THE SISTERS OF ST. PAUL IN THE PHILIPPINES
On October 25, 1904, the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres landed on Philippine soil, and arrived on October 29, on the shores of Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. They came from Vietnam upon the invitation of Bishop Frederick Rooker, the American Bishop of Iloilo, who needed help for his vast diocese which included in those times Negros Oriental and most of the Visayas.
The first seven Sisters in the Philippines established their first foundation in Dumaguete. They were Sister Marthe de St. Paul Legendre as a Superior (she became the second Provincial Superior in the Philippine Province), Sister Marie Louise, Sister Ange Marie, Sister Anna dela Croix, Sister Catherine, Sister Charles (Chinese) and Sister Josephine (American). From that small cradle in Dumaguete, the Sisters were invited to other places in the Philippines – Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Tuguegarao, Cagayan, Culion to take care of the Leper Colony, Iloilo City to open a hospital, Manila, etc. To accommodate and form young girls who wished to join the Congregation, the first SPC Novitiate in the Philippines was opened on June 21, 1911, in the present site of St. Paul University Manila, where the Provincial House was located then. The Provincialate and Formation House moved to Quezon City in the present site of St. Paul University QC in the early thirties, and thence to the present site in Taytay, Rizal in the seventies. To date, by the grace of God, after one hundred years, the SPC Community in the Philippines has 36 schools, 11 hospitals, 6 pastoral centers, and work also in other places as catechists or pastoral workers. The Filipina SPCs do not confine their apostolic work within the Philippine territory. In fact, the first Filipino missionary was a SPC sister – Sister Ignacia Tumbaga who left for Thailand in 1925. The latest data available list 62 Sisters in mission countries – Indonesia, East Timor, Thailand, Ireland, England, Italy, France, the United States, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Cairo, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. |
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