When did 'Fr. Smith' become "Fr. Jimmy'

[JReducation]

I lived in Japan as a child. My younger sisters attended a private school run by a group of Spanish nuns. Occasionally, they would come home from school to report that “Sister so-and-so” would not be teaching for a couple of weeks. She was about to become a Mother.

When I first visited an Eastern Catholic monastery I was very confused. All of the women were Mother. I was used to the Roman Catholic monasteries where the superior is Mother. I kept thinking to myself, “Good gravy, a house full of mothers. I’m not sure if I’d like to live here. Having one mother was hard work, can’t imagine several.”

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

 

[Phemie]

I love the Mommy story. There were certain congregations of French women religious that were not canonically sisters. They were nuns that were semi-cloistered, such as the Religious of the Sacred Heart. In France they were called Madame. In other languages, Madam is usually applied to married women. Therefore, they used Mother. Today all Latin Catholic women religious and women in societies of apostolic life use Sister or Ms. depending on the country. In the East, women religious are Mother.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

These Sisters were “Filles de Jesus de Kermaria” founded in the 1830s by Perrine Sansom in Bignan, Britanny.

I don’t imagine that they were ever semi-cloistered since they seemed to be primarily teachers & nurses. They came to our area to found a school which still exists today although it’s no longer Catholic. At one time their convent housed dozens of sisters and a grade 1-12 boarding and day school. In the early 1950s they built and staffed our local hospital. Today I think 3 remain in the convent and 2 remain in our village. They are all elderly.