Report of the Beginning of the Mission in Ceylon of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary

 This report prepared by Kaat Leeman, Coördinator Erfgoedhuis | Zusters van Liefde J.M. years ago & kindly made available to the Compiler of the blog on Sacred Heart Convent. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE MISSION OF

THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF JESUS AND MARY IN CEYLON, 1896.

By Kaat Leeman 

 European Domination and the Christianization of Ceylon, 1501-1796.

In order to tell the history of the mission of the SCJM in Sri Lanka, we should start with the return of the Jesuits to the Island in 1895. Indeed, we speak rather of a "return" of the Jesuits to Ceylon, since they had played an important role in the evangelizing of the Island during the Portuguese period. The Portuguese landed in Cey­lon in 1505, search­ing for the rich eas­tern mar­kets. They mostly engaged in the trade of precious stones and spices. Cath­olic missionaries fol­lowed in their wake. The first Franciscan Friars landed in Ceylon in 1543; they encoun­ter­ed little opposition but also little collabor­ation in converting the population. However the Portuguese influ­ence increased on the Island and some parts of Ceylon became direct crown land. Because of this, the number of Portuguese who settled in these regions increased and this resulted in a wider spread of Christianity.

 Many Sinhalese and Tamil people embraced Christianity, and churches and parishes sprang up everywhere. As the number of Franciscan Friars was insufficient, they appealed to the Society of Jesus in 1602. Their apostolate was mainly in the field of education. One of their first tasks was the founda­tion of a college for higher studies in Colombo.

But from the beginning of the 17th century there had been con­flicts between the Dutch and the Portuguese rulers. Just like Portugal, Holland wanted to establish an overseas trade market. These conflicting interests ended up in a battle for years on end between the two European nations. The Dutch won the battle and in 1658 they occupied Ceylon over a period of almost 150 years.

 This turned into a dark period for the local Catholic Church. The Dutch who were Protes­tants promul­gated a decree against Catholic­ism. The churches and schools were confis­cated and the priests expelled from the island. This was the situation until in 1687 a Goanese Orator­ian, Father Joseph Vaz, secretly came to the island disguised as a beggar. Other Orato­rians fol­lowed soon after. Thanks to them, the Catholic Church could survive in Ceylon. Initially, they were per­se­cuted, imprisoned, or expelled from the country, but tolerance developed towards the end of the Dutch rule. Officially and juridical, however, the island was forbidden to priests and Catholicism remained a proscribed religion.

 Missionary activity during the British period, until the arrival of the Jesuits, 1796-1895.

In 1795 - 1796, a British force conquered Ceylon, and a Regulation of Govern­ment was implemented in 1806 that granted Roman Catholics freedom of religion and allowed missionaries to enter the country again unhindered. When the Oratorians of Goa could no longer keep up with the increasing amount of work, an appeal was made for other missionaries. The first to react were the Silvestrines, who were to collaborate with the Oratorians in the Apostolic Vicariate of Colombo. The French Oblates who arrived two years later, set out to work in the Apostolic Vicariate of Jaffna. In 1883 the Silvestrines with­drew and the Oblates extended their apostolate to the entire Archdiocese of Colombo.

 The "return" of the Jesuits to Ceylon in 1895 and Mgr. Van Reeth's appoint­ment.

The last Oblate who was Archbishop of Colombo died in 1892. On this occ­asion Rome considered forming two new dio­ceses united in one mission area and calling upon another relig­ious order to staff them.

Mgr. Zaleski, Apostolic Delegate for the East Indies, was a fervent pro­moter of a double ideal: the forma­tion of a native secular clergy and the direct apostolate among the non-Chris­tians. He considered that the methods practised by the Jesuits were the answer to his wishes. Rome strongly urged the General of the Order not to reject this mission. Despite the great demand for new Jesuits for the exi­sting missions, the General Govern­ment of the Jesuits took on this new task, and asked the Belgian Jesuit Province to take it over. Mgr. Zale­ski was very pleased that the new Diocese of Galle and temporar­ily the Diocese of Trincomalee was to be entrusted to the Belgian Jesuits. The mission areas in India under the charge of the Belgians were flourishing; the missionaries themselves were energetic, zealous, and well trained; moreover they generally had outstanding organiz­ational talents (contrary to the French Oblates he added in a letter).

