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Brazil,
Burkina Faso,
Cameroon,
Canada,
Ecuador,
England,
France,
Gambia,
Indonesia,
Ireland,
Italy,
Japan,
Madeira,
Mozambique,
Peru,
Philippines,
Portugal,
Senegal,
Spain,
Switzerland,
USA
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF
THE FOUNDATION
OF EACH PROVINCE AND REGION
For more
information on each Province/Region click on the web sites below.
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France
Map |
1796 |
On November 21, 1796,
feast of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple, Marie Rivier and four
of her companions had the incredible audacity to found a community in
the midst of the French Revolution, in the small village of Thueyts,
Ardèche, France.
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Switzerland
Map |
1841 |
In 1841, three years after the death of
Marie Rivier, her daughters realized one of her dreams to establish a
foundation in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Canada
Map
History
P.A.Province |
1853 |
At the request of Msgr. Prince, Bishop of
Saint Hyacinth, Quebec, Sr. St. Maurice and five companions arrive in
the New World. Sainte-Marie de Monnoir (later incorporated as Marieville)
becomes their first
mission.
Provinces du Québec
(East) Prince
Albert Province (West)
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United States
Map
History
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1873 |
On November 18, 1873, at
the invitation of the pastor, Father Huberdault, five sisters left Saint Hyacinth,
Qc for Glens
Falls NY to take charge of his school. In July 1879, they
were recalled because of illness and the convent was closed. In 1886,
encouraged by his Bishop Mgr. Louis de Goesbriand, Father Trottier
invited the sisters to open a school in his parish in Island Pond
VT. This was the first permanent mission in the
USA.
Manchester Province
Methuen
Province
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England
Map |
1896 |
At the end of the 19th Century, fear of a
civil war and the dispersion of religious orders in France forced our
sisters to look
to England as a safety net for the Congregation.
At the invitation
of the Basilian Fathers they came to Exeter and March
31, 1896 established the first permanent foundation at Palace Gate.
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Spain
Map
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1902 |
The Decree of Expulsion of 1902 forced the
Congregation to look
to other countries where the sisters could continue
to teach as women religious. Thus, the first mission in Spain
opened in Peñarraya November 12, 1902.
Province of Spain
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Italy
Map |
1904 |
At the beginning of the 20th Century the
Congregation was already becoming international. Italy was the next
country to welcome the sisters expulsed from France. September 28,
1904 marked the arrival of two sisters at a rented villa in
Port-Maurice. This was to be the first foundation in this
country. In 1915, at the beginning of WW I, Villa Loreto in
Bordighera received its first resident students. In 1967, the general
Administration of the Congregation settled in Villa Arte in
Castelgandolfo.
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Madeira
Islands
Ministries |
1925 |
Sister Marie de la Sainte Trinité, a native
of Madeira, became the first Portuguese Sister of the Presentation of
Mary. She opened
the first mission of the Province of Portugal
March 1, 1925 at the Lactario (Help to poor children). The College
of the Presentation of Mary opened in 1926, as did several schools in
subsequent years.
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Portugal
Map
Ministries
Communities |
1938 |
On the continent, in 1938 at the request of
Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, Sr. Marie de la Sainte Trinité opened a
boarding school in Sétubal for poor and abandoned girls. She also
established most
of the Congregation's ministries in Portugal: schools,
boarding schools, foyers, social centers. novitiate (1941), House of
Prayer
at Fatima, and involvement in parish pastoral ministry.
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Mozambique
Map
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1941 |
In 1941 at the invitation of Msgr. Teodosio
de Gouveia, archbishop of Lourenço Marques, Sister du Coeur de Jésus,
sister of Sr. Marie de la Sainte Trinité founded with six Portuguese
sisters, the Collège Dom Antonio Barroso, in Lourenço Marques now
known as Maputo-Mozambique. Other schools and missions were
founded in north and south Mozambique. In 1956 Mozambique became a
Region.
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Japan
Map |
1948 |
Before the Pacific War,
Monsignor Tagushi, Archbishop of Osaka, asked Mother St. Paul,
Provincial of Saint Hyacinthe, to send sisters to teach in his diocese
in Japan. This wish was finally realized after the war in
1948. The first sisters came from St. Hyacinthe, Quebec and opened
a high school in Himeji in 1951.
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Philippines
Map |
1950 |
In the spring of 1950, Fr. Dion, OMI, and his
companion, Father Emile Laquerre, OMI, invited the Sisters of the
Presentation, from the Hudson province in the United States, to work
with him in
Siasi among the Muslims. Mother St. Jeanne-de-Valois,
Provincial Superior, in response to Pope Pius XII's request that
religious congregations send missionaries to mission lands, accepted the
invitation. Sisters St. Pauline, M. Laurentienne, St. Nathalie,
and St. Marie des Anges were chosen to minister to the people of
Siasi. On October 26, 1950, the four new missionaries arrived in
Siasi, Sulu with hearts filled with joy and gratitude.
