What led to the decision to found a house of the Society in Malta? The same circumstance that occasioned so many other new ventures at the turn of the 20th century: Mother Digby’s determination to open a new house for each house closed in France. Alumnae resident in Malta, who had experienced Sacred Heart education at Roehampton, at the Rue de Varenne in Paris and at the Trinità dei Monti, wanted to bring it to their island and asked for a foundation, so in January 1903, Mother Stuart, Vicar at Roehampton, Mother de Loe, Vicar in Italy, accompanied by Mother Helen Rumbold from Hammersmith, went to Malta to explore possibilities. As Malta had been an English colony since 1870, it was the English vicariate that was be to responsible for this experiment in international living: the seven foundresses were of five nationalities, English, Irish, Swiss, French, Prussian and two Italians. They had no common language. They arrived on August 12, 1903 and began a community at Villa Portelli, close to the hospital of the Little Company of Mary, the “Blue Sisters,” who helped our nuns, as did the English Jesuits, who ran a school for boys, also in St. Julian’s.

By October 1903 the nuns had begun a small boarding and day school with eight girls, gradually increasing to eighteen. In October of the following year, 1904, the Rosary School, a free school, started with forty children. Then in 1904 the Society bought a property in St. Julian’s, nearby, on which to build a permanent dwelling. In September 1907, the community moved in and prepared to receive the two schools in the large and spacious building. In 1910, they accepted boys. In 1910 permission was granted to build the chapel, which was completed and consecrated in 1911.
During World War I the community was isolated from the other houses of the Society. Because of Malta’s strategic position in the Mediterranean, it became a place where the Allied Forces were either stationed or hospitalized. The convent became a haven for those seeking friendship and spiritual help, readily given by the French and English-speaking nuns. Children provided entertainment in the form of concerts. Many soldiers and sailors requested religious instruction or returned to the practice of their faith. Baptisms, First Communions and Confirmations took place in the newly built chapel.

After the war numbers in the boarding and day school increased slowly, but the Rosary School saw a rapid increase. A separate building for these children was planned and completed in 1920, after much difficulty in obtaining material for woodwork and ironwork, in the aftermath of the war. During World War II, from 1940 onwards, again school life was interrupted. The greater part of the main building and the Rosary School were taken over as a hospital. Classrooms were transformed into wards for children who were transferred from the Blue Sisters’ hospital to make room there for war casualties. Wards were also needed to take in the occupants of old age homes, situated in dangerous localities. By 1943 life was less grim, and it became possible to close the emergency wards. Once again both schools took possession of their quarters. The boarding and day school increased dramatically.

In 1944 a plan to respond to the original request to train teachers began to materialize. Reverend Mother Archer Shee, the English Vicar, came on a flight in an R.A.F. plane to survey the situation. Short courses for teachers were begun, at first for three months, gradually increasing to one year, in lecture rooms built onto the Rosary School. In 1949 the Rosary School was closed and adapted for use as a one-year residential college. In the meantime, the motherhouse assisted Malta in her project to build a college at Tal-Virtù in Rabat; Queen Elizabeth II opened it in May 1954. It continued to form teachers until 1973, when the government of Malta decided to take over the training of teachers and amalgamated the women’s college with its counterpart for men, run by the Christian Brothers. In 1955 the Rosary School was reopened, this time as a government primary school with an RSCJ headmistress.

Following the lead of Chapter 1970, eight different, small, inserted communities were opened, spread over the Island, between 1970 and 1988. Many religious in these communities began to work in the parishes. In the 1990s a retreat center was opened, offering hospitality to many young people. A look at the resume of apostolates in the catalog today suggests that reduction in numbers of RSCJ has not meant much reduction in apostolic involvement.

Over the years Malta has experienced many administrative changes. Founded in 1903 as a house of the English vicariate, the next year it became part of the vice-vicariate of Malta and Cairo under the direction of Mother Helen Rumbold, the first superior of Malta. From then until 1926 the houses in Malta and Egypt were joined in one governmental structure, either a vicariate or a vice-vicariate. For two years from 1926 until 1928 these houses were under the jurisdiction of the motherhouse. In 1928 Malta again joined the English vicariate. Upon the division of England in 1949, Malta became part of the Vicariate of Woldingham; in 1960 it joined the Vicariate of Roehampton; in 1967 the Province of England was formed and included Malta. Finally, Malta became an independent area in 1981 and a district in 1987.

Maltese religious have had a strong international presence. How many American alumnae and RSCJ remember the Maltese sisters who cared for us so lovingly in our schools and colleges. In turn, U.S. RSCJ have served in Malta, notably Anita Richard, who taught in the teachers’ college at Tal Virtù, Hildegarde Hellmuth, who was superior of the community of Tal Virtù, and most recently Betty Shearman, present superior.