The negotiations in Ceylon concerning the establishment of the new dioceses dragged on and the appointment of the Bishop of Galle took a long time. Only in July 1894 the General of the Jesuits pres­ented three candidates. After careful consider­ation the Propa­ganda in Rome decided to appoint Joseph Van Reeth at the end of 1894. On 19th March 1895 he was conse­crated Bishop of Galle, and appointed as temporary admin­is­trator of the diocese of Trincomalee until a bishop could be appointed from the French Jesuit Province of Cham­pagne for this diocese. The motto he chose for his coat of arms was a wordplay on his name: In nomine Jesu laxabo rete (I shall throw out my nets in the name of Jesus).

 Short Biographical Note on Joseph Van Reeth.

Peter Joseph Van Reeth was born in Antwerp on the 6th of August 1843. His father, Peter John, was a shopkeeper and married to Mary-Joan Ceulemans. Out of this wedlock three children were born. Joseph was the eldest of the family. His mother died when he was seven years old, and three years later, in 1853, his father married again. In the same year a girl was born: Clementia, who entered in 1875 with the Sisters of Charity and received the name of Sister Bernadette. She was to be elected as Superior General of the Congregation at the age of 67 and held this position from 1920 till 1932.

At the end of his secondary studies Joseph immediately entered with the Jesuits. After a few preparatory years he became a lecturer at the college of Drongen and Mons. In 1870 he went to Louvain to follow a course in dogmatic theology and after his tertianship in Drongen he was appointed socius (assistant) of Joseph Janssens, the Belgian Provincial of the Jesuits [1]. He held this posi­tion until 1882 when he was appointed Provin­cial Superior himself. In this capacity he visited the mission of Calcutta. In 1888 he was appointed rector and novice master in Drongen. When Rome gave the Belgian Province the task to take on the new mission of Galle, they immediately thought of Joseph Van Reeth. His experi­ence and capacities made him the right man for the job. At the age of 52 he started the last phase of his career. He was to govern the diocese of Galle for 28 years, until his death on the 11th of September 1923. He was 80 years old by then and having had trouble with his health for a long time, he did not recover from bronchi­tis. As remembrance they build a home for the elderly named after him: "The Van Reeth Memorial". To realize this pro­ject they also asked for financial support in Belgium. It turned out to be the first nursing home in Ceylon served by the Sisters.

 The person of Joseph Van Reeth has put a clear mark on the his­tory of the diocese of Galle. His vision and energy were an inspi­ration for many who came after him. He also marked deeply the history of the SCJM, because he was the person who con­vinced the Congrega­tion to accept the mission in Ceylon.

 The preparations made by Mgr. Van Reeth.

Awaiting his consecration as bishop, J. Van Reeth started the preparations for his departure. He had to find the right people to organize with him the work in the new diocese. At Mgr. Zaleski's suggestion he also wanted to collect some funds because the financial situation was far from rosy. All these things caused some delay. Therefore they opted, in the end, to post­pone their departure until Octo­ber because otherwise they would arrive in Galle during the hot months of April and May. This provided him with a relief of a few extra months. He used those months to go to Rome and to discuss the prob­lems that arose in his new diocese. Mgr. Zaleski advised him to start with 12 missionaries: two for the bishop's residence, five for the diocese of Galle (two in Galle itself, one in Matara, one in Kegalle and one in Ratnapura), and five for Trincoma­lee. Reality would be different. Seven missionaries were appointed: three Belgian fathers (one of them only at the urgent request of the future bishop), one brother, and three French fathers. J. Van Reeth stayed in England for a few months to acquire a better knowl­edge of the English language. Even before his departure for Great Britain, he secured the help of a woman's Congregation who would take on the education and the care of the orphan girls in Galle.

