A HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS OF SAINT TERESA’S CONVENT

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary was founded in 1877 in India by a group of young “Religious” under the leadership of Mary of the Passion. Helen de Chapotin was born in Brittany in 1839. She was a prayerful young lady and was active in the church. She was very concerned about Pope Pius IX who at that time in history was held a captive in the Vatican. Helen wanted to become a “Religious” but her family was strongly opposed to the idea. Finally, she did join the Poor Clare’s, and with a group of three sisters, she was sent to India where she worked with young women. 

After a few years, she and twenty of the sisters broke away from the original group and started a community known as the Missionaries of Mary. Mother Mary of the Passion, the name given to her as a poor Clare, was advised to return to settle certain difficulties.

Acting upon the advice of her spiritual director, she wrote the Rule of the Missionaries of Mary Institute. Through this affiliation, the Institute became Franciscan. After many trials and tribulations, the Foundress received the final approbation of the Rule and of the Institute from the Holy See. In the meantime many young women were seeking admission into this missionary institute, the only one in existence; so much so that through the advice and assistance of the Bishop of the Diocese in France, Mother Mary of the Passion started a Novitiate in St. Brieux, France, which even today is known as “Les Chatelets”. Hundreds of young women from all parts of the world have received their training here as Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Before her death on November 15, 1904, Mary of the Passion had sent sisters to Missions throughout the world on every continent. Seven of the Sisters were martyred in the Boxer Rebellion in China in the 1900, and this was considered by the Foundress as a real grace for the Institute. 

Sister Maria Assunta Poallota was sent to China to work with the girls. She died very young during an epidemic of cholera in 1905. She was beatified by Pope Pius X in 1964. People have been healed of serious illness through her intercession. The Institute of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary is a world wide missionary order of women belonging to seventy-two nationalities; over 9000 sisters working in nine hundred convents throughout the world, divided into fifty provinces with headquarters in Rome. 

In a world thirsting for life and searching for its meaning, in a world which struggles to save life, in a world where life has already triumphed in Christ’s victory over death, they which to witness to the hope that is within us by offering our lives joyfully, like Mary, in praise and service. 

The Franciscan Mission of Mary committed themselves to a closer following of Christ in a daily Eucharistic adoration. Franciscan simplicity, peace and joy - an international family in fidelity to the Church. They work in every field of postulate according to the needs of the Church and of the times as catechists and teachers, doctors, nurses and pharmacists, dieticians and laboratory technicians, psychologists and social workers, artists and musicians, accountants and administrators. However, at all times we are especially devoted to the poor and abandoned. Their apostolate is strengthened through prayer and their Eucharistic devotion. 

The late Bishop Collins was instrumental in bringing the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary to Liberia. He made many visits to the Mother General in Rome requesting sisters for his Mission until finally in December of 1936, six Franciscan Missionary of Mary arrived in Monrovia. His Lordship remarked that he was especially happy to have the sisters because of their daily adoration and prayers before the Blessed Sacrament exposed.

The Convent building was not finished when the sisters arrived, but his Lordship proudly installed the missionaries in their own home. There were no roads in the vicinity and the surroundings were very swampy and infested with mosquitoes. Consequently two of the sisters became very ill with malaria and had to be sent home the first year.  They were replaced by two other sisters in 1937, one of whom was Sister Edana. Mother assistant who was a nurse started dispensary work from the beginning on the back verandah of the convent. She and her companion also visited the sick and the prisoners. A room was rented in town later for the dispensary. Before long, his Lordship had a dispensary built on the grounds and subsequently renovated for the sister’s convent. Boarding students were taken in soon after the sisters arrived, as His Lordship’s biggest concern was the education of the Liberia girls.

On April 5, 1937, classes were started with sixty children. Small boys were taken in the Kindergarten through grade four at that time and Archbishop Michael Francis and another little boy were taken in as boarders. World War II, which started in 1939, caused many hardships and privations for the sisters. Kind friends who assisted aided them in their work with the sick and the children.

PRESIDENT WILLIAM V.S. Tubman took office in January 1945, during his Presidency, many changes took place, and the country was developing. The enrollment in the school had increased to the extent that a building was erected for elementary classrooms in 1947. The beginning of high school classes in 1948 resulted in starting another building, which was completed in 1956, but used as another elementary building. Mrs. Antoinette Tubman dedicated the building in 1956.

In 1966, Rev Father Clonan started the existing high school building, which he completed before returning to Ireland where he died a year later.

The foundation in Sanniquellie was started in 1967, with a clinic for taking care of the sick. Two years later another convent was opened in Yekepa where the sisters were administering the school. Many request were made for an FMM Convent in Gbarnga, and finally in 1974, a foundation was made and the sisters took charge and taught in the school.

