This time I want to tell you of a woman who was the leader of the Bathurst Sisters 100 years later.

In 1966, when the Vatican II pronouncements resulted in changes to the life of the Sisters, Mother Mary Cyril Ivers was Provincial Superior of the Bathurst Sisters of Mercy.

Freda Ivers was born in Forbes on September 7, 1905. She was the daughter of Frederick Ivers and Anne Fitzpatrick. 

She received her early education from the Sisters of Mercy in Forbes and completed her secondary schooling at St Mary’s College in Bathurst. 

Freda entered the Sisters of Mercy at St Joseph’s Mount in Bathurst on February 2, 1923 and received the name of Sister Mary Cyril. 

Her training began in the Novitiate, where she learned to teach.  Her teaching qualifications were later extended when she was sent to Sydney University, where she graduated in 1933 with an Arts Degree and a Diploma of Education.

I remember her distinctly as she was principal of St Mary’s College in Bathurst when I went to school there.

I took for granted her creative imagination, artistry and wonderful direction of concerts like that of March 17 each year in honour of St Patrick.

I smiled with others later when she returned from her first trip to Ireland and America for gatherings of Mercy Sisters from all around the world.

The Sisters who travelled with her told us of the songs she sang and the stories she knew of the places visited. She had sung her way around the world. And at the time, we heard only the superficial story, not the exuberance of her life.

It is only now I can plumb something of the depths of the culture this woman had acquired and so generously shared with us, and the tensions she experienced within herself as the great social changes of the 60s had their impact on our little religious group.

Her appreciation of the beauties of western culture flowed out of her daily actions. Her ability to reference great literature, music and art gave her possibilities for naming the events of her time differently. Her sense of history was a gift to all of us.

Mary Cyril Ivers was a conservative in the best sense of the word. She did not choose to initiate change events directly, but she did allow change to happen.

Her desire to be true to the traditions of Catherine McAuley, Foundress of the Mercy Order, was the fire that burned off the external dross and purged every change she did approve.

So in her time of leadership, the traditional religious habit was modified, many Sisters exercised their option of reverting to their family names, prayer customs of recitation of the Hours of the Church were lightened for teaching Sisters, cars were purchased to allow ease of transport for longer distance travel and research into the life of the early Sisters enabled a renewal of the spirit of Mercy that influenced all existing ministries and would eventually lead to radical new expressions of mercy ministry.

Many of the developments that have been so positive for the wider Mercy Story since the days of her leadership would not have been possible without the thoughtful, reflective and meaningful changes Mary Cyril Ivers led, often reluctantly, but always passed through the prism of the mercy tradition.

We moved strongly into the future because of women like Mother Mary Cyril Ivers.