 We think that his choice of the Congrega­tion of the SCJM is based on several reasons. On the one hand the acceptance of such a task was a real possibility, because:

- The Congregation founded a house in September 1888 in Tottington in England that made the formation of English speak­ing sisters possible.

- A missionary novitiate was estab­lished in Kwatrecht in October 1888 in view of the foundations in Kongo.

- Since January 1892 the SCJM were active as missionary Congregation in Kongo.

 On the other hand both Mgr. Van Reeth and Joseph Janssens, the Bel­gian Provin­cial Superior of the Jesuits, were acquainted with the Congregation. Both had a sister with the SCJM, and moreover John Janssens, the Superior General of the Congrega­tion who died in 1889 was the brother of the Belgian Provin­cial. But it was J. Van Reeth who started the negoti­ations. On the 12th of April 1895 he wrote a letter to his Provincial in which he reveals his plans to go to Ghent. He was to visit his sister who was superior of the St. Joseph's Hospice for insane women. He continues: "... I shall see Mother General and their Director and I shall learn from them what help I can count on if I need some relig­ious. From what I hear from my sister, I think they might be prepared to accept. But I would not like to come to a con­clusion now ..." This proves that Joseph had already sounded his sister, Sister Bernardette, about this. Probably she must have spoken about this with her Superiors General who had not reacted in a negative way. In the archives we have no further indication con­cerning these negotiations between J. Van Reeth and the SCJM. From later correspon­dence we know that the Congre­gation accepted and that J. Van Reeth asked for four or five sisters. Prob­ably it was agreed that the departure of the sis­ters would be postponed till the next year. On the one hand this would allow Mgr. Van Reeth to get every­thing ready on the spot in Galle. Indeed, a con­vent for the sisters had to be pre­pared as well as a place for the school, and per­haps an orphanage. On the other hand, the Con­gregation had to find the best suited mis­sion­aries and allow them a suitable time for preparation.

Mgr. Joseph Van Reeth's arrival in Ceylon, 1895.

On the 16th of October 1895 Mgr. Van Reeth came ashore in Colombo with three Belgian Jesuits, three French Jesuits, and a lay brother. The arrival took place without much ceremony. Mgr. Zaleski delegated his secretary to welcome him, and Archbishop Mélizan sent one of his priests with a letter of welcome. After a short stay in Kandy, at Mgr. Zaleski's residence, they left for Nuwara Elija. There the five Bishops of the island met on the 29th of October to transfer the jurisdiction upon the new dioceses of Galle and Trincomalee with Mgr. Zaleski acting as chairman. By a Decree of the 30th of October the Island of Ceylon was divided in five dioceses: the Archdiocese of Colombo, and the dioceses of Jaffna, Kandy, Galle and Trincomalee.

Mgr. Van Reeth took officially pos­session of his diocese on the 10th of November. Two weeks later, the six priests arrived at their destinations. Mgr. Van Reeth kept Brother Verbrugge [2] and Father Cooreman [3] with him in Galle, and the latter was appointed Vicar General. Father Wallyn[4] went to Ratnapura, Father Neut[5] to Kegalle, and the French Fathers left for the new diocese of Trincomalee.

 The Oblates were asked to leave a few native priests on the spot, because the new Belgian mission­aries could not speak the local lan­guages (Tamil and Sinhala). Never­theless, the Ge­neral Adminis­tration of the Oblates considered this impossible, due to lack of man­power. The problem was somehow solved by Ceylon­ese and Indian seminarians who knew Sinhala and/or Tamil.

 Very quickly it became clear to J. Van Reeth which difficulties were awaiting him : the small number of priests; the great distances between the various missions; the different languages spoken, which meant that the missionaries could not be transferred at will; the small revenues of the diocese; and the administrative difficulties arising from the fact that these missions were spread throughout a number of different provinces. The bishop insisted with his Superior General in Rome that a bishop for the diocese of Trincomalee would be appointed as soon as possible. But the matter kept dragging on until the summer of 1898 and Mgr. Lavigne took officially possession of his diocese only on the 22nd of December.

