A video commemorating Ursula Frayne and the Sisters of Mercy: Fraynework multimedia: Ursula Frayne Story
Students from 14 Catholic schools in Perth could be seen greeting Sister Ursula Frayne on the morning of 31 August as they boarded buses from Perth City to Santa Maria College.
Pilgrims for a day, the students were embarking on a pilgrimage that retraced Sr Frayne’s steps from her arrival in Fremantle in early 1846, to her journey along the Swan River and her first impressions of the fledgling city of Perth.
Students from 14 Catholic schools in Perth could be seen greeting Sister Ursula Frayne on the morning of 31 August as they boarded buses from Perth City to Santa Maria College.
Pilgrims for a day, the students were embarking on a pilgrimage that retraced Sr Frayne’s steps from her arrival in Fremantle in early 1846, to her journey along the Swan River and her first impressions of the fledgling city of Perth.
Sr Frayne (played by Lisa Speranza from Mercedes College) provided each pilgrim with gifts: a pilgrim shell, a Mercy Medal and a copy of Sr Frayne’s Life and Times.
Accompanied by their teachers, members of Catholic Education WA Religious Education Directorate, Dr Debra Sayce, Diana Alteri and Sandra Peterson and Mercy Sisters Elizabeth Nicholls, Jo Dillon, Clare Rafferty, Breda O’Reilly and Catherine and Mary O’Connor, the pilgrims boarded a river catamaran with Sr Frayne and retraced the journey she took down the Swan River 170 years ago.
One innovative feature of the pilgrimage was the use of audio podcasts – the brainchild of Mercedes College Archivist and Sacristan, Vedette Lendich – which captured Sr Frayne’s narrative at critical junctures. The podcasts invited pilgrims to listen to Sr Frayne’s story on their iPads and headphones as many times as they liked.
One St Brigids’ Primary School student commented that she found the podcasts more engaging than reading Sr Frayne’s story – which she may have forgotten easily.
Students also relished the boat ride and marvelled at the Mosman Park mansions perched above the river like sun struck statues.
Sr Frayne would not have seen, let alone imagined such houses 170 years ago. More likely she would have spotted the local Wadjuk Nyungar people whom she described in her recorded writings as “remarkably intelligent…very tall and of most majestic appearance…They felt they were the lords of the soil”.
Such deep respect for the majesty of Australia’s First People is central to the Mercy
Charism of today, a charism whose inimitable mercy was the key reason for organising the event, said Rosa Speranza, Deputy Principal (Faith and Mission) at Mercedes College, and one of the organisers of the pilgrimage.
That faith, that mercy, that welcoming of refugees and care for our indigenous brothers and sisters, Ms Speranza said, started with Sr Ursula Frayne and the Sisters of Mercy.
After arriving at Barrack Street Jetty, pilgrims followed Sr Frayne through places significant to her arrival in Perth city and then back to Mercedes College and the Heritage Centre.
Pilgrims learned that the industrious Sr Frayne had arrived to no accommodation but within a month had built a convent and set up a school that would become the basis for the Mercy Schools today.
At Mercedes College, a special birthday celebration had been arranged for twin sisters Sr Catherine and Sr Mary O’Connor, both turning 79. Sr Mary had a special relationship with two pilgrims: in 1960 she taught CEWA Religious Education Consultant Diana Alteri at St Brigid’s in West Perth, and was the founding principal at Whitford Primary School, where pilgrim Tamara McGougan is now principal.
Director of Religious Education at CE WA, Dr Debra Sayce, commented on the Ursula Frayne pilgrimage, framing it as “a wonderful opportunity for young people to understand the story of the women who forged Catholic Education 170 years ago.”
Assistant Principal (Religious Education) at St Gerard’s Primary School, Westminster, and organising committee member, Josephine Vivante, was keen for her students and her educational assistant to be immersed in the experience and looked forward to sharing her experience within her school.
Student pilgrimage, said Principal of Notre Dame Primary School, Darryl Winsor, also an
organising committee member, “is an opportunity for staff and students from our Mercy schools to ‘experience’ the story rather than merely hear it.”
“The pilgrimage was the beginning of a journey…the ripples of which will continue to spread as the pilgrims share the message with others,” Mr Winsor said.
Information courtesy Daniel Groenewald, Catholic Education Office WA