Yes, the year is 1904, the land is Egypt and according to the Annual Letters, “a happy band of RSCJ has found shelter here in a country whose interest lies in its biblical and historical connections, especially its place in the life of the Holy Family.” Both Malta and Egypt, where RSCJ established foundations in the same year, owe their existence to the departure from France of so many religious whose houses had had to close by virtue of the Laws of Association  legislation that forbade religious to teach and allowed the French government to seize their properties.

The actual arrival of the Society took place in November 1903, when the new vice-vicar of Malta, Reverend Mother Helen Rumbold, and Mother Oneto from Rome came to find land on which to build and a house to rent temporarily. The city of Alexandria having been ruled out, they settled on Cairo at the suggestion of the Jesuits. They chose a section of the city in the process of development, found hospitality with the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles.

The foundresses formed an international community with an Austrian superior, Mother Léonilde de Zaufal; one religious came from Algiers, one from Roscrea, one from Aix. The list of the community in the catalog for 1904-05 contains German, French and Italian names. During the first few weeks, the RSCJ shared the labors of the missionary sisters with whom they were living and were forcibly struck by the poverty, even misery, of the people among whom they worked.

“On December 24, 1903, Christmas Eve, the little newborn community gathered for the first time in the White Fathers’ Church…What a beautiful day to be born in Egypt!” [Lettres Annuelles]

From then on they spent their time preparing the temporary house, which was ready for occupancy January 12. Their first concern as always was the chapel: the motherhouse had sent vestments and altar furnishings, and a local community of Good Shepherd Sisters provided an altar. On January 16, the first Mass was celebrated by their good friend Father Duret, S.J., and they tell us – with a kind of wonder – that since then they have never been without Mass and Exposition and Benediction on the days appointed. Gifts from France continued to arrive; among them a Mater Admirabilis from Montpellier, painted by Pauline Perdrau herself.

The first pupil, sent by St. Joseph, arrived on March 1; two others followed and thus the boarding school was begun. These three were alone until mid-July when they left for vacation, promising to return on time with reinforcements. In fact when school reopened there were twelve children. Meanwhile the nuns were occupied in entertaining a series of episcopal dignitaries: the Coptic Catholic patriarch, the Latin archbishop of Alexandria, the Greek and Armenian patriarchs, so that they could say that they had made contact with all the Eastern Rites, the richness and variety of which impressed them deeply. They also began the study of Arabic, “not always crowned with success for all, it is true!” [House Journal, quoted by C Brahamsha, RSCJ: Archives Newsletter, Sept. 2003]

In their first annual letter the community scribe attempts to give her European sisters a glimpse of their surroundings in this exotic, picturesque and varied land. To the north they could see the steeple of the church at Matarieh, the place of pilgrimage where legend says the Holy Family stayed and where there is still a sycamore tree called “The Virgin’s Tree” by both Christians and Muslims. On the east there is the “misty, rose colored Arabian Desert” and to the southeast a chain of hillocks under which lie the ruins of several layers of settlements. Directly south stretches out the colorful city of Cairo with the great Mosque, numerous minarets and one lone cross atop the Jesuit church, the only consecrated church in the city. In the distance against the blue sky one catches sight of the three Great Pyramids of Gizeh “that Abraham could have admired and on which the eyes of the Infant God rested.” Coming round to the west the writer points out the green and fertile Egyptian countryside dotted with palm trees and, of course, the Nile, “this other Egyptian wonder.”

Finally in August, 1906, the community and school, then numbering twenty-five, were able to move into their newly built quarters, where they still conduct a day school, kindergarten to baccalauréat, that enrolls 953 students, of whom 53% are Muslim. The development of the Egyptian province, Egyptian vocations, the outreach to the poor are all beyond the scope of this article, but the life and accomplishments of the entire 100 years were duly celebrated last fall. See the Society web site, www.rscjinternational.org, for a description.