Augustine Planque was born on July 25th 1826 at Chemy, a little
village in the North of France. He was the fourth child and first
son in a family of ten children born to Pierre and Augustina Planque.
It was thanks to the financial assistance offered by his maternal
Aunt, Mme. Augustina-Charlotte Poupart who resided in Lille, that
he was able to pursue studies for the priesthood. He was ordained
on December 21st 1850.
In 1856 he read in the Univers an article signed by Bishop Melchior
de Marion Brésillac who wished to found a Society for the
evangelization of the most abandoned countries of Africa ( Society
of African Missions). After two months of reflection, he offered
his services and he received at the end of May this reply, “I
have need of some men like you …” Father Planque arrived
at Lyon on the November 6th 1856 and discovered cramped accommodation,
an empty till, few candidates and a bishop who was often absent.
Bishop de Brésillac entrusted to him the running of the
seminary and on December 8th they went with others to Fourvière
to consecrate the newly born Institute to our Lady. In 1858 the
first three missionaries left for Sierra Leone. They were followed
in 1859 by three others, among them Bishop de Brésillac.
In August 1859, it was an “incredible sadness” which
overwhelmed Father Planque when the letters of Bishop Kobès
and Mr Seignac de Lesseps told him of the death of the Founder
and his companions. The Archbishop of Lyons and others advised
him to give up, but he remembered the words of Bishop de Marion
Brésillac: “if the sea and its rocks were to make
this year my last, you would be there to see that the work did
not get shipwrecked too”. He went to Rome and presented
his report on the catastrophe to Pope Pius IX, adding as well:
“We will continue”. – “Blessed be God,
the work will live”, replied Pius IX.
From the beginning, the first missionaries insisted on the need
for religious Sisters. At first, Father 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.
| 'It
is for the Good of Africa that God has established this little
Institution….It must be clearly understood that the
Sisters are for the Missions only' |
| |
In
May 1876, nineteen young women came together in Lyons to form
a 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 1877 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.
In addition to the material problems, he had to organize the reception,
formation and the follow up in Africa … To his daughters,
he was going to communicate his ideal : “to know and to
love Jesus Christ in order to make him known and loved”.
Today the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles
(O.L.A.) number around 800, present in Africa, South America and
Europe.
In tracing the story of the O.L.A. Sisters on this website, the
focus will be on the misisons where Irish Sisters have worked
- mainly Nigeria and Ghana, formerly The Gold Coast in the early
years and the developments in Tanzania and Argentina of more recent
times. (For information on other Provinces, check out the website of the French OLA's: OLA France
