90 Years of Presence of the Congregation in Japan: The Foundresses

In the late 1920s, the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame were asked to collaborate on missions. At that time, the Catholic missionary world was flourishing. In fact, Pope Pius XI placed missionary work above other Catholic works.

The sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame were asked to go on mission to Kagoshima in the south of Japan, to Seoul in Korea, to the Holy land as well as to the Canadian Far North. Eventually, the decision was made to establish a mission in Japan.

In 1932, the General Council of the Congregation made the announcement to the sisters. There was great enthusiasm. Sister Saint-Arcadius (Rose Olivier), already 68 years old at that time, offered to open this new mission. She was accompanied by Sister Sainte-Marie-Damase (Laura Gauthier-Landreville), 47 years old, nurse, Sister Sainte-Jeanne-d'Aza (Antoinette Castonguay), 41 years old, French teacher, Sister Sainte Marguerite de-I'Enfant-Jésus (Rose Cauchon), 30 years old, piano teacher, and Sister Sainte-Marie-Agnès-de-la-Charité (Agnès Ponton), 40 years old, cook.

At the time, going on mission to a distant land meant leaving for many years and having few means to communicate with the community and loved ones in Canada. The mother superior of the Congregation gave the missionary sisters one week to visit their respective families. They also made a pilgrimage to St. Joseph's Oratory and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel.

On Sunday, October 2, 1932, they left the Mother House in Montreal, Quebec. It was a special occasion. After a departure Mass, the Mother House Community, candidates, novice sisters and sisters who had pronounced their temporary vows were gathered in the vast entrance and on the steps; the students of the Normal School formed a hedge up to Sherbrooke Street. Avis Maris Stella was sung as the missionary sisters left for the train station, accompanied by their parents and sister superiors.

The trip to Japan lasted 18 days. First, the train ride from Montreal to Vancouver, from October 2 in the evening to October 6 in the morning, including a 45-minute stop in Winnipeg. Then, a two-day stop in Vancouver with the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. From October 8 to 19, the sisters crossed the Pacific on the Empress of Asia. They were welcomed in Tokyo by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, with whom they spent their first night. Finally, on October 20, they took the train to their destination, the city of Fukushima, which had around 40,000 residents at the time, including only one foreign family.

As a temporary convent for their "Our Lady of the Rising Sun" mission, the sisters rented a Protestant pastor's old house. The building was a combination of European and Japanese style. The sisters settled in the European section, furnished very modestly. When they arrived, they found rice straw mattresses on iron beds in the rooms. In the parlour that was transformed into a chapel, the altar and kneelers were made with wood from dismantled crates. The wood was natural and had not been planed. A Japanese dwelling was attached to the house. A family, the mother, her two daughters and two sons lived there and were responsible for taking care of the property. They were very friendly and rendered many services to the "foreign family," the mother and her four daughters, so they concluded.

In the weeks following their arrival, the missionaries first took care of settling in the house, which had been unoccupied for two years and infested with rats. The rats even climbed on the kneelers while the sisters gathered and even bit Sister Sainte-Marie-Agnès-de-la-Charité's nose while she slept, leaving a wound that required two stitches. Fortunately, adopting a cat solved this infestation problem.

After settling, the sisters devoted themselves to studying the language, which they learnt to master thanks to the services of two young women suggested by Father Ebi, parish priest. Moreover, following Father Ebi's suggestion, on November 12, one month after their arrival, Sister Sainte-Marie-Agnès-de-la-Charité already began giving "foreign" cooking lessons. She therefore had the honour of being the first missionary of the Congregation to welcome Japanese students!

The sisters were busy since they arrived. Since they often left their convent, they were known in the city. In addition to cooking lessons, they gave singing, piano, French, English, and embroidery lessons. They also taught catechesis and offered their services to the parish. Gradually, they got to know the Japanese.

In January 1933, the sisters began the process to acquire land with the aim to build a convent. It took over a year to finalize the transactions with the many landowners. Following the plans drawn up by Sister Saint-Arcadius, superior, and Mister Svagr, architect, construction began in the summer of 1934.  The convent was inaugurated in May 1935, and the novitiate was opened there.

In anticipation of the opening of their dispensary, Sister Sainte-Marie-Damase, nurse, travelled to Sapporo, to the Our Lady of Angels Hospital of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary, to acquire the technical vocabulary of her profession.

It was only in 1936 that the authorities granted the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame the permit to open the dispensary. In March 1938, they finally obtained the permit to open a kindergarten.

When Sister Saint-Arcadius finished her six-year mandate as superior and left Japan on June 15, 1938, the Our Lady of the Rising Sun mission was already well established.