Sister de Porres, Archivist

We visited Sister de Porres at the Catholic Education Centre Archives because it’s a place that stores information about Catholic Schools in the Wellington Diocese, and we were being time detectives.

Sister showed us a power point about the history of our school. Holy Cross School started in 1930 in a shed called Quins Shed. Then in 1932 Holy Cross Girls' school and infant school opened behind our present school. Marist Miramar was just a school for boys which begain in 1943. When the Mercy Sisters used the pathway over the hill from Seatoun, behind our school, it was very rocky, and the clothes they wore would have been very hot. The Sisters used to wear clothes called a habit that were mostly black with a white hood.

We also got to see a lot of very old and beautiful bibles that are kept in the archives. The oldest bible that is kept in the archives is from the 18th century and it belonged to Bishop Viard who was the first Catholic Bishop in Wellington.

We were able to hold a very special item that Sister had which was a gold key that celebrated the opening of Marist Miramar School from 1943. Builders had the tradition of giving a key to the Archbishop when a school opened.

We learnt a lot about how history is stored and the job of being an archivist from Sister de Porres.

Ahklil and Yashraj