History

The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a congregation founded by Nano Nagle in 1775 in Cork, Ireland. Nano was a wealthy, educated lay woman who, twenty years earlier, had established schools in which poor children learned elementary subjects, learned to pray, and were prepared to receive the sacraments.

In 1805, the Presentation congregation was approved as an apostolic religious order committed to going anywhere in the world to serve people in need.
In April 1880, Presentation Sisters arrived in Dakota Territory to teach the children of the Lakota people and the early French settlers.
In 1886, the Sisters were asked to start a school in Aberdeen, and they accomplished this with the support of many settlers. Soon, the Sisters ran a number of rural Catholic parish schools in the new state of South Dakota.
In the early 1900’s, Aberdeen and the surrounding area suffered a diphtheria epidemic and the Sisters responded to this and other health needs, starting hospitals and nursing schools in addition to their education ministry.
Today, the Aberdeen Presentation Sisters continue to share Jesus’ mission of healing and teaching in numerous ways in seven states and in Bolivia and Guatemala, responding to those people most in need of help.