The
Congregation of the Maronite sisters of the Holy
Family
The Congregation of the Maronite sisters of the
Holy Family is a religious Apostolic Congregation
of Patriarchal right. It was founded on the 15th
of August 1895 by Patriarch Elias Hwayek, Mother
Rosalie Nasr, and Sister Estephany Karddouch, "for
the glory of God and the salvation of souls",
as well as for the benefit of the Church and the
country.
The Congregation is deep-rooted in the Antioch Syriac
Maronite Church and aims to go deeper in its hermitic
and apostolic spirituality. It is opened to the
Universal Church, in an ecumenical spirit, embracing
its mission, perceiving its needs, and mobilized
for the service of "the edification of the
Body of Christ".
Aims
The Congregation aims towards a life of "lasting
union with God" through prayer and work, "for
the glory of the great Divine generosity",
in the service of the Church, the family, and the
brethren, "with no distinction between confessions
and nationalities", in accordance with the
necessities of the time and the "requirements
of the state of the country":
His charisma is:
a- In the pedagogical and educational service: -
especially among the poor.
b- In humanitarian and social services of all types,
rearing orphans, taking care of the sick, looking
after aged people and pastoral care.
c- In pastoral service and Christian education through
spreading the Word of Salvation, implementing catechesis,
prayer, organizing missionary and pastoral services
in collaboration with the Bishops and the parish
priests.
d- Through the service of the pastoral theology
of the family for its edification and healing rifts,
in order that the family remains the basic unit
of every healthy social and ecclesial life.
Patriarch Elias Hwayek along with Mother Rosalie
Nasr and Sister Stéphanie Kardouche founded
the Congregation of the Maronite Sisters of the
Holy Family on the 15th of August 1895 "for
the glory of God and the salvation of souls",
"for the welfare of the Church and of the country".
The motivating intuition
The idea of founding an autonomous and apostolic
religious congregation of Sisters was always present
in the Patriarch's mind since the beginning of his
consecrated life.
During his tours in the villages and towns, as a
pastor, a priest and a bishop, he felt and understood
the needs of the family, the society and the country
for such a Congregation.
The necessity of founding a Religious Institute
constituted an important solution for the development
and construction of a society that was worn down
by the plague of corruption and ignorance.
The Patriarch was deeply convinced that the future
relied on young women's education. For him, the
young woman, the mother to be, was the heart of
the family as the family, was the rock of society.
So wanting to give the Lebanese youth an education
based on human, civic and evangelical values, he
insisted the mission of the new Congregation be
directed towards the children, the young and the
sick people, who were considered his main concern.
A providential meeting
After waiting and searching for many years, his
began to see the light in 1893 when he met, providentially,
at the house of his friend Cheikh Assaf El Bitar,
Mother Rosalie Nasr, a Lebanese Sister of the Rosary,
who came to Kfifane to establish a mission with
Sister Stéphanie Kardouche. Mother Rosalie,
a native of Kleiat - Kessrouan, was a nun for 24
years with the French Sisters of Nazareth and for
11 years with the Rosary Sisters.
Patriarch Hoyek made his project known to her, which
she accepted, provided that the Church would approve
and validate her transfer. After accomplishing the
canonical procedures with the Latin Patriarch of
Jerusalem, in charge of the Rosary Sisters’ Congregation,
Patriarch Hwayek sent for Mother Rosalie and addressed
her with these words: “Providence is calling. It
is time to answer God’s will and to initiate the
work confided to us by releasing it from potentiality
to reality. Let us take our strength from the Almighty
and rely on Him, He who had no place to rest. Let
us dare to start it without respite ". Mother
Rosalie then answered: "We are to be available;
the divine Providence shall dispose and the Almighty
shall accomplish. Where could we settle? Is there
a place to settle down immediately?"
The first Home, the Foundation Mass
As the necessary funds were unavailable, Patriarch
Hoyek put at the disposal of the small community
a convent in the plain of Jbeil that a benefactress
of Amchit named Ursula Lahoud had given to the Church
as an entailed estate (wakf). It was the first “home”
and Mother Rosalie received its keys on the 12th
of August 1895. On the 15th of August 1895, the
first foundation Mass was held. Since that date,
the Assumption has become the Congregation’s Patron
Feast.
