the calmness which seems reserved for the religious, she unfolded her clasped hands and said: “How many Sisters will you need, Father, and how soon?”
On the first Sunday of September 1912, Mother Raphael Armstrong, newly appointed Mission Superior and Principal of Ascension, arrived in Oak Park with her four companions, Mother Genevieve St. John, Mother Fidelis Sams, Sister Aloysius McGrath and Sister Johanna. When registration was completed 240 chilrden were on the first roll of Ascension students and all eight grades were to be in operation.
Living quarters for the sisters were in makeshift rooms on the upper floor of the combined church and school building. Within three years the growing enrollment made it necessary to provide separate living facilities for the sisters. The old Phoenix Clubhouse on Scoville Ave. (once the temporary location of the Church and not the K of C clubhouse) became the new home for the Ursulines.
The sight of this group of black robed nuns walking the three blocks to the school became a familiar one to south Oak Parkers. Neither the summer’s heat nor the winter’s chill could bring a word of complaint from the Ursulines. Six years passed before the Parish was able to purchase a building for the Sisters directly opposite the site of the present Church, and the famous “Bridge of Sighs” was erected later to join the two frame buildings into a single unit. The present beautiful and still modern Convent was erected by Monsignor Cummings in 1940 and due to his farsightedness it provides even now for all the needs of the greatly enlarged community, presently numbering 21 Ursulines.
In the hearts of all of us who have had the advantages of Ursuline education and training for ourselves, for our children and now for our grandchildren, there is a never-ending font of gratitude to thise hold and dedicated women – OUR Sisters – The Ursulines.
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