It is possible to live in harmony with our Algerian brothers and sisters
My main work now is welcoming people to the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, three days a week. In fact, having lived so many years in Algeria, since 1959, and knowing several languages (Arabic, German, Italian and French), is a valuable asset to receive and inform visitors to this high point in Algeria. I meet an average of 250 people per day, mostly Algerians who come to pray, because it is their Basilica! It has been completely restored two years ago, and since then, it is not unusual for delegations from the Middle East and other countries to come to visit. Also the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa has become a place of international worship. Many moving testimonies show this, such as that of an old man arriving from Jerusalem who wanted to visit Our Lady of Africa again before he died. He had lived…
“I have loved everything in our Africa.”
“I have loved everything in our Africa, her past, her future, her sunshine, her mountains, her skies, the vast horizons of her deserts, the deep blue waves that bathe her shores.” Charles Lavigerie “Love the peoples to whom you are sent” Charles Lavigerie
Our family treasure
Since the beginning, Cardinal Lavigerie wanted us to be sent in apostolic international communities. Interculturality is an integral part of our “family treasure”, of our heritage… a heritage to which we hold firmly. “Be of one heart and one soul. Be truly sisters one to the other. To love and help one another are the two pillars of community life. Take with a good spirit whatever your companions do or say.” Mother Marie-Salomé We are not sent alone. It is together that we participate in the mission of Christ. He himself, from the beginning of his public life, surrounded himself with a community of disciples. It was not an international community, but he liked gathering together persons who were very different: by temperament, place of origin, trade or profession, political opinions… Was it not a way of showing how, in Him, all the differences can be harmonised? Thus it…
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…
Important dates of Charles Lavigerie
1825 Oct 31 Birth in Bayonne, France 1849 June 2 Priestly Ordination 1854 Professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, France 1856 Director of Education in the East His road to Damascus : 1860 His “Road to Dasmascus” Christians are killed in Lebanon and Damascus; Lavigerie is there to help refugees and orphans. His first contact with Muslims; he discovers his missionary vocation1861 Diplomatic function in Rome 1863 Lavigerie becomes Bishop of Nancy, France (aged 36) 1866 Lavigerie accepts the See of Algiers, a poor diocese, but “the gateway to all Africa… and her 200 million souls” Algiers : 1867 Lavigerie is named archbishop of Algiers 1868 Appointed Apostolic Delegate for the Sahara and Sudan Oct 19 First Novitiate of the “White Fathers” at Maison Carrée 1869 Sept 8 First Novitiate of the “White Sisters” at Algiers 1872 Lavigerie presents himself as candidate for the Latin Patriarchates of Jerusalem He is not going there,…
Saint Charles, our Mother House
“But where is your Mother House?” Some people ask us. A “Mother House” is normally where a religious congregation was born and where we joyfully return for various reasons (religious professions, general chapters …) It is well known, the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa have a nomadic soul!!! Our Mother House is no exception to the rule, as it has undergone many transformations and relocations following the vicissitudes of history! Our Congregation was born in Algiers in 1869 at the initiative of Msgr. Charles Lavigerie. At the time of his arrival there, a famine plagued the country. He appealed to all people of goodwill on the spot and abroad, to accommodate the many orphans. Where to lodge all these people? First it was in a local district of Ben Aknoun. Then Msgr. Lavigerie acquired a large estate in Kouba. The 300 orphans settled in the…
“Caritas” and the Pelican
Lavigerie, an apostle of charity :On becoming bishop, Father Lavigerie took the motto “Caritas” and as his episcopal coat of arms, a pelican – this bird which feeds its young with its own blood! His life illustrated the motto and coat of arms he had chosen. Arriving in Algiers, he addressed the Muslim Algerians: “I claim the privilege of loving you like sons …” At the bishop’s house he welcomed orphans and he founded two missionary societies to help them – the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) and the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (White Sisters). He required their members the same compassion that he himself had towards the Africans. “For our love to bear fruit, we must see Our Lord Himself in the patients we care for and in those touched by our charity and our patience.” Is that what you experience in your missionary life? Do…