SISTERS OF THE HOLY ANGELS OF SRI LANKA

The Sisters of the Holy Angels is an indigenous religious institute (Catholic) founded in 1903 in Sri Lanka by a Jesuit Bishop, Rt. Rev. Joseph Van Reeth S.J. the first bishop of Galle Diocese-Sri Lanka. It was founded to work for the less privileged people beyond all boundaries. At present there are 207 nuns in the congregation.

There are 35 communities (Convents) in Sri Lanka, 6 communities in Kenya and one community in Australia. The Australian community supports the mission in Kenya. The main apostolate of the Congregation is formation of children through education. Therefore the sisters are engaged in teaching in both urban and rural areas of Sri Lanka and Kenya. We also run hostels and orphanages for poor students, Youth Welfare training Centres for school drop-outs, 2 homes for destitute elders and provide pastoral assistance and teach catechism in the parishes.

BRIEF HISTORY

The Congregation was founded in the diocese of Galle in 1903, which had 1% Catholics. The diocese in infancy was spread over underdeveloped areas in the Southern, Sabarargamuwa and North Eastern provinces.

Our Founder was the first Bishop of Galle, Bishop Joseph Van Reeth S.J. a Belgium Bishop arrived in Sri Lanka in 1895. With his background of Missionary experience in India as Jesuit Provincial Superior, he saw what an indigenous congregation could do to take God’s message to the people of the soil in rural areas. With this dream in his heart he made use of the desire of a young girl to dedicate her life to God. At this time the urban areas in the South were looked after by the sisters of Charity of Ghent, Belgium. The opinion of the Sisters was that the descendants of the new converts would not be ready for the discipline and rigors of religious life. The Bishop took the bold step to start the Congregation with just one member. Though a foreigner, he lost no time in understanding the language, the culture and customs of our people. He named the Congregation “The Sisters of the Holy Angels” and gave them a bright blue habit.

The Superior of the Sisters of Charity kindly consented to train the young recruits. Growth was very slow. A second member came almost a year after the first. As the membership increased slowly girls educated by the Sisters in Galle, Matara, Kegalle and Kandy joined the new Congregation. At this time, T.B. of the lungs attacked some of the young Sisters, and four of them died of it in their twenties or early thirties.

In 1923, twenty years after Sr. Aloysius the first member entered, the Bishop with heroic courage and trusting in divine providence went on to make the Congregation autonomous. It was approved as a Religious Congregation of diocesan rite with only eleven living members. That same year the Bishop took five members of the Congregation to our first Convent in a remote village

Mother Gertrude was appointed the first superior of this community by the Bishop himself. He died nine months later.

It was Mother Gertrude who caught the spirit of the Founder best. A year later when the Novitiate was shifted from Galle to Ganegama she was its first novice directress and, in 1933 she was elected Superior General – we consider her to be our Co-Foundress as it was she who transmitted best, the spirit of the Founder to the Sisters.

OUR CHARISM

Neither our Founder nor our Co-Foundress left us anything in writing, hence at the General Chapter in 1980, we went back to roots with the help of our Sisters who lived with our Pioneers and formulated our Charism by studying their lived experience.

PRESENT MISSION

The purpose of the Congregation is the Sanctification of its members and the Christian formation of children through education. After the schools take over in 1961, all the schools managed by our Sisters were taken over as they were third grade schools. All avenues for training the Sisters or to teach in Government schools were closed. Hence, our Apostolate was diversified. We opened homes for elders, reached out to school drop outs in youth welfare industrial homes. We started teaching in private schools where we were welcomed and paid more attention to pre-schools and Daham pasal. Sisters are also involved in pastoral work.

A.M.D.G.