Dare to dream of a new creation!
This is the Letter of the General Council on the 154th anniversary of the birth of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Our Lady of Africa. Rome, 8th September 2023 Ladies! If it’s just us to get started, it’ll be lovely! Dare to dream of a new creation! Dear Sisters, Happy feast day of the birth of our Lady and our Congregation! From the very beginning our Congregation has been on a journey of transformation within itself and within the Church. Our first heroic Sisters from Brittany, responding to the call of Cardinal Lavigerie, embarked on an adventure…
The Netherlands: a walk through history
On the 9th of April we organized a walk of 12 kilometers from the local history museum in Boxtel to the little village of Esch, a place from which many White Sisters left for Africa between 1895-2005. Since the 1st of January 2021 Esch belongs to the bigger village of Boxtel and to mark this date the local museum made an exhibition about the ‘Canon (history) of Esch’. Esch is an old village where Roman remains were found by archaeologists; it is around 1300 years old. One of the objects on the exposition is a big painting by one of our sisters, the almost blind Sr. Dymphna Kleemans (+), of the motherhouse ‘Sancta Monica’ and a doll of a White Sister in her old habit. The old mother house of the White Sisters, St. Monica (the mother of St. Augustin was named Monica and she was born in Algeria), is…
Blessing of the stone bearing the names of our sisters
Today we come to remember our sisters who lived their consecration to the end and died a violent death. We want to be inspired by their fidelity and the gift of their lives. Pope Francis during the ceremony to commemorate the modern martyrs at the Church of St Bartolomeo in Rome in April 2017, said: “How often, in difficult moments of history, have we heard it said: ‘Today our country needs heroes’? Likewise, we can ask, ‘Today, what does our Church need?’ Martyrs, witnesses, that is, everyday saints of ordinary life, lives lived coherently.” We are all called to this. “But we also need those who have the courage to accept the grace to be witnesses until the end, until death. Martyrs are the witnesses who carry forward the Church; those who witness to the fact that Jesus is risen, that Jesus is alive, who witness…
A storm at sea
On the 9th September 1869, eight young women from Brittany in the West of France, arrived in Algiers. This was one day later than foreseen due to a very bad storm while they were crossing the Mediterranean. And thus begins the history of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa! Msgr. Lavigerie, bishop of Algiers, had been waiting for them. Not seeing their arrival, from a high hill in the city he sent his blessing on the troubled sea and on the troubled beginnings of the future congregation. From the time of his arrival at the Episcopate in Algiers in 1866, cholera was raging in the country. There were many victims both from the famine and the illnesses that followed, leaving many orphans. To answer these needs Msgr. Lavigerie wanted to found a Congregation of sisters. But where to find religious missionary vocations? He sent to France Father…