08/12/2015
TODAY MARKS THE 320th FOUNDATION ANNIVERSARY OF THE ST. PAUL DE CHARTRES, WORLDWIDE!
Brief Historical Background:
The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres is an institute of apostolic life in the Roman Catholic Church. Founded in 1696 in France by Father Louis Chauvet, parish priest of a small village, Levesville-la-Chenard, they were called to Chartres by the Bishop, Paul Godet des Marais, given the name Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, with St. Paul the Apostle as their Patron and the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary as their Model and Protectress. Dedicated to education, care of the sick and ministry among the underprivileged, the Congregation of more than 4000 sisters today serve in 32 countries in six continents, worldwide.
However, the Philippine Province is a hundred and eleven years old this year. Invited to the Philippines by American Bishop Frederick Z. Rooker for the "protection of the faith" the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres were the first among the European Congregations to come to the Philippines at the onset of the American Regime in the country. They arrived on 29 October 1904 in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. Instituto de San Pablo (St. Paul Institute) became the first of more than a hundred mission houses they would open in their first 100 years in the Philippines.
Today, under the cooperative direction of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines(CBCP), more than 500 Filipino Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres run 60 houses in the country with 44 schools (including Saint Paul Academy - Goa, Camarines Sur, 11 health care facilities, 11 pastoral centers and 9 houses under the St. Paul de Chartres Provincialate. Thirty-nine houses are in Luzon, 8 in the Visayas and 12 in Mindanao.