Sixty years ago…

“In May 1963 Mother Margaret Mary wrote that she received word from the Italian Ambassador: A medal had been struck in Rome as an acknowledgement of my pioneering in Australia Italian language and culture and continuing to promote it at Kilbreda. The Ambassador who signed himself Renato de Lafri, Casa Isasea, Roma, directed me to be in the Dr Politi Centre of Italian Culture in Melbourne on 31^st May at 4:30pm to receive from the Italian Consul, Dr Stringari, the cordially awarded silver medal. So, at 4pm – my driver had just returned from two years in Italy – we took Mother Canisius on board and the ceremony was held in true Italian fashion – Dignity and Composure.

Bronze medals were presented at the same ceremony to teachers of Italian, including Margalisa Pirona of Kilbreda and Clara Astolfi, formerly of Kilbreda, but by 1963 teaching in the Department of Italian at the University of Melbourne”₁.

Seventy years ago…

St Anne’s Wing, which comprises the current STEM Room and Rooms 22 to 26, was built in 1952 and opened in 1953. It was once again a grand occasion. Coadjutor Archbishop Rev Dr Justin Simmonds was present to officially open and bless the building on March 15. Speaking later, he “paid tribute to the peerless Catholic Education provided by the Brigidine sisters. Mr George White MLA, whose daughters Margaret and Marie had earlier been educated at Kilbreda, also addressed the gathering, pointing out that ‘in giving children a religious training Kilbreda and schools like it were giving society the one thing that would save it from destruction. It was time that the state recognised the financial outlay it was saved by the religious schools and time it realised that religious education was the only thing that would counteract communism’”₂.

Damian Smith
Archives

1: Mother Margaret Mary’s Handwritten Life Story – Kilbreda Archives
2: The Advocate p118, A View from the Tower, Margaret Underwood p109