The Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles
was founded in Lyons, France, in 1876 by Fr Augustine Planque,
S.M.A. This was in response to the belief held at the time by
many Missionary Priests that to enable African women to have access
to the Gospel message and values, women missionaries were needed.
At first, Fr Planque hoped to get Sisters of the home Congregations
to volunteer for work in the S.M.A. missions. But, in the forbidding
climate of the West Coast of Africa the death-rate for Europeans
was alarmingly high, and he soon realised the impossibility of
finding replacements for the volunteer Sisters who died. He appealed
to Rome, without success: instead, Pius IX told him that if he
needed Sisters for this work he would have to create a new congregation.
In May, 1876, nineteen young women came together in Lyons to form
this new religious congregation, which was put under the protection
of Our Lady of the Apostles. Among its first members were four
French Franciscan Sisters of Couzon, who had answered Father Planque’s
appeals and had served in Lagos, where in 1873 they started the
first school, St Mary’s Broad Street. In the first year
of the new congregation, Sister Felicity Kirwan from Dublin and
Sr Dominique Riordan from Cork joined the group. Before the end
of the century others from Cork and Dublin had followed, and Irish
addresses from Counties Limerick, Waterford and Kerry feature
among the early records of the pioneers.
For more on the
Irish OLA history follow the links below
1. The early decades: 1876 to the 1920’s
Read more...
2. From the 1920’s to the 1970’s
Read more...
3. From the 1970’s to the present: Transitions and New Beginnings
Read more...
