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Biology class at Layton Hill with Mother Julia Butcher in 1950. Photo: SHCJ European Province Archives And to mark the occasion, a special reunion via Zoom is taking place on May 8 for past pupils and staff. The Society is a religious order for women and was founded by Cornelia Connelly in 1846. She was an American, born in Philadelphia in 1809 and her own story is quite remarkable. Layton Hill dining hall Sr Genevieve and M.M. Column in 1950. Photo: SHCJ European Province Archives She married an Episcopalian priest, Pierce Connolly, and they had five children, though two died in early infancy. A few years after they were married the couple became Roman Catholics. When Pierce decided that God was calling him to be a Catholic priest, Cornelia had to take a vow of chastity. She gradually came to realise that God was calling her in a new way to found a new religious order for the work of education, especially for girls, which was so urgently needed in 19th ....