 The difficult start in the diocese of Galle.

Meanwhile, they started with the expansion of the apostolate in both dio­ceses. The diocese of Galle had to manage with only three missionaries, one for Galle, one for Ratnapura, and one for Kegalle. The situation in Galle proved most favourable. Father Neut's description of the church in Galle shows us that the church was well preserved : "You would be surprised to see how beautiful the interior of the church is: a good floor paved with yellow and blue porce­lain tiles, decorative pointed arches to be used as windows, without glass or stained glass, but provided with solid wooden shutters, and on both sides of the church, a veran­dah. The people are proud of their church; everywhere you hear people say that the church of Galle is one of the most beautiful of the island, and I would well believe it". Before his departure Mgr. Van Reeth man­aged to obtain that some ladies in Belgium (Brussels and Antwerp) started to work for the mission of Ceylon. The first target of those missionary circles was the embellishment of the Cathe­dral of Galle. They had to build a new house that could serve both as Mgr. Van Reeth's residence and as parish house. As a help for the newcomers the Vicar General of Kandy, a Benedic­tine monk of Ceylonese descent, remained in Galle. A seminarian in his second year of philosophy, who knew English and Sinhalese well, stayed on as well.

 In Ratnapura where no priest had resided since more than a year, the situation was worse. Repair work had to be done both on the church and the presbytery. Father Peter Wallyn writes shortly after his arrival: "The house is very poor here; the church is completely naked: everything is lacking; I haven't even found an altarstone". The apostolate itself was compli­cated by the fact that the Oblates had left no status animar­um. So the newly arrived missionary did not even know where the Catholics lived, which he estimated at about 500 in his parish. Neither was there a catholic school in the dis­trict although the priest considered this to be essential for the develop­ment of the Cath­olic commun­ity in the region. On the other hand the Protestant mission was very well developed with two vicars, schools, solid buildings and many catechists. Father Wallyn only received the help of a seminarian, who taught him Sinha­lese and in turn received some Latin classes.

 Father Theo­dule Neut, who was appointed for Keg­alle, could count upon the support of a Be­nedictine monk from the neigh­bourhood and had also a seminarian at the mission. He too found an empty church and a poor­ly furnished house. An advan­tage was nevertheless that Father Neut was less isolated than his colleague in Rat­napura, because of the favour­able location compared to Kandy and Colombo.

 The Jesuits felt obliged to push the direct apostolate among the non-Christians into the background, although this went against Mgr. Zaleski's expectations. They immediately decided to give a great deal of attention to education. Mgr. Van Reeth was convinced that a college was indispensable in view of the recruitment of catechists and active catholic laypeople. A year after their arrival they had already established five new schools alongside the existing ones, and they were looking for land for a future college. This last idea was postponed because of lack of money and the college opened its doors only in 1912.

The education of girls was also important to the priests. But they needed a woman's Congregation to take on this task.

The five foundresses of the mission of the SCJM in Ceylon.

The appointment of missionaries for Cey­lon took some time. They searched for an experi­enced superior in good health. The choice fell on the 51 year old superior of Beerlegem, Mother Amelia - Louise Jans­sens [6]. She was the scion of the Jan­s­sens' family from Sint-Niklaas who has been so import­ant for the history of the Congregation. Her uncle, Benedict De Decker, was Peter Joseph Triest's coad­jutor and became the second Superior Gen­eral of the Congrega­tion. Her brother, John Janssens, succeeded B. De Decker as head of the Congrega­tion. One of her elder sisters, Caroline, joined the SCJM under the name of Sr. Pacifica. She was to replace M. Amelia as superior of Beerle­gem after her departure for the missions. Another brother, Joseph, the then Provincial Superior of the Jesuits, probably applauded her appointment as superior of Galle. Anyway, Mgr. Van Reeth was very pleased because he writes to him from Galle on the 7th of June : "I hear with pleasure that they have appointed your youngest sister as first superior. I had asked for a superior having had already some expe­rience, because at first there will be some problems to solve ..." On the 26th of April 1896 M. Amelia wrote a letter to her family in which she announces that the Superiors General have asked her to leave for Ceylon and to found the house of Galle. First she had to stay in Totting­ton (England) for some time to learn Eng­lish.

