An Ursuline Sisters’ celebration last Sunday was like a trip back in time to what Louisville was like 152 years ago.

It also was a time for recognizing the contributions of the Ursulines and their impact on the Catholic Church and the lives of countless people.

The occasion was the dedication of a historical marker at the southeast corner of Shelby and Chestnut streets at the site of the Ursulines’ original motherhouse in Louisville. That was also the site of Ursuline Academy, the first school they established here in 1859.

The marker notes that more than 1,000 Ursulines have made “major contributions to education” in the United States and Peru in South America and that more than 7,000 young women graduated from Ursuline Academy, which closed in 1972.

About 200 people gathered at Shelby and Chestnut streets for the July 25 dedication, which Father Clyde Crews, historian for the Archdiocese of Louisville, called a celebration of the faith, hope, love, intelligence, courage and grit of the first Ursulines who came to Kentucky from Germany 152 years ago.

Sister Lynn Jarrell, president of the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, quoted St. Angela Merici, foundress of the Ursulines as saying, “You will witness many wonderful things if you direct all to the praise and glory of God and to the good of souls.”

At the site at Shelby and Chestnut streets “all has been directed to the glory of God and the good of souls,” she told those attending the dedication. “We come to celebrate that today.”

It was on Oct. 31, 1858, that Mother Salesia Reitmeier and two other Ursulines arrived in Louisville from Staubing, Bavaria. Bishop Martin John Spalding had requested that the Ursulines come to the city to teach German-speaking children at the St. Martin of Tours parish school — just a block from the site of their first motherhouse.

A year after arriving, the sisters opened Ursuline Academy at the same location.

Father Crews, one of the dedication-event speakers, gave people a glimpse of Louisville when the Ursulines arrived.

The city had a population of about 68,000, and 13 percent of that number were “enslaved people,” he said. The area of the city was quite compact, extending from the Ohio River on the north to Kentucky Street on the south and from Portland on the west to Cave Hill Cemetery on the east, yet Louisville was among the 12 largest cities in the country at the time, Father Crews noted.

Main Street was the wholesale district, Market Street the retail district and the area south of Jefferson Street was residential.

Churches were clustered in the downtown area, he said, and there were eight Catholic churches — four English-speaking and four German-speaking parishes. English-speaking parishes were the Cathedral of the Assumption, Our Lady, St. Patrick and St. John. German-speaking churches were St. Martin, St. Boniface, St. Peter’s and Immaculate Conception on Eighth Street.

It was due to the large numbers of German immigrants who settled in Louisville that church leaders sought the help “of people who were proven winners in education in Germany, the Ursuline Sisters,” Father Crews said.

“Those three remarkable women who came to this city” 152 years ago faced many obstacles, he said. These included the rigors of travel; language (they taught German-speaking students, but they also had to learn English); and hostility. Father Crews noted that the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic Bloody Monday riots had occurred just three years before the Ursulines arrived.

Mother Salesia, leader of the first Ursulines, was only 26 years old, he noted. Another sister also was 26 and one was 50.

Despite the difficulties the first Ursulines faced, they began expanding their ministry in a short period of time. In 1881 — 23 years after coming to the city — their numbers grew to 180, and they taught in 20 schools, Father Crews said. That was “really remarkable,” he added.

The impact of the Ursuline Sisters’ ministry was also addressed at Sunday’s dedication by Sister Martha Jacob, a member of the Ursuline leadership team and archivist for the community.

She noted that six years after the Ursulines came to Louisville they began serving in Covington and Newport in Northern Kentucky, and in 1870 they branches out to Cumberland. Md.

In addition to Ursuline Academy, she said, the Ursulines opened Sacred Heart Academy in 1877, Ursuline College in 1939 and Angela Merici High School in 1959. At one time Ursulines served in 23 schools in the Louisville archdiocese, she said.

Today, most Ursuline Sisters are in Louisville, Sister Jacob, said, but sisters also serve in eight other states and in Peru.

“The Ursuline spirit is alive today in and through each of us,” she told people at the dedication.

“You and I are linked to Mother Salesia and her companions through the women who preceded us — those who joined those first three Ursulines. So we are celebrating today our own Ursuline connection, our call to live in a special love of God that results in an openness and eagerness to serve the needs of others.”

The “impact on our times of what began” with the arrival of the Ursulines 152 years ago “cannot be measured,” said Sister Jacob. “The Ursuline spirit has spread not just through the sisters but also (through) the associates, relatives, friends and co-workers.”

Graduates of Ursuline schools hold “positions of influence in religious, civic and corporate entities,” she said. Graduates who are teachers “show the Ursuline way to their students,” and other graduates “live out the love of God and meet the needs of others” as parents, doctors, nurses, lawyers, social workers and artists, she added.