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History
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FIRST FOUNDATION |
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The Sisters, Faithful Companions of Jesus, founded in France in 1820, arrived in Australia in 1882 in response to the Education Act of 1872 that divided schools into different categories: State and non-Government. The Act spelt the end of financial support for all religious and independent schools and meant that if the Catholic Church wanted to maintain existing schools and establish new schools, it had to find all necessary finance. The priests and bishops sought help from religious communities overseas.
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Sacred Heart House, Richmond
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The parish priest of Richmond sent to Ireland for Christian Brothers and the FCJ Sisters he had known in Limerick. Two Brothers arrived in 1876 and, in 1882, twelve FCJ Sisters set sail from Liverpool, arriving in Melbourne on 1st June 1882, "to conduct three schools at Richmond (a mission of the Jesuit Fathers), a high school and an intermediate school, both for young ladies, paying pupils and a free school" of 600 pupils.
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Vaucluse, Richmond
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BEYOND RICHMOND
By 1888, the Richmond community numbered 34 Sisters and demands on the school were outstripping the available space so a fifteen acre block of land was bought at Kew. The following year eight Sisters moved to the new convent boarding school which became Genazzano. A further two acres was purchased later and became the Junior School. Boarding was phased out in 1979.
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Range View, 1st house
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Newly built Genazzano
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Genazzano today
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COUNTRY VICTORIA
In 1900 on 14 August, the FCJ Sisters arrived at Benalla, in response to an invitation from Dean Davy.
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Although they are no longer teaching in either the Primary or the Secondary schools, the Sisters retain governance of FCJ College and are involved in Parish and community activities.
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Our Lady of the Angels, Benalla
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THE PENINSULA
In 1968, the Sisters established "Stella Maris", a boarding and day school at Frankston. The last of the boarders from Vaucluse were relocated here in the guest rooms of the former Peninsula Country Golf Club, part of which had been purchased by the Country Roads Board for a freeway. The other part was purchased by the Sisters for the school.
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The Marianists opened a College for boys in 1974 and in 1979 the two schools were formed into one co-educational Regional College, John Paul College.
The FCJ Convent in Frankston closed at the end of 1996.
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Frankston - Stella Maris |
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From Frankston the Sisters travelled to St Anne's, Seaford and St John's, East Frankston and involved themselves also in areas of parish life at St Francis Xavier, Frankston.
In 1975, five Sisters were contracted for 5 years as a Frontier Group at Langwarrin where they worked with the priest and the local community to establish a primary school and a strong parish community.
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AUSTRALIANS ABROAD
Since 1986 a number of Australian FCJ Sisters have joined British, Irish, Canadian, European and American FCJs in developing countries "being ready to be sent anywhere for the Kingdom of God". They have spent many years in Sierra Leone, Bolivia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Romania and, with the exception of Romania and Sierra Leone from where the Sisters withdrew in the 1990s, there are still Australian FCJs in these places.
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FURTHER AFIELD IN AUSTRALIA
The FCJ Sisters engaged in ministry in the Kimberley from 1987 to 1995. There the Sisters worked at Notre Dame University and with the Catholic Education Office, moving throughout the Kimberley as consultants as well as participating in local parish activities.
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Other individual ministries took Sisters to Sydney and Adelaide where they have responded to community needs. A community of Sisters now lives and works in Adelaide.
Through their presence in parishes, the Sisters are involved in pastoral work; others are engaged in social welfare, the support of people with disabilities and welfare in schools. They respond wherever they can, in the spirit of Marie Madeleine d'Houet, seeking to meet the needs of the time.
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TODAY
In 2002, the Sisters joined with their Sisters in Indonesia and the Philippines to form a new province - the Province of Asia-Australia.
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They remain ready to answer the challenge of being open to the call of the apostolate, to go where there is need and to withdraw whenever their work is no longer required. They seek to continue the spirit or charism of their Foundress who prayed:
"My God, all I want is the accomplishment of your will".
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For further information about our History,
see the FCJ International Web Site
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