One of her co-foundresses, Sr. Alberta - Julienne Donny [7] from Ghent, accom­panied her to Tot­tington for the same reason. Sr. Alberta, who was a bit younger (44 years old) than her superior, stayed at the convent at the Papenvest in Brus­sels at the moment of her depar­ture. There the sisters had a renewed institute for blind children and children with audi­tory disabil­ities. M. Elisa Addor, one of the found­resses of the Kongo mission, left from this community, and the contact between M. Elisa and her former commun­ity remained very lively. Out of this arose a lively interest in this community for Kongo and the missionary apostolate in general. Perhaps this induced Sr. Alberta to exchange her function as teacher of children with auditory disabilities to a life in the tropics.

The third and youngest sister (22 years old) was Sr. William - Char­lotte Brennan [8] from Dublin (Ireland). Just like so many Irish people the Brennan family probably had fled the unem­ployment in their own country and left for the North of England to work in the textile factories. In this way the young Charlotte prob­ably met the Congre­gation and decided to enter. After her pro­fession she returned to En­gland and stayed in the convent of Totting­ton. Did she receive her missionary vocation through contact with the two Belgian Sisters ? Un­fortunately the past doesn't yield up its secrets.

 The two remaining foundresses of Galle were Sr. Alexandra - Marie-Odile Cooreman [9] and Sr. Marcia - Irma Bossaert [10],­ both originat­ing from Bel­gium and both 26 years of age. They entered the missionary novitiate of the Congregation expecting to go to Kongo, since this was at that moment the only mission of the SCJM. Their missionary vocation was ful­filled, but the target became Ceylon. Con­trary to the others, these two sisters did not stay in England. Could they already speak the language or did the Superiors General think it was not necess­ary that all missionaries for Ceylon spoke English at the moment of their depar­ture ? After her pro­fession and awaiting her depar­ture, Sr. Alexandra stayed in Ronse where the Congregation served a civil hospi­tal. This allows us to suppose that she was more or less grounded in nursing, which would probably be useful in Galle. Sr. Marcia stayed after her profession in the Mother House in Ghent, and we do not know what her function was.

 Preparations and departure of the first sisters for Ceylon, the 4th of Novem­ber 1896.

Following Mgr. Van Reeth's advice they postponed the departure until Novem­ber, because this is the best season. The warm months are just finished and the adaptation to the tropical climate comes more smoothly. Meanwhile the Bishop had not sat idly and already in June 1896 he announced that a provi­sional house for the sisters was avail­able. The building contained one large room that could be used as classroom for about 40 pupils, five big and three small rooms, a verandah with a small garden attached to it, a court yard, a kitchen and of course the baths and the sanitary facilities. It was to be decided with the sisters what exten­sions were needed, and would depend on the develop­ment of the work and the size of the com­munity. The Congrega­tion itself had to raise the funds for the mission, but the bishop paid for their first housing. He would also sup­port whatever else they needed, the Jesuits even paid the travelling expenses of the sisters.

 On the 2nd of October 1896 Mgr. Van Reeth wrote a letter from Galle to M. Amelia to welcome the five sisters. He let them know that their arrival was impatiently awaited by the Fathers and the many families from Galle who wanted to entrust their daughters to the sisters. He warns them further: "You must expect a modest start. You will not find here anything that can be compared to the boarding school of Beirlegem, neither the buildings, nor the number or quality of your pupils. With time and much patience, I hope we will arrive at establishing works that are perhaps less brilliant than in Belgium, but not less useful for the salvation of many souls."

 At the beginning of October of 1896 M. Amelia and Sr. Alberta returned to Belgium and stayed for some time at the Mother House in Ghent. Very likely the three other mission­aries for Ceylon stayed in Ghent too. They were to make the last preparations and collected some things for the school, such as books, music papers, and dictionaries. Also M. Amelia asked her sister, M. Pacifica Janssens, superior in Beerlegem, for "a small provision of lovely samples of furni­ture paper and also different colours of this new shining paper for our small sceneries of the church and other places in Galle." Obviously she did not expect to find much material in Ceylon. They started to pack the cases because they had to be send on around the 25th of October.

