Compassionate Grade 6 Students, 1958

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A group of compassionate and organised Grade Six students, Mireille Mann, Marie Therese Quigg, Catherine Mann, Angela Morrison and Margaret Ann McMenamin, 1958

A Catholic Action Group was formed at Loreto Toorak in 1945. Members held lunchtime debates and joined a regional group – which included Genazzano Convent FCJ, Kew; Kildara College, Malvern; Xavier College, Kew; St Kevin’s College, Toorak; and Sacré Coeur, Glen Iris – to plan a broader perspective under the auspices of the Young Catholic Students’ Movement. This group was often referred to as the Young Christian Students’ Movement and irreverently dubbed by Loreto Toorak students as the Young Christian Soldiers. Leaders of the Young Catholic Students’ Movement at Loreto Toorak attended a training day in November at Sacré Coeur with a program of drama, poetry, song and prose. Archbishop Daniel Mannix addressed the students, saying that the chief aim of this new group was to prepare its members for the part that they would inevitably have to play in the fight against communism. At the 1952 Young Catholic Students’ Movement rally at Sacré Coeur, the Archbishop couched the meaning of Catholic Action in schools in less specific terms, referring to the Christianisation of society, the prevention of paganism and the preparation for post-school Catholic lives. At Loreto Toorak leaders of the Young Catholic Students’ Movement ran activity groups for missions, films, music, photography and literature.

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Students at St Joseph’s Church,
Malvern, 1941

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Boarders in the first floor dormitory of
Mandeville Hall, 1959


Untitled design Margaret Evans (nee Gleeson) - boarders in the Mandeville Hall dormitory

Untitled design Ruth Trait - daily routine for the boarders (Loreto Brown Bread)

Untitled design Ruth Trait - boarding life