St Gildas – Sisters of Christian Instruction

Strangely enough one day the post brought a mysterious postcard to the sisters with these three words: “Come, See, Triumph”. It was signed from “The Canons Regular of the Lateran”.

This postcard, sent to the sisters of St Gildas’, in Somerset, was the first sign that their prayers had been answered. The sisters of St. Gildas’ had already established two schools in Somerset and wished to establish a third in London. In North London, Fr Regan, a Canon Regular and Parish Priest, prayed for a Catholic school in his own parish, Stroud Green, where there was none. When he discovered, through a third party, what the Sisters wanted, he saw that they were the answer to his prayers. And so the mysterious postcard was despatched.

On a hot June day in 1914, two Sisters, in their cumbersome habits, journeyed from Somerset to meet Fr Regan and view suitable premises for a school: a large private house called ‘Crouch Hill House’. A shock awaited them. Builders were in the process of demolishing Crouch Hill House, Fr Regan reacted quickly. At his instigation, the demolition was stopped; and later Crouch Hill House, instead of being demolished to make way for a lucrative development, passed into the hands of the Sisters of St Gildas’ with the damage made good.

On 19th April 1915, St Gildas’ opened its doors to its first six pupils: Miss Kathleen Normile was one of them. On the school’s Golden Jubilee in April 1965, she spoke to the ‘Hornsey Journal’ of the excitement of that first day. She was then aged five and lived on Inderwick Road. She went to school with Kenneth Smith (aged 6) who lived nearby. Their four companions were Dorothy Pond, Molly Costello, Katherine Moylan and Eva (whose surname she could not remember). She kept in touch with Katherine but lost sight of the other girls. However, she knew that Kenneth had joined the Royal Marines in the Second World War, and was captured by the Japanese in 1942. He worked on the Burma railway, of which is said that for every sleeper laid, a worker died. Kenneth Smith was one of those who died.

Through a century of social and political upheaval, St Gildas’ has continued to provide a Catholic education for thousands of children.

This historical information has been taken from a two-and-a-half page document (writer not identified) prepared, we think, for the Golden Jubilee in 1965. Where the information in this document contradicts Miss Kathleen Normile’s recollections, we have given preference to Miss Normile’s first-hand account. However, further and better information would be very welcome.

The Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Instruction, the Sisters’ formal title, was founded in 1820 and later came into possession of the grounds of the ruined Benedictine Abbey of St. Gïldas in the Woods; hence their popular name, Sisters of St. Gildas.

St.Gildas, patron saint of Vannes, was one of those dear Celtic saints who roamed all over the place. Son of a British chieftain, he studied under St. Illtyd in Merthyr Vale. He left Wales for Ireland and from Ireland went to preach the Gospel in the north of England. At the early age of 34 he packed it in and sailed to retirement in Brittany. His hermitage on the Isle of Houat was invaded by the curious who forced him to start a religious colony on the mainland. In his 44th year he wrote of the early phases of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain which remains the only contemporary British version of the events of 450 – 550. He died in 570.

(Taken from a history of the parish written, we think, in the late 1960s)

Note that there are 2 biographies of the saint, written some centuries after his death, one by a breton monk and the other by a Welshman. The differences between them have led various commentators to argue that there were actually 2 Gildas, one British and one French. However, the Catholic Encyclopedia entry sides with a number of other writers who believe there was in fact only one St Gildas.

Born in Beignon, Brittany, after education at St Servan, he studied for the priesthood. He fled France because of the Revolution, and in 1792 he was ordained in Jersey by an exiled French Bishop. In 1805 he became parish priest in Auray where, for the next 16 years, his main care was to look after the humble and the poor. In 1821 he moved to St. Laurent- sur- Sèvre, Home of the Montfort Missionaries, where he remained until his death.

His works were many – organising a great Mission; teaching grown-ups the catechism; establishing a ‘map’ of the poor and unemployed then collecting and distributing gifts fairly. While charity, he thought, was essential, work made men better and he had a spinning factories built to provide paid work for prisoners. He employed men on civic works and helped shopkeepers and families by creating a money-lending office. He opened and supported numerous schools, among them one for would-be priests and another for disabled children as well as opening homes. He pioneered the education of blind and deaf children.

If this was not enough, in 1820 he founded the Sisters of Christian Instruction, known as the Sisters of St Gildas for the education of the rural poor and was instrumental in co-founding, reviving and advising numerous other male and female religious orders, being elected General Superior of 2 of them.

“Active, daring, earnest to the point of strictness, with a great sense of humour, such was Gabriel Deshayes. He was a man of action with a deep spiritual life and complete trust in God.”