About Us » Religious Communities

Three religious communities in Richmond are answering the call to love and serve God and others through a vocational life:

• Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ)
  The FCJ Sisters were invited to Richmond in the early 1880s by the then Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission in Melbourne. Upon their arrival on 01 June 1882, the Sisters were entrusted with the care of the girls' primary school. On 12 June 1882, they began a secondary college. This college was known as Mount St Joseph College and later was changed to Vaucluse College.
  
• Daughters of Divine Zeal (FDZ)
  To serve the needs of a growing Melbourne Italian community, the Sisters came to Richmond in 1959. At present, they run Madre Nazarena Student's House for overseas, interstate and country female tertiary students. The Sisters also provide liturgical assistance and pastoral care to the people of St Ignatius' Parish, especially for the Italian people.
  
• Society of Jesus (SJ)
  At the urgent request of Dr Goold OSA, Bishop of Melbourne, who was seriously short of priests to attend to the religious and educational needs of the rapidly increasing Catholic population in his diocese, the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus (SJ) agreed to send him as many of its members as it conveniently could. The first two Irish Jesuits, Frs Joseph Lentaigne and William Kelly arrived in Melbourne in September 1865.