WATANI International 18 October 2009
Last September the Fransiscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (FMSIHM) celebrated 150 years since the arrival of the first sisters in Egypt and the establishment of the first Fransiscan mission in Cairo. Sister Mary Catherine Toriani, accompanied by five other sisters, came to Egypt from their native Italy in 1859 to fulfill a mission of compassion and service.
The 150th-year celebration extended over three days and was attended by the Mother Superior of the Order of the Fransiscan Sisters worldwide, Mother Anna Muscat, as well as regional superiors. The first day included a thearical show performed by the students and teachers of the Cairo and the Alexandria schools; theatre director Ibrahim Badawy and members of the National Arabic Theatre of Saint Mark cooperated with the students to make the show a huge success. To a full house which hosted representatives of various monastic orders and churches in Egypt, as well as local politicians, the show presented glimpses from Mother M. Catherine’s life, as well as praises and prayers to St Francis.
The second day of the celebration saw the consecration of the altar of the newly-renovated Fransiscan church at Clott Bey, Cairo, and the third saw the sisters gather in their church at Muski, Cairo for a celebration of the feast of the Cross.
Compassion in practice
The FMSIHM came to Egypt in 1859, after Bishop Guasco, Vicar of Egypt invited missionaries to the country. Sister M. Catherine Toriani landed in Cairo with five sisters and began the first female Italian mission. She was eventually assigned the responsibility of supervising the other sisters and seeing to their needs. She opened a school which accepted all children, regardless of their creed, nationality or social standard. She collaborated with the anti-slavery movement and dedicated herself to the poor, the suffering and the abandoned. She rescued countless African young girls from a life of slavery and sheltered parentless children, many of whom were of illegitimate birth and thus ostracised by the community. Her poor house in the Clott Bey district of Cairo became a centre of practical charity, education and evangelisation.
Twenty-eight years into missionary work, Mother M. Catherine died in Clott Bey on 6 May 1887. Even before her death, she was considered a heroic saint.
Today, 150 years following the launch of the Fransiscan Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 1200 sisters work in 125 monasteries spread throughout Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Asia, where the sisters establish and manage schools, orphanages, hospitals, clinics and lepers’ reservations. In Egypt, 15 convents in various regions work to spread the message and the services of sisterly love.