On Sunday 15 November 1896, his Grace, the Archbishop of Melbourne the Most Rev Dr Thomas Carr, officially laid and blessed the Convent of Mercy’s foundation stone. In front of a large crowd, he told those who had gathered:
“The object of my visit to Lilydale is especially gratifying and afforded me more pleasure than any other function I have been called on to perform throughout the Archdiocese. I look on the establishment of a Catholic school as a work of the first importance in a parish, particularly when the school was to be conducted by religious Sisters. Nothing was better calculated to prepare youth for a happy eternity than to combine a deep religious training with a thorough secular education. They could not love God without a knowledge of Him, and hence the paramount importance of Christian and Catholic education. I hope that God’s blessing would rest on you all, and that when the convent is completed, and could be seen from near and far, it would be a symbol to all of peace and progress.”
