THREE centuries have passed since four young women began educating the minds and hearts of French village children living in extreme poverty, and today, their fruits have spread as far as Australia.
The Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, an international congregation with convents in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, are celebrating their 325th anniversary this year.
Superior General Mother Maria Goretti Lee launched the year-long celebration in Rome in January, celebrated by Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The worldwide congregation has marked the anniversary with a theme song, composed by several Sisters, the planting of 325 trees in the order’s provinces, including 10 in Australia, and will soon hold a marathon Rosary to be led by each province.
Australia regional superior general, Sr Teresa Lau, said the 325th anniversary celebrations highlighted the congregation’s unity around the world.
“There are Sisters from different countries, I don’t know what the country looks like, I don’t even know where it’s located on the map sometimes, but we know we’re united this way,” Sr Lau said.
Founded in 1696 by Fr Louis Chauvet, a young priest who was sent to minister to an impoverished village in the diocese of Chartres, and Mother Marie Anne de Tilly, the early days of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres focused on teaching children in order to improve the life expectancy of parishioners in Levesville-la-Chenard.
Following the death of Fr Chauvet and Mother de Tilly, the Sisters were entrusted to the Bishop of Chartres, who gave them St Paul as their patron.
And like St Paul, the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres held no territorial boundaries so as to “become all things to all, to save at least some”.
Although the order has its origins in France, it has a rapidly growing vocation base in Vietnam, home to a quarter of the congregation’s 4200 Sisters.
Vietnamese novices are often sent to join other missions, including those in Australia.
Established in 1984 in Mossvale, New South Wales, Australia’s province is one of the youngest in the congregation’s 325 year history.
The Sisters run an international College in Mossvale, and own a busy aged care facility in Boronia Heights on Brisbane’s south, as well as working in parishes, pastoral care and with young children.
Sr Lau said the best way to describe a Sister of St Paul de Chartres was “daring” because the Sisters willingly go where the Church called them regardless of their experiences.
For Sr Lau, who was fully professed to the order at the age of 27, this meant moving from Hong Kong to Brisbane to start a nursing home with no experience in caring for the elderly.
“One word for the Sister of St Paul is daring,” Sr Lau said.
“We look back at the history from the very beginning – our founder was very daring to start something to meet the needs of the time.”
Newly professed Sr Theresa Maria Dao, is following in the footsteps of centuries of Sisters who dared to join the congregation despite the unknowns.
She entered the convent midway through her studies in Pharmacy after having a chance encounter with a Sister of St Paul de Chartres at a bus stop in Melbourne.
She said the witness of the “senior Sisters – we don’t have elderly Sisters here” helped her to stay faithful to religious life.
“Their life of holiness and witness bring light to me, even in the time of darkness, in the time where I still struggle,” Sr Dao said.
“I don’t know whether I could walk faithfully in this kind of life, and their light has been a great help to see Jesus and to find the support in life.
“We hope and pray that we can be a true witness and true living a religious life, that young people may see Jesus Christ in us and they follow him, not us.”
Despite all the daring accomplishments of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres in Australia and throughout the world, there’s still one important job they haven’t crossed off their list – finding their first Aussie Sister.
“We are 35 years already (in Australia) but we still haven’t found one vocation,” Sr Lau said.
“We need to work a little bit harder.”
