The Spiritual Family of Marie Rivier
Serving God's Children
Icon of Blessed Marie Rivier
Foundress of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary
Resurrection Chapel
Rivier University
Nashua, NH
Unification of our Provinces
in the United States
August 15, 2012
Canonization of St. Marie Rivier
Rome, Italy
May 15, 2022
The Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, founded by Blessed Anne-Marie Rivier in Thueyts, France, in 1796, first came to the New World in 1853, in Marieville, P.Q., Canada. By that time, many French-Canadians had begun immigrating to the industrial centers of New England. Entire families had left their farms and moved southward to the United States seeking employment in the paper and textile mills.
A call arose from the Church in the United States asking for help in caring for these people who had left all they knew, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. In 1873, in an attempt to meet the spiritual and educational needs of this population, the daughters of the Woman Apostle once again crossed international boundaries to teach Jesus Christ.
The first American foundation was in Glens Falls, New York. From there, the Sisters opened a boarding school in Island Pond, Vermont, in 1886. Many foundations quickly followed in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Most of these foundations were parish schools. During all this time, the Sisters still belonged to the Canadian Province of St. Hyacinthe.
At the request of Bishop Georges-Albert Guertin, Bishop of Manchester, the Sisters came to Hudson, New Hampshire, and in 1926, Presentation of Mary Academy opened its doors as a boarding school for girls. Though the boarding school was phased out in 1971, there still thrives, within the halls of PMA, an elementary school that serves some 500 boys and girls from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
Since its foundation, Presentation of Mary Academy has held within its walls the beginnings of Rivier College, of the first Provincial Administration of the United States, and the Novitiate.
From its humble beginnings in 1933, Rivier College, with Sr. Madeleine of Jesus as its founder, continued to grow. In September of 1941, the College left Hudson and opened its doors across the river in Nashua, New Hampshire. Today, Rivier College continues its commitment to higher education, offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees. July 1, 2012, Rivier College became Rivier University.
In 1938, the United States became an independent province known as the Hudson Province. Ten years later, due to the great number of vocations, and of schools where the Sisters ministered, it became evident that the Province of the United States was too large for one administration and so in 1948, the Hudson Province saw to schools in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, while the Biddeford Province, saw to establishments in Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
In 1958, the Hudson Province purchased a group of buildings that had once served as a hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Provincial Administration now transferred from Hudson to one of these existing buildings. Henceforth, the Province became known as the Manchester Province. Soon, a second building opened as the Infirmary for the Province serving as such until 1980 when it then and since then has housed both the Provincial Chapel and a sisters' residence. Finally, at this time, a new and larger, more modern combination of Assisted Living and Infirmary was added to this property given an increasing number of elderly and sick.
The Methuen Province was established in 1948 with its Provincial Administration located at Marie Joseph Academy in Biddeford Pool, Maine. With time, Marie Joseph could no longer house both a flourishing Academy and the Provincial Administration. Years later responding to the needs of the time the building was transformed into Marie Joseph Spiritual Center, its formal dedication took place in 1979.
In 1957, the Searles Estate, located in Methuen, Massachusetts, was purchased to house the Provincial Administration and home to the Methuen Province. This property also accommodated a residence for our retired sisters and a private co-ed Academy.
Due to the decreasing number of Sisters, and for the sake of mission, on August 15, 2012, the Manchester and the Methuen Provinces were reunited to form the United States Province.
Ministries of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary presently include a university, parish and private schools, pastoral services, retreat work, nursing care, visiting, and outreach to the poor.
They minister and live in the following cities and towns in Maine: Biddeford, and Lewiston; in Massachusetts: Marlborough; in New Hampshire: Hudson, Manchester, Nashua, and Plaistow.
Two centuries and several thousand miles separate us in time and in location from St. Marie Rivier and the sacred ground she walked, yet today her Sisters of the United States continue to keep alive her charism: to live and teach Jesus Christ.