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary now have five convents in Liberia, the three mentioned and the two in Monrovia. The first group of sisters came from the British Isles, but since then, they have had sisters from the USA, Canada, India, Australia, the Philippines and other European countries.

Saniquellie had a flourishing economics center for the development of women, a boarding school for girls in high schools, and a clinic with a program for primary health care in the surrounding village. In Yekepa, in addition to teaching in the school, the sisters’ apostolate had branched out to a school in Camp Four and a Church and catheohetical work in the neighboring villages. The apostolate in Gbarnga now also includes women’s development in several villages outside Gbarnga.

The sisters at S.T.C. continue with the education of the girls and assist with Parish work. Promotion of vocations through the Archdiocese and work with young girls and boys are very important fields of the apostolate.

A HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS OF SAINT PATRICK’S HIGH SCHOOL

Shortly following the appointment of the late Father John Collins SMA to the Bishopric of the Catholic Church and assignment to Liberia as the Vicar Apostolic in 1934, he established St. Patrick School. At the time, the population of Monrovia where the Institution was founded was very small. Therefore, the majority of students attended schools built by immigrants, which were meant for their children.

With the coming of St. Patrick’s many of the native boys around especially from Kru Town, the dwelling township of the Kru people located just below Snapper Hill matriculated there. This mass matriculation was necessary because it was very difficult for them to obtain entrance to immigrant institution. Because of the dominance of Kru children in St. Patrick’s, it was nicknamed “Kru Boys School”.

In 1936, a SMA Priest, energetic, dynamic and youthful, the late Archbishop Francis Carroll, joined Bishop Collins in his Missionary endeavor in Liberia as a young SMA Father. He was placed in charge of St. Patrick’s which Bishop Collins had founded.

The school progressed under his principalship so that by 1939, the Institution was well on its way to secondary level. A few years thereafter the Catholic Church was proud to set forth five well-schooled, nurtured and educated young men as the first High School graduates of St. Patrick’s in 1943. The Principal, the Rev. Father Francis Carroll, created history when on graduation day he presented the five novel graduates to Bishop Collins and the Liberian Nation as Liberia’s First Catholic High School graduates.

Four of the graduates are deceased, but their importance will ever remain with us as their input within the nation have left an indelible print that will be remembered throughout the history of this country. The names are prominently recorded as follows:

·          Dr. Martin Karpeh, a prominent surgeon and one time physician to the President of Liberia.

·          Mr. Lawrence Sawyer, one of Liberia’s top expert surveyors whom once headed the Department of Surveys at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

·          Mr. John Lewis Bing; Major General of the defunct Militia of Liberia and one time Superintendent of Sinoe County.

·          Mr. Alphonso Sharpe, a scholar who went to Ireland to study medicine, but had to abandon the studies due to illness.

·          Mr. Augustus Hare, a successful Civil Servant, educator and businessman in the community is the only surviving member of that class. Mr. Hare is presently living in the United States.

Following the first graduates, there was a succession of graduates every year right up to April 6, 1996. When the student population in the city of Monrovia began to increase; Bishop Collins with support of his SMA Priests who were working with him on the Mission decided to transfer the High School section of St. Patrick’s to a more conducive area.

Upon completion of the new edifice of the school on Capitol Hill, the High School Division was transferred to the new site in 1953. Nevertheless, the management of the Institution was still under the responsibility of the SMA Fathers.

After the principalship of Rev. Father Francis Carroll, the following priests have intermittently served as principal of St. Patrick’s High School: Father Thomas Lakins, Father Joseph Guinan, Father Michael Rooney and Father O’Donovan. Other principals - Brother James Newberry, Sister Shirley and Richard Goodlin.

The Rev. Father Francis Carroll under whose principalship, St. Patrick’s became distinguished as one of Liberia’s most prestigious High Schools, was revered as an outstanding prelate of the SMA missionaries.

When the country was divided in 1950 into ecclesiastical jurisdictions, Father Carroll was appointed Prefect of the Preference of Cape Palmas with the title of Monsignor. When Bishop Collins died in 1961, he succeeded him as Vicar Apostolic of Monrovia.

Being the first Principal of St. Patrick’s High School, Bishop Carroll had the Institution foremost on his heart.

A year following his consecration as the succeeding Bishop of Monrovia, he made arrangements for the Brothers of Holly Cross to come to Liberia and take over the management of St. Patrick’s High School in 1962.

The Brothers contain and maintained the venerable prestige of the school right up to the fracas of April 6, 1996, when the Catholic Authorities mandated all catholic institutions to be closed until further orders.

Since then the premises of St. Patrick’s High School have been transformed into the Nation’s first Polytechnic under the sponsorship of the Catholic Education Secretariat and the Don Bosco Religious Order.