Ursulines throughout the world trace their roots to St. Angela Merici. In 1535, Angela, a spiritual leader in Brescia, Italy founded the Company of St. Ursula, comprised of twelve women who shared her dedication to the education of girls, helping the poor, and visiting those who were sick. Through their work they created an alternative future for young women for whom a patriarchal society offered only marriage or monastic life. The Company of St. Ursula later became the first teaching order of Sisters in the Church.
Three hundred years after the formation of the Company of St. Ursula, Fr. Jean Lambertz, a parish priest in Tildonk, Belgium who also recognized the need to educate girls, founded the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk. A parish house was transformed to a convent and renovated stables were used as their first school. From their home in Belgium the Ursulines expanded their mission into other parts of Europe and India before arriving in North America.
Answering a call from Fr. Garbottini, a group of Sisters came to the United States in 1924 with the intention of teaching at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Ozone Park, New York. The group that founded the United States Province included Mother Stanislaus, Mother Madeleine, Sr. Teresa, Sr. Maria, Sr. Ignatius, Sr. Frances de Sales, Sr. Anna Teaster, Sr. Kathleen Nevis, and Sr. Patricia O’Farrell. They arrived just in time to celebrate the parish's feast day in September, and the Sisters quickly created their Mother House in Ozone Park, thus establishing the US Province of the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk.
Within a year of their arrival in New York, the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk began teaching at Our Lady of Grace School in Howard Beach, New York and they would soon go on to teach and administer in schools within the Diocese of Brooklyn, Diocese of Rockville Centre, Diocese of Bridgeport, and Archdiocese of Hartford.
By 1935 the Sisters established their novitiate in Blue Point, New York. After a fire in 1980, the Sisters rebuilt what would be known as St. Ursula Center, a retirement home and retreat center, and continued to live and minister there until 2019. It is now the future home of the Bayport-Blue Point Public Library.
While the work of the Sisters has changed over the last 96 years, they continue to be active in Catholic school education, parish and pastoral ministry, hospital and hospice ministries, social justice and outreach, and spiritual leadership. Sisters from the United States Province live and work in New York, Connecticut, and Belgium and the global reach of the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk includes Canada, Belgium, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guyana.
Ursulines worldwide remain committed to education, justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. Inspired by the life and charism of St. Angela Merici and Father John Lambertz, the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk have devoted their lives to the mission of the Universal Church. Making God known and loved, their ministries continue to meet the changing needs of God’s people.