The significance of 'The Angelus' and 'The Angelus Bell' at Iona 
During the month of May, students and staff across the whole College have been praying the Angelus, a common Marian prayer (that is, prayers that are dedicated to Mary, our spiritual Mother).
Praying the Angelus as a College community has been a long-standing and rich faith tradition of Iona and it is one that we still treasure as part of our whole College prayer life today.
As a Presentation faith community, the month of May offers us the opportunity to reflect on the significance of the Angelus and the Angelus Bell for the Iona community and the Presentation Sisters.
The Angelus is a devotional prayer commemorating the mystery of the Incarnation when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of God. It consists of reciting certain versicles: three Hail Marys and a special prayer while the bell is being rung.
The Angelus Bell, belonging to the Presentation Sisters at Iona Presentation Convent, was brought from Melbourne, and presented to the Foundress of Iona, Mother Angela Treacey, by the student boarders on her feast day in 1913. Mother Angela was baptised Mary Brigid but, like all Sisters at the time, was given a Saint's name upon entering the Convent.
The ringing of the Angelus Bell is a call to prayer and is thought to have originated in the eleventh century when Pope Gregory IX asked that the evening bell be rung to remind the faithful to pray for the Crusades. By the fourteenth century, the bell was rung at noon on Fridays calling the faithful to prayer in memory of the Passion of Our Lord. It also came to be associated with praying for peace. By the sixteenth century, the form of the prayer was standardised, and it became common practice in Monasteries for Monks and Nuns to pray the Angelus three times daily, when the bell called them to prayer at 6.00am, noon, and 6.00pm. It was part of the tradition of the Monasteries and Convents to balance work with prayer and see their work as being sanctified by prayer. It spread further than the Monasteries and became a quite common devotion for the laity. This is depicted in the French artist Jean-Francois Millet's famous 1859 oil painting of The Angelus showing two peasants in the fields with heads bowed praying the Angelus, that, together with the ringing of the bell from the church on the horizon, marks the end of the day's work.
It was originally the custom at Iona to toll the Angelus bell at the customary times, 6.00am, midday and 6.00pm. This was a call to the Sisters to prayer. A past pupil, Jan Morrey, described the Angelus Bell at Iona as one of the "punctuation marks" in the daily routine of the Mosman Park community. During classes or recreation time at Iona, Jan recalls that students and staff would stop at the sound of the Angelus Bell, no matter the occasion, and say the Angelus together.
The practice of ringing the Angelus was part of the Iona day for over 90 years. It was always said in the classrooms when the bell rang at 12 noon. Sister Brendan Curtin was the last Presentation Sister charged with the ringing of the bell at the appointed times. The practice ceased in 2005.
In 2011, the bell was restored by Iona Presentation College in honour of the approaching Centenary of the presentation of the bell. It is now in a small belfry in the garden between the Convent and the College. The Angelus is prayed in the College in the month of May and on various feast days throughout the year.
The Angelus Bell is featured in our Presentation Reflection Walk and the above text forms a large part of the narrative of this station, beautifully narrated by Sister Consuela Worthington PBVM, Presentation Sister and past Principal of Iona Presentation College.
View map
