Cistercians (OCSO)
St. Malachy (1094-1148) brought the Cistercians from Clairvaux to Ireland in
1140, and they founded their first monastery at Mellifont, about 5km from
Collon. The original monastery was suppressed by King Henry VIII in 1538.
The Cistercians returned to this area four hundred years later and the present monastery was originally a house belonging to the Foster / Masserene family, one of whose members, John Foster, was the last Speaker of Irish Parliament before the Act of Union in 1800.
The Sisters of
Mercy, founded by Catherine McAuley (1778-1841), came to Ardee in 1858, where
they engaged in educational & healthcare work. In the 1960's a number of
members of the Ardee community founded a convent in Melbourne, Florida, where
two sisters continue to teach.