AYUTTHAYA (UCAN): Religious sisters from the Lovers of the Holy Cross [LHC], Vietnam’s first female religious congregation, gathered at St.Joseph’s Church, in Atutthaya, Thailand, on September 3 to mark 350 years since their founding by French Bishop Pierre Lambert de la Motte of the Paris Foreign Missions Society [MEP] in 1672.
Bishop de la Motte established the congregation in Kiên Lao, in northern Vietnam in 1672, following a synod in Aytthahaya in 1664. The Dicastery for Evangelisation [then known as the Congregation for the Propagation of Faith] recognised the congregation on 28 August 1678.
Religious sisters gathered from all over Thailand and other Asian countries in the ancient city north of Bangkok, to contemplate their origins, charisms, and growth, calling and heritage. The jubilee gathering was themed, Looking at the past with gratitude, live today with enthusiasm, going into the future with hope, and walking together in faith and love.
Sister Siriporn Jankarn, a Thai member of the congregation, said the meeting was an opportunity “to meditate on their charism, their origins, and the treasure given to them by the founding father.”
What touches me the most is to see that all my sisters come together. I have not seen some of them for decades
Sister Waraporn Asasuk
Sister Jankarn felt that the commemorative event allowed her to “draw on the heritage that Bishop de la Motte left.”
Some of the others felt that the meeting was an opportunity to meet old colleagues and reflect on the spirit of sisterhood. “What touches me the most is to see that all my sisters come together. I have not seen some of them for decades,” said Sister Waraporn Asasuk, also from Thailand.
She added that she could feel the sisterhood among the members despite their “different apostolates or origins.”
Sister Jankarn said she felt elated that a year’s planning for the event had borne fruit and that she was “very proud to be able to welcome and to see my fellow sisters meet.”
Other congregations that draw their origin and inspiration from the Lovers of the Holy Cross also saw the event as a reminder of their rich heritage.
“We are historically from the Lovers of the Holy Cross, who once settled in Samsen [a community of Vietnamese Christians in Bangkok],” explained Sister Somjit Sap-abpramai, a member of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Bangkok. The congregation is dedicated to teaching and social works, among other missions.
The Lovers of the Holy Cross survived various instances of religious persecution against Christians from the rulers of Vietnam beginning in the mid-19th century. Some 2,000 religious sisters were dispersed, around 200 were killed, and 30 convents were destroyed, according to encyclopedia.com.
To avoid persecution many religious started stopped wearing habits and worked in rice fields like laypeople.
The congregation reintegrated in 1867 after the end of the persecution by establishing new convents and attracting new vocations. The sisters returned to their ministries and began wearing their habits again.
However, the congregation faced another existential crisis in the 1950s due to rivalry between North and South Vietnam, and the consequent Vietnam War. Many fled Vietnam to escape the communist purge and some died from hunger and sickness.
The religious sisters regrouped and reorganised in the 1980s when the persecution ended.
Currently, communities of the Lovers of the Holy Cross can be found in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, Italy, and the United States.
Bishop Lambert died on 15 January 1679, in Ayutthaya, at the age of 54.
