The Ursuline order was founded by Angela Merici in Brescia, Italy in 1535. The first Ursulines arrived in North America in 1639, settling in French Canada as the Ursuline Sisters of Three Rivers. In 1888, a group of six sisters from this convent travelled to Waterville, Maine at the behest of the Reverend Narcisse Charland, whose parishioners-mostly French Canadian immigrants-needed schools for their children. The Ursulines in Maine requested independence from the Three Rivers in 1891, in order to be allowed to take in English-speaking postulants. The Ursulines ran seventeen different parochial schools in New England between 1888 and the present, educating thousands of students. Mount Merici Convent and Academy in Waterville, Maine was established in 1912, and became the home of the community for the years to follow. The Ursuline Sisters of Maine joined the Ursulines of the Roman Union in 1939.
Today, Mount Merici School is the only remaining Ursuline school in Maine. The Ursuline Sisters in Maine now fall under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Province, based out of Dedham, Massachusetts. The Ursuline Sisters Care Center for ill and aging sisters is located at the former Mount Merici motherhouse.
Sister Martha Helen Thibodeau is the Ursuline sister who assembled these documents. She grew up in Sanford, Maine, before joining the Ursulines. She taught and was the subprimary at St. John's School in Brunswick, Maine. She was known as Mother Helena at that time, and changed her name after Vatican II to Sister Martha Helen. She currently resides at the Mount Merici Ursuline Sisters Care Center in Waterville, Maine.
From the guide to the Ursuline Sisters of Maine papers, 1937-2010, 1978-2010, (University of Dayton)
