MSA celebrate Sr Pikelwethu’s Final Profession World Mission Sunday
A Day of Celebration and Renewed Support for Missions Worldwide
On 15 December, 1849, a group of seven nuns from the Religious of the Assumption congregation in Paris arrived in Grahamstown, South Africa, under the leadership of 27-year-old Sr Marie Gertrude de Henningsen. They were invited by Wexford-born Bishop Aidan Devereux of the Eastern Vicariate of the then Cape of Good Hope to establish schools for girls, teach catechism and minister to the Catholic community. The Archbishop of Paris thought they were “all mad to consider the request”. The Sisters were missioned to the Cape of Good Hope by Mère Marie Eugénie, (now St Marie Eugénie), Foundress and Superior of the Religious of the Assumption in Paris. Regardless of the risks of this venture into the unknown, Sr Marie Gertrude and her six companions were filled with zeal for this call to spread God’s Kingdom.
Their journey was beset by dangers and conditions when they arrived were grim.
In her memoirs, Mother Gertrude wrote a harrowing account of their voyage from Antwerp to Port Elizabeth on a Belgian whaling ship, the Océanie. The journey took three months and they endured slavers, violent storms, mutiny and fire.
On 3 December 1849 the first religious Sisters to set foot in Africa, south of the Equator, arrived in Port Elizabeth. The sisters then travelled 120 km to Grahamstown by ox-wagon, having to drink scarce water from muddy puddles, encountering a huge cobra up-close, and dealing with the intense, unfamiliar heat. Despite all this, Amelia found herself falling in love with this strange, beautiful country.
Once in Grahamstown the sisters spent the first six months in rented accommodation until the bishop bought them a small piece of land, and they became the proud owners of a little cottage.
The Sisters immediately set up a dispensary using a much-treasured medicine chest they had brought with them from Paris, treating and bandaging wounds, mixing and dispensing medicines.
They started two schools, a fee-paying one in a room of the cottage, and a free school which began in converted stables.
In 1850 on Christmas Day the 8th Border War broke out.
It devastated the local farming community. Many children became orphans. Bishop Devereux brought these children to the convent and handed them into the Sisters’ care. Suddenly, the cottage became home to 7 sisters and 100 orphans. Nearly every night a cannon signalled imminent attack on the town. Mother Gertrude and the sisters brought the orphans for safety and shelter to the nearby St Patrick’s Church. It was at this time that Mother Gertrude became known as Notre Mère (our mother).
Mother Gertrude and her six sisters, as Religious of the Assumption, were under obedience to their Mother House in Paris to live according to the strictly ordered way of life in Paris. Instead, the beleaguered sisters were stretched to their limits staffing two schools, an orphanage and a dispensary, growing their own food, gathering cow dung as fuel, sewing late into the night to feed themselves and 100 orphans and frequently attending the sick and dying at night. The sisters prayed constantly.
In 1852, Mère Marie Eugénie, recalled the Sisters from the mission. The Sisters were to return to France and leave the orphans and schools to others. We cannot imagine the agony Mother Gertrude must have faced. She was a woman with few resources, little support and thousands of miles from home. Letters took about six months to exchange. Finally, following her conscience and trusting in Divine Providence, Mother Gertrude made the painful decision to remain in Grahamstown, where she and her sisters continued to serve the needs of the people and the local church.
Subsequently they became a separate congregation, the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption.
Over the years the sisters established schools, clinics and development projects in South Africa and beyond. Many young Irish women had joined the congregation. In 1932 the sisters came to Ireland and founded the Assumption Convent and High School in Ballynahinch, Co Down.
Today the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption, a small congregation, continue their mission in schools and adult education, development work and skills development for young people with special needs, bringing to all the message of hope and God’s love for them.
THY KINGDOM COME