“The Holy Family personifies its name”
The founder gave the young Congregation the name
of “Holy Family”, totally convinced that the holiness
of the name would encourage sisters to follow the
example of the Holy Family of Nazareth and to spread
its virtues. Also, he was sure that it would be
the ideal example to follow for all of the Lebanese
families in order to form a solid and healthy society.
According to him, “these virtues would edify families,
save them and preserve society from any corruption.”
"Towards a new destination". No sooner
had the first community stepped forward than it
found itself obliged to move to the abandoned school
of Boutros Chéhadé at the south of
Jbeil, which is situated
not far from the Church of Our Lady of Martine.
The building turned out to be uninhabitable, so
Mother Rosalie found herself forced to look for
another "home".
With the approval of the founder, she bought four
cellars that needed restoration at Ibrine. She moved
there at the end of September 1896, one month after
the foundation date. In 1898, the Congregation had
eight nuns, four novices and three postulants, a
school at Amchit and another one at Ibrine, the
Mother House.
The big ordeal
After barely four years of hard work of founding
the Congregation, a significant blow occurred, with
the martyrdom of the founder. It happened on the
night of the 22nd to 23rd of August 1899 when a
young girl, expelled because of her inability to
cope with the religious life, stabbed her to death.
On a hot night of full moon, and knowing the entrances
of the small convent, she made her way towards the
Mother's room on the ground floor, entered through
an open window, approached her bed and stabbed her
in the heart. Half an hour later, Mother Rosalie
passed away.
There were many who thought that her death would
be a fatal blow to the young congregation, but divine
providence was looking mercifully over it. The Founder's
martyrdom did nothing but strengthen it through
greater riches bestowed upon the mission.
On the 30th of August 1899, one week after Mother
Rosalie's death, the Founder named as Mother General,
Sister Stéphanie Kardouche, her friend and
companion. About thirty years of age, Stéphanie,
whose motto was "my God and my Congregation",
started working, absolutely certain that neither
the farmer nor the waterier could make the young
plant grow but that God alone gives life.
Building the Mother House
The basic objective of Mother Stéphanie was
to build the motherhouse. The decision was taken
at once, with the new construction to be built over
the blood of the Founding Martyr.
Mother Stéphanie, herself, directed the labor
force and the works. The first stone of the chapel
was laid in 1907. The Founder consecrated it in
1913 and the work was completed by 1917. The convent
doors were wide open to accept young girls, according
to the main aim, for which the Congregation had
been founded. Mother Stéphanie built a school
as well as a boarding home.
Fortified by the blood of the Founding Martyr, the
unshakeable faith and iron will of its co-founder,
the nascent Congregation developed and expanded
with astonishing rapidity, to become a very huge
tree where birds have come to nest, from having
been a mustard seed, as the Founder witnessed himself.
Since the Foundation...
Moved by its faith and hope in Providence, the Congregation
did not stop the foundational task. At each period,
it drew its strength of pursuing its course, thus
remembering the words of its Founder who tirelessly
repeated to it with Paul saying: "He who began
in you the good work, will fulfill it to the day
of Jesus-Christ" (Ph 1). One quarter of a century
later, the young Holy Family Congregation counted
seventeen institutions and over one hundred sisters.
Seventy years later, its educational and hospital
institutions amounted to seventy along with eight
others in Syria.
In the seventies- nineties, civil war, which raked
the country and its infrastructures, also hit the
Congregation, its persons and institutions. After
the war, the Congregation recovered quickly by rehabilitating
its diverse sectors so as to face the new challenges
of the third millennium.
In 1995, the Congregation celebrated its first centenary,
remembering its Founder's words: "We are grateful
to the Divine Providence, which watches over the
work since its foundation to our days, helping it
to develop, to strengthen, to fulfill good works
and to succeed spiritually well and temporarily".
In the beginning of the third millennium, the Congregation
started a second foundation by discovering again
its own spirituality by voting in its new constitutions,
and by modernizing its institutions so as to best
meet, the mission's needs.
Today, the Congregation pursues its growth seeking
to further highlight the face of its institutions,
which are currently sixty-two in Lebanon, two in Syria
and four in Australia. With its Founder, the Congregation
gives thanks to the Lord for all the gifts it was
granted to fulfill for the Kingdom through its presence
in the world.
- Congregation
of the Maronite sisters of the Holy Family:
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- Congregation
of the Maronite sisters of the Holy Family:
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of the Maronite sisters of the Holy Family:
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