150 YEARS AGO…

A Brief History in Honour of the 150th Jubilee of the Foundation of our Congregation, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, written by Sr. Celine Monteiro, FMM, who witnessed and lived through nearly half the history of our Institute and is no more. This inspiring narrative beautifully captures her experiences and reflections as she journeys through the annals of our history, while also conveying her enthusiasm and hope for the future.

The Institute of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary was recognized by the Church on 6th January 1877. It was the feast of the Epiphany (manifestation of Jesus to the ‘Gentiles’, that is the shepherds and wise men). The Institute of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (then known as the Missionaries of Mary) and the Foundress, Bl. Mary of the Passion believed this was providential that the Institute be born on this day when Jesus made himself known to shepherds and wise men and the Institute was to carry out the same mission of making Christ known to those who did not know him. As we are going to celebrate 150 years of the Institute it is good to recall its story.

      This new-born Institute grew very fast in numbers, as it was the first Feminine Institute for ‘Missionaries’ and many young girls were eager to go to these “missions”. However, in the very lifetime of the Foundress, 7 missionaries of 4 nationalities, gave their lives in China when they were put to death for their faith. What a shock this was for the foundress! 7 young sisters were lost. Yet, the reaction of Mary of the Passion was: Now I have 7 JOYS and 7 SORROWS: JOYS because they offered their lives to the Lord, SORROWS because the Institute lost the seven committed sisters all at once! The Institute grew in numbers so much so that at the death of the foundress, there were almost 3,000 missionaries. This number continued to increase till it reached its peak of around 11000 members in the 1960’s!

However, after Vatican II, the numbers gradually diminished year by year, while now we are about 5000 members! At the time, Pope John XXIII called for the Second Vatican Council. It was because he wished “to open the windows of the Church to let in some fresh air.” All religious orders needed to do the same, so the Church called on all religious congregations to have a Special Chapter, to go back to their sources, that is, the Charism of their founders, to renew their lives according to the former Charism confided to the Founder. This led to radical changes in the way of life of religious, and corresponding amendments were made to the Constitutions. The Institute had a Special Chapter in 1966 when many outdated customs were deleted or replaced, e.g, our dress was contextualised. Our sisters in different parts of the world adopted the dress of that place: Africa, the Far East, and in India, we have adopted the sarree as our official dress.

Our language in the liturgy used to be Latin, both the Mass and the Prayer of the Church. Then onwards Mass was celebrated in the language of the country and the Prayer of the Church at first was in French as this was the language of the Institute. Very soon, this too, was changed and we prayed in the language of the country. For us, in India, we pray together in English. However, even our prayer was undergoing some transformation. We began to read the Sacred Scripture. (In olden times we were not allowed to read the Old Testament! Now we could read the whole Bible), and so began to read, reflect and share on this more and more frequently, and try to build our lives on what we read, hear or share.

All through these years, our FMM sisters were trying to respond to the signs of the times educating the young minds, healing the wounded persons through counselling and medical service, rendering pastoral service to the people crossing cultural differences and language barriers, while we have been challenged by the situations from outside and within.

Now we are learning the art of listening! Listening to the Spirit breathing in us. In our Constitutions the Chapter on Prayer is entitled “Listening to the Spirit”. The Spirit has much more to say to us than we to Him/Her. St. Francis even tells us we must go into the cell of our hearts to pray. However, as the world is changing drastically and very fast, we, religious need to keep up with the signs of the times, not to become more “worldly” but to adjust our way of life to be able to be more fruitful in our mission and thus responding to God’s voice.

So now, to celebrate 150 years of our existence, we have planned a 3-year programme. The theme for the first year 2024 was “LISTENING TO THE BREATH OF GOD IN US“: for 2025 it was “RECOGNISING THE BREATH OF GOD IN MARY OF THE PASSION” and in 2026 “BREATHE WITH GOD ‘HERE I AM! We have had varied reflections, retreats, activities etc., to enable us to move along, trusting that this will help our own personal transformation as well as our active ministries and to be able to celebrate in all truth our 150 JUBILEE celebration.

O Triune God, breathe forth yourself through us, “Here we are.” Amen.

Sr. Mercy Janifar  Charles Rosario FMM

for Sr.Celine Monteiro FMM.