 The date of the departure was fixed on the 4th of November. The week before, on the 27th of October, there was a farewell ceremo­ny in the chapel of Terhagen. Mgr. Stillemans, the Bishop of Ghent, preceded the ceremony. The chapel was crowded with sisters, family, friends, and relations of the five mission­aries. Attending also was RF Joseph Janssens, Provin­cial Superior of the Jesuits and M. Amelia's brother. Holy Mass was celebrated by the Superior General of the Congrega­tion, Canon Vital Roelandts, assisted by Father Petrus D'Herde [11] and Father August Standaert [12]. These Jesuits were to leave for Ceylon with the sisters. Following Holy Mass, the actual farewell ceremo­ny began with a speech by the Bishop. The missionaries each received a mission­ary cross and each of the sisters present personally wished them farewell. A good feast diner followed the ceremony.

 The day before their departure there was a small farewell feast. M. Amelia was glad to tell her sister in Beerle­gem that a postulant from Galle was accepted in the Mother House. Appar­ently a Sinhalese girl was then present in Terhagen. She could pass on much useful information to the future mis­sion­aries about the life and the gen­eral situation in Ceylon. Unfortu­nately there is no other source confirming this fact, so we do not know who she was and how she came to be in Ghent.

 On the 4th of November the group left for Brussels, and the next day they left for Paris. Two of M. Amelia's brothers accom­panied them till Paris. At the station they met the Jesuit Fathers Standaert and D'Herde. Together they took the "express train" to Marseille, where they arrived after 13½ hours. Awaiting their departure the sisters could lodge with the Franciscan Sisters. The Ville de Ciotat would raise anchor on Sunday the 8th of November and the first stop was Port Saïd. On the boat were another 10 women religious and 22 priests, all of them miss­ionaries. The sisters were glad because this meant that they could receive Holy Com­munion every day and could attend two or three Masses every day. Because the Ville de Ciotat was the best and the biggest ship of the com­pany (about 400 passen­gers and about 300 person­nel) and sailed directly to Colombo, the jour­ney went prosperously. On the 23rd of November, after only 16 days, the ship cast anchor at Colombo.

 Arrival in Galle, on the 24th of Novem­ber 1896.

Father Cooreman was waiting for the new missionaries in Colombo. With a small boat he col­lected them from the ship and brought them ashore. The Fathers were lodged with the Oblates and the sisters with the Good Shep­herd Sisters. All sisters in Colombo of this Congregation with their Mother House in Anger in France had the English nationality. Besides their orphanage and their day school, they also visited the old people's home of the Sisters of the Poor and the hospital of the Franciscan Sis­ters. Among them were sev­eral Flemish sisters, which made both groups very happy. Everywhere they received valu­able advice for their future work. On Tue­sday the 24th of No­vember the mission­aries took the train to Galle. This journey of four hours was for the sisters the first introduction to the island, its nature, flora and fauna.

 In Galle Mgr. Van Reeth and a whole multitude of people were waiting for the new missionaries. A triumphant arch was set up at the foot of Mount Cal­vary, the hill where the cathedral, the bishop's residence, the schools, and the convent are situated. Behind it, all school children were wav­ing a little flag in their hand. The mouppou and afterwards also his little daugh­ter pro­nounced a speech in Eng­lish. This urged M. Amelia to answer in the same lan­guage for the first time in public. Fortunately Father Cooreman had warned her beforehand and she had prepared her speech on the train with the help of the Irish Sr. William. In a pro­cession accompanied by music, they made their way to the cathedral, where a ceremo­ny was held. Under musical accom­paniment, the crowd led the sisters to the small convent where they were shown around by the bishop.