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Senegal
Map |
1952 |
In 1952 at the request to Msgr. Dodds,
Apostolic Prefect of Ziguinchor, four sisters: two French, one Canadian,
and one Portuguese left for Bignona (Casamance). They took
the responsibility of a primary school, of Catholic Action movements and
teaching catechesis in French and English. In following years they
founded in Elana and Balandine, two villages where they opened a
dispensary. They radiate out to 30 villages of the area.
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Ireland
Map
History |
1963 |
In the summer of 1961, at the request of Mother
St. Jeanne d'Arc, Superior General, Sr. Jeanne Touchette was asked to
establish a foundation in Ireland. Two years later, the search for
a place to establish a convent and a school came to fruition when Sr.
Jeanne and Sr. St. Columban (Agnes Kelly) originally from Ireland opened
the first Presentation of Mary Convent in Castleblakeney, Ireland.
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Peru
Map |
1963 |
After Vatican II, the Oblate
Fathers of the Canadian Province, responding to the call of Rome, asked
the Sisters of the Presentation to found a technical
school for girls in
a poor area of Lima, Peru. On September 13, 1963 five sisters from the province
of Sherbrooke arrived in Peru. The school opened in Comas in March
1964 with 50 girls. Presently, approximately 1700 students attend
this school.
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The
Gambia
Map |
1968 |
In October 1968, at the invitation of Msgr.
Michael Maloney, Bishop of Gambia, two sisters: Sr. Louise Brachotte and
Sr. Fernande Lasnier founded the mission of Serrekunda: which includes
23 villages where they worked as pastoral ministers in large
parishes. It was to Sr. Louise Brachotte that Mother St. Jeanne
d'Arc, General Superior, confided the responsibility of the mission from its foundation
until the nomination of a regional superior. Gambia and Senegal
became a region known as Sénégambie.
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Brazil
Map
Ministries
Communities |
1986 |
In 1980, Sister Cecilia Silva, a seasoned
missionary from Mozambique, is invited to Brazil to help the foundation
of the "Villages of Peace," a project which had been founded
to come to the needs of the street children. The Congregation accepted
the challenge and sent her with Sister du Sacré Coeur de Jésus,
Hardy. After supporting this project for six years, the first
community of the Presentation was established in Abadiania, in
the
diocese of Anapolis at the request of the Bishop of the Diocese, Msgr.
Manoel Pestana Filho.
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Cameroon
Map |
1989 |
Knowing that his bishop wished to
have Sisters in his diocese, Father Loiseau, OMI, turned to the Sisters
of the Presentation of Mary. After months of discernment, the
foundation is accepted and the first Sisters: Jacqueline Guité
and Lise Thibodeau, (from Canada) Margaret Camiré
(from USA) and Veronique Diémé (from Senegal) left for Atta on January 27,
1989. They began by establishing a primary school, a center for
the formation of women, and various ministries.
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Ecuador
Map |
1996 |
To respond to a request of the General Chapter of 1993 “let
us dare to found”, the Province of Spain, faithful to its missionary
charism, decided to found in Latin America, in a country as close to Peru
as possible. At this time the bishop of the diocese of Machal, M. Néstor Herrera and the
bishop of the diocese of Babahoyo, M. Jesús Ramó Martínez de Ezquerecocha
, while visiting Rome, went to Castelgandolfo to request Sisters for their
missions. After discussion and discernment the decision was made in favor
of the diocese of Babahoyo, in the zone of Los Rios, in the area of Vinces.
In November 1996, the first two Sisters arrived: Sr. Maria Soledad Sáez de
Ibarra and Sr. María Luisa Valcuende. In February 1997, Sr. Dionisia
Ruíz joined them. Their work of evangelization and the gift of
themselves to the needy are evident in the pastoral ministry of the
parish, the dispensary and the promotion of women.
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Indonesia
Map |
2005 |
Sister Teresita Paulma, Provincial Superior of the Province of the
Philippines, with the support of Sister Mie Nakanishi, Regional Superior
of Japan, responded to the invitation of Bishop Josef Suwata, NSC, of the
diocese of Manado, Indonesia to “come and see.” From April 22-27,
2004, Sr. Teresita and Sr. Samuelita Enriquez, Provincial Councilor,
visited Manado Province and its various parishes, chapels and parochial
schools. Interacting with the priests and the people help them to
understand the situation and get a glimpse of the culture of the people.
In
May 2005, three sisters, 2 Filipina and 1 Japanese, were the first
missionaries chosen for the foundation in Mangaran on the island of
Kabaruan. The sisters live and work in Holy Family Parish, in the diocese
of Manado, where they teach religion, English, music, computer, and sewing
to the women in the parish.
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Burkina Faso
Map |
2008 |
January 8, 200, Msgr Lucas K Sanou requests a community of Sisters for
Burkina-Faso in his diocese of Banfora, in Africa. After a year of study
and discernment Mother Angele and her Council accept the invitation and
advise Msgr. Lucas in a letter dated May 23, 2007.On September 2, 2008
four daughters of the Woman Apostle leave Senegal for Burkina Faso. On
the feast of Saint Joseph, March 19, 2009 the school, provided by the
diocese, is blessed and the first 20 pre-school students enter a class
freshly painted and decorated. It is a place of joy both for the students
as well as for the parents.
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