243:. After her release she used her preferred name of Bridget Partridge and returned to stay with William and Laura Touchell. Seeking redress, and with the support of the Loyal Orange Lodge, Partridge subsequently sued Bishop Dwyer for ÂŖ5,000 for false arrest and associated trauma, citing damage to her reputation. There was considerable media and public interest in the court proceedings, with hundreds lining up seeking admittance to the public galleries, many hoping to hear something sensational about the "mysteries of convent life". The trial lasted from 30 June until 13 July 1921. Partridge ultimately lost her bid in the Supreme Court when Justice (Sir) David Ferguson and a jury of four men found in the bishop's favour.
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which she was unhappy about. On 24 July 1920 she briefly left the convent without permission and spent time at a neighbour's home but came back to the convent later the same day. A doctor visiting the convent said that she was run down and told her to go to bed. Allegedly, Liguori refused a sedative believing that it was poisoned and fearing for her life she fled the convent that night barefoot and dressed only in her nightgown.
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travelled from Hong Kong to attend the court case, had previously attempted to have
Partridge place herself under his care, something that she had refused to do. The following day, after being recognised, she was taken to police headquarters. Partridge renounced her religion and formally notified her brother that she would not accept being placed under his protection or return to Ireland.
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warrant for
Liguori's arrest was issued. This was at the request of Bishop Dwyer, who had alleged that Liguori was insane. Liguori was eventually found and arrested and on 9 August 1921 appeared before the Lunacy Court. The court declared her sane and she was released on 13 August 1921, after having been remanded for observation against her will at the Reception House for the Insane in
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Several months later, on the night of 26 October 1921, while
Partridge and the Touchells were returning home after attending a Home Mission Festival, Partridge was kidnapped by a group of about 20 men, including her brother. Partridge was pushed into a car and driven away. Her brother Joseph, who had
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Sources indicate that her supervisors believed
Liguori was unsuitable for religious life or teaching (which was the order's predominant work) and tried to persuade her to return to her home in Ireland. When she refused she was effectively demoted and given more menial duties in the sisters' refectory
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Partridge's story was reinterpreted from a modern, feminist perspective in an art exhibition held in 2021. This exhibition drew attention to the story as one of scandal and abuse, with comparisons to modern feminist struggles, and not just as a tale of sectarian conflict. Artist Amanda
Bromfield's
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During this time police and
Catholic laymen were searching for Liguori. It was a time of significant sectarian division and conflict between Catholics and Protestants, and the popular press fed public interest with stories about the pursuit of the 'escaped nun'. The drama only intensified when a
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dressed only in her nightgown. This act became a national sectarian scandal after the young nun took refuge with
Protestants. Partridge was accused of being a lunatic by the local Catholic bishop, whom she subsequently sued in the New South Wales Supreme Court in 1921 for false arrest and
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installation at the Wagga Wagga Art
Gallery incorporated ceramics, found objects and video performance. Sister Noella Fox, a Presentation Sister and historian, has said that while largely forgotten, Partridge's story is a very important part of the Presentation Sisters' family story.
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Partridge continued to live with the
Touchells for the rest of her life, travelling with them over the years to various towns in New South Wales. William Touchell died in 1954. Partridge and Laura Touchell were admitted to
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in 1962. Laura
Touchell died there in 1963 and Partridge died there on 4 December 1966 at the age of 76. Partridge never married and had no relatives in Australia. Only one mourner attended her funeral. She was buried at
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by Jeff Kildea, who had previously presented a paper about Liguori at the society's conference. It is reported that a screenplay is in production and negotiations are underway for a movie about Partridge's life.
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Liguori was taken in by sympathetic local Protestants who refused to reveal her location to the Catholic authorities. Dissatisfied with convent life, she wrote to the Bishop of Wagga Wagga,
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172:, Ireland. Sources vary and refer to her as both Brigid and Bridget. Her mother was Anne (nÊe Cardiff), an Irish Catholic, and her father was Edward Partridge, a corporal in the
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223:, requesting to leave the order, a request that was refused. Liguori was taken to Sydney by E. B. Barton, the grandmaster of Protestant institution the
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460:"SISTER LIGUORI â KIDNAPPED FROM KOGARAH BY TWENTY MEN. â The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 â 1954) â 27 Oct 1921"
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199:. When she was professed on 25 September 1911, she took the religious name of Mary Liguori, after 18th-century Bishop
410:"THE EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF SISTER LIGUORI â The remarkable but true story of a young Irish nun who flees her convent"
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434:"The "escaped nun": story of life in a convent as told by Brigid Partridge in the case against Bishop Dwyer"
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646:"The Nun in the Nightgown scandal: Brigid Partridge and the scandal that put Wagga Wagga on the map"
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at St Bridget's Convent in Kildare. Shortly afterwards, on 25 December 1908, she set sail for
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Partridge completed her schooling at the age of 14. In 1908, when she was 18, she entered the
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Australian religious sister who was the subject of a sectarian scandal in the 1920s
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minister the Reverend William Touchell and his wife Laura, who lived at
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for around five years before coming back to the mother house in 1918.
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who on the night of 24 July 1920 fled the Presentation Convent in
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581:"The extraordinary case of sister liguori [Book Review]"
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620:"Where crows gather: The Sister Liguori Affair 1920â21"
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Partridge's story inspired a novel by Maureen McKeown,
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of New South Wales. She was then taken to the home of
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Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society
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Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society
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Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society
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Order of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
143:(21 October 1890 â 4 December 1966), also known as
550:"Women in the Australian Church - Sister Ligouri"
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81:Rydalmere, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
717:20th-century Australian Roman Catholic nuns
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332:. Canberra: National Centre of Biography,
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283:The extraordinary case of Sister Liguori
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488:Barlass, Tim (8 April 2019).
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466:. 27 October 1921. p. 7
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271:Congregational Church
211:Sectarian controversy
156:reputational damage.
722:Presentation Sisters
221:Joseph Wilfrid Dwyer
384:"EX-SISTER LIGUORI"
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145:Sister Mary Liguori
133:Presentation Sister
225:Loyal Orange Lodge
37:Mount Erin Convent
680:Wagga Art Gallery
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193:Wagga Wagga
153:Wagga Wagga
87:Nationality
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536:1023171364
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262:Parramatta
91:Australian
58:1890-10-21
660:30 August
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365:30 August
352:1833-7538
258:Rydalmere
185:Melbourne
166:Newbridge
654:Archived
630:: 31â41.
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189:Victoria
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170:Kildare
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