SG Heritage Dictionary

Ursuline [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Denoting an order of nuns who observe the rule of St. Austin; so called from their institutress, St. Ursula.

Ursuline [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Of or pertaining to St. Ursula, or the order of Ursulines; as, the Ursuline nuns.

Ursuline [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

One of an order of nuns founded by St. Angela Merici, at Brescia, in Italy, about the year 1537, and so called from St. Ursula, under whose protection it was placed. The order was introduced into Canada as early as 1639, and into the United States in 1727. The members are devoted entirely to education.

Ursulines Encyclopedia Britannica

URSULINES, a religious order founded at Brescia by Angela de Merici in 1537, primarily for the education of girls. It was approved in 1544 by Paul III., and in 1572 Gregory XIII., at the instance of Charles Borromeo, made enclosure obligatory and declared it a religious order under the rule of St Augustine. In the following century it was powerfully encouraged and supported by St Francis de Sales; and towards the beginning of the 18th century, the period of its greatest prosperity, the order embraced some 20 congregations, with 350 convents and from 15,000 to 20,000 nuns. It still has some importance and possesses about 36 convents in Germany and Austria alone.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 24, p. 14
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