The congregation of the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo of Wez-Velvain was founded in 1684, by Rev. Fr. Adrian Bresy, Parish priest of Wez in the diocese of Tournai, Belgium, this beloved pastor passed into eternity on the First Day of June 1699. The only memoir of our Founder that remained to this day is Epitaph. The most remarkable virtues our Fr. Adrian Bresy practiced were humility, Meekness, and Hospitality; his pastoral Zeal was unbounded.
It was in 1684, that the first Death Centenary of St. Charles was celebrated, Fr. Adrian Bresy chose St. Charles Borromeo as the patron of the new-born Congregation because St. Charles was the pioneer of Christian education in the diocese of Milan, and he had great love for the church, the poor, the lonely and the abandoned. Our founder tried to emulate St. Charles Borromeo, he distinguished himself by his profound humility and great simplicity, and he was a fervent and zealous priest who wished to give the poor women who joined hands in this venture. They received the Religious habit on 25th November 1685 and made the simple vows of obedience, poverty and chastity.
St. Charles prompted by the spirit was attentive to the needs of the society of this time and provided for them in a very effective way. Some limit their charity of hospitality which ignores the weaker ones of society. Others forget that true charity provides not only for the physical needs but is concerned with the spiritual and moral welfare and well-being of the person. St. Charles was truly a man with a vision, and this vision is reality for all times and seasons.
As we recall and remember our Founder and patron, we the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo have the task to read the signs of the times to discern God’s Presence in our history and contemplate God’s action in the world and in our country today. We have the prophetic task of building up communities of love, freedom and justice. This mission calls us to pay the price, to bear the burden, to suffer pain, loneliness and loss. Mission remains at the heart of our Apostolic life. As someone has rightly said that the task of Religious life for the third millennium is to be a vision of the future for the hopeless, a passion of life for the oppressed, an experience of compassion and love for the needy and the rejected, a promise of justice for the marginalized. We realize that our function is to be leaven in the world and not a labour force, to be Bread Broken for a New World.
The story of the Sisters of St.Charles Borromeo in India has for its beginning the proclamation of Pope Pius XI, made in the year 1927. He, by a decree declared, St.Therese, the Little Flower as the patroness of the Missions and the Holy See made frequent appeals to the Congregations in Europe to send labourers to the Mission fields. This kindled a great desire in the hearts of the Sisters of St.Charles Borromeo, Wez-Velvain, to go to distant lands to proclaim the Good News to the poor. On 3rd October ,1928 on the feast of St.Therese of Child Jesus, this desire turned into a forceful inspiration in Mother Josephine Allard, the then Superior General, who will ever hold a unique place in the history of the Congregation as the ‘Foundress of the Mission’. The thought remained persistent and kept fighting against her humble diffidence. She tried to found a house in the Belgian Congo but met with repeated failures. At a moment of great perplexity and doubt, the intervention of Msgr.Mederlet, became a guiding light to her. On December 31, 1929 with the blessing of Pope Pius XI and under the protection of St.Therese the Little Flower was opened the first house in India at Ranipet. The historical facts that precede its beginning enforce one to exclaim, ‘Great are the works of God!’. The unceasing grace of God has led the Congregation to be spread in this subcontinent and to give formation to the three Provinces in India , the East, the West and the North.