 The following day the real convent life started for the sisters. Before saying the prayers prescribed by the Holy Rule, they attached their five mis­sion­ary crosses on the wall, together with [13]the pictures of Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Vincent and Saint Bernard. Work was waiting for them. Several families enrolled their daughter in the school, they asked for rosaries, one girl even asked to be admitted in the boarding school. The sisters did not hesitate and started working immediately. Instead of opening their school on the first of January as foreseen, they already started on the Monday following their arrival.

 This was the start of the presence of the SCJM in Ceylon. A presence that was to develop in the next century into a lively and flourishing Province of the Congre­gation.

 

 

 

 

 

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[1].              Joseph Janssens, °Sint-Niklaas, 1826 - † Drongen, 1900. 1876-1880: Provincial Superior of the Belgian Jesuits for the first time. 1894-1898: Provincial Superior of the Belgian Jesuits for the second time.

 

[2].              Polydoor Verbrugge, ° Kortrijk, 1870 - † Trincomalee, 1949.

 

[3].              Jozef Cooreman, °Ghent, 1861 - † Calcutta, 1918. He had just finished his tertianship at the time of his departure. He worked in Galle as vicar general of the Galle diocese, as parish priest, headmaster, and regional superior. He died in India shortly after his departure from Galle.

 

Petrus Wallyn, °Maldegem, 1860 - † Ratnapura, 1922. At the moment of his departure he was the assistant of the novice master in Arlon. During his 27 years in Ceylon he worked on the missions of Ratnapura and Balangoda.

 

[4] Theodule Neut, °Bruges, 1858 - † Napels, 1913. He worked at the mission in Kegalle from 1895 till 1907. He was regular superior and head of the college from 1907 till his departure for Belgium in 1913.

 

[5] Petrus Wallyn, °Maldegem, 1860 - † Ratnapura, 1922. At the moment of his departure he was the assistant of the novice master in Arlon. During his 27 years in Ceylon he worked on the missions of Ratnapura and Balangoda.

 

[6].              M. Amelia - Louise Janssens, °Sint-Niklaas, 09/01/1845 - † Galle, 25/12/­1904.

27/12/1871: entry - 24/03/1873: profession.

23/07/1879: superior in Beerlegem.

04/11/1896: departure for Ceylon.

[7].              Sr. Alberta - Juliana Donny.

°Ghent, 28/01/1862 - † Ghent, Terhagen, 14/01/1944.

23/05/1889: entry - 10/12/1890: profession.

20/01/1891: help in cloakroom and afterwards teacher with the deaf-mute in Brussels (Rempart).

04/11/1896: departure for Ceylon.

21/01/1901: superior in Dalhousie (India).

21/01/1906: final return to Belgium.

[8].              Sr. William - Charlotte Brennan.

°Dublin, 18/09/1874 - † Galle, 03/07/1953.

10/04/1893: entry - 18/08/1894: profession.

04/11/1896: departure for Galle.

1896 - 1944: headmistress of the school in Galle.

[9].              Sr. Alexandra - Marie-Odile Cooreman.

°Moorsel, 25/11/1870 - † Kegalle, 13/08/1950.

04/09/1893: entry - 11/12/1894: profession.

04/11/1896: departure for Galle.

[10].            Sr. Marcia - Irma Bossaert.

°Vlamertingen, 29/10/1870 - † Eeklo, 13/12/1944.

09/04/1894: entry - 28/08/1895: profession.

04/11/1896: departure for Ceylon.

22/10/1927: final return to Belgium.

[11].            Petrus D'Herde, °Erpe, 1854 - † Turnhout, 1917. At the time of his departure he was teaching English at the Saint Servatius College in Liège. He worked for a few years at the Saint Aloysius College in Galle and became later travelling priest for the region of Ratnapura, Kegal­le, and Yatiyantota. He returned to Belgium in 1913 on medical advice.

[12].August Standaert, °Antwerp, 1859 - † Kegalle, 1930. At first he worked at the mission of Matara until he was appointed regular superior in Galle. He left Galle in 1907, and worked successively on the missions of Hiniduma, Ganegama, and Kegalle.