The Order of Saint Augustine in East Anglia
September 29, 2024
700 East Anglia pupils attend Annual Schools Mass
October 4, 2024
In his series about the Religious Congregations living and working in the Diocese of East Anglia, Fr Karol Porczak MS, Vicar for the Religious, introduces The Congregation of Our Lady, Canonesses of St Augustine.
The Congregation of Our Lady, Canonesses of St Augustine (Original Latin: Congregatio Nostræ Dominæ, Ordinis Canonissarum Regularium Sancti Augustini) (CSA) was founded on Christmas Eve 1597 in Lorraine, France, by Blessed Alix Le Clerc (1576-1622) and Saint Peter Fourier (1565-1640).
Alix was called by God “to found a new [kind of] religious house to do all possible good.” She did not know what this would be until she met her new parish priest, a young Augustinian Canon, Fr Peter Fourier, whose motto was “Do harm to none, do good to all.”
He recognised Alix’s call as a providential answer to the urgent need in the world of the Counter Reformation to provide education for girls, “poor and rich alike,” who would shape the next generation. “Zeal for education is the soul of my calling” – Alix would later declare. Soon schools proliferated, first in Lorraine and then throughout France and other parts of Europe. The Congregation flourished and spread, surviving the trauma of the French Revolution and other upheavals.
Today there are just over 300 sisters worldwide. In Europe, numbers are decreasing with age, but there is expansion elsewhere, especially in Africa and the Far East. In Britain, where the Congregation first arrived in the early 20th century, there are currently 14 sisters, aged between 61 and 103. Although no longer able to maintain schools, they all live out their vocation to promote the growth of the whole person, which is the essence of education, in whatever way they can, nurtured by the Augustinian spirit. They are chiefly in London and East Sussex (St Leonards), and maintain a small presence in the Diocese of East Anglia.
Sr Sandra lives in Walsingham and supports numerous people in small but effective ways. Sr Jennifer is based in Cambridge. She is in charge of Great Britain’s sisters as the Delegate of the Superior General, and is the link with the rest of the Congregation.
Pictured above: Standing, from left to right: Sr Chris Brown CSA (London), Sr Jennifer Dines CSA – Sister-in-Charge of the Delegation of Great Britain of the CSA (Cambridge), Sr Mary Inchbald CSA (St Leonards), Sr Jo Langford CSA (St Leonards), Sr Lucy Yeardsley CSA (St Leonards). Seated, from left to right: Sr Martina Boylan CSA (St Leonards), Sr Nicole Mai-Duval CSA (London). Inset is Sr Sandra Wellington CSA (Walsingham).
