n
the year 1980, we celebrated the six hundreth anniversary
of the death of St. Catherine of Siena : she is really
the inspiration and the model of our missionary congregations.
She admirably embodied the synthesis of the Dominican
life.
Burning
contemplative, she was invited by the Lord to leave her
cell to care tenderly for most disinherited among the
Lord's poor, before devoting all her strength to saving
the Church in great danger. As one of her biographers
writes: "She is the most radiant flower to grow
from the tree that planted St.Dominic".
The
history of these Congregations is complex and enthralling
and goes well beyond the rebirth of the Order in France
after the Revolution. As Brother Raffin points out (Cahiers
Saint-Dominique, March 1979), paradoxically they originated
in the lay branch of the Order. During XIVth and especially
of XVth century, one sees the formation of women communities
of the tertiary Order, from simple cohabitation to the
installation in a regular house, with oratory and even
a public church. St. Catherine, for example, belongs to
the "mantellate" of Siena. Theirs will be an
evolution towards greater rigour in the conditions of
their religious life. At the end of XVIth century, the
monasteries of the regular Third Order are cloistered
monasteries, which are not distinguishable from those
of the nuns but by light small delails of observance.
Pope Pius V and Pope Gregory XIII will impose the same
strict enclosure on these sisters as the one imposed nuns
of solemn vows.
The
XIXth century sees a new growth in female Dominican life,
after the devastation of the Revolution. Even before the
restoration of the Order in France by Lacordaire, nuns
who had been driven out of their monasteries start regrouping.
They lived in these very hard years, with the spirit of
St. Dominic, whereas the Preachers had had to leave France.
They remain faithful to their engagements and succeed
in holding fast. The first congregations make their appearances
taking over old monasteries from the regular Third Order,
like the famous monastery of Langres; others are formed
by answering to new apostolic callings; their foundresses'
wish to live the religious life and often find with the
nuns the thorough formation to which they aspire.
The
regrouping of the communities in congregations is done
slowly. It is not well understood by the bishops. A new
legislation is needed to create one and, at the beginning,
very few congregations have missions that exceed the limits
of a diocese and depend directly from Rome. Very quickly
however, they radiate out of Europe and cross the seas,
in the direction of the Middle East and the Caribbean
Islands, then towards Latin America, North America, Scandinavia,
Africa and to Japan and Reunion.
If
the experience of Dominic was that of a man of the church
discovering the spiritual misery of heresy, the congregations
born in the XIXth century are authentically Dominican,
because they are born from lives centered on the absolute
of God meeting human misery in all its forms: physical
and moral distresses. The gospel leaven is really at work
in these foundresses, sensitive to the call of suffering
and answering it with all the range of works of mercy:
teaching congregations, hospitals, home nurses, accomodating
handicapped people of all kind, with a distinct preference
for the poorest: lepers, released captives, children and
young people in danger, working-class districts... This
apostolic action, either that of awakening and education
of the faith or charitable activities, is strongly rooted
in prayer, following Dominic, who spent his nights in
prayer and who had "a special grace for the afflicted,
the poor and sinner".
One
is often astonished by the number of Dominican congregations
whose activities seem to overlap... Each one has, however,
its well defined particular note and keeps from its humble
beginnings a very strong attachment to its first call.
At present, however, their multiplication is compensated
by an opposite movement which tends to a certain unification.
In 1956, for example, five teaching Dominican congregations
amalgamated to form a new congregation: "a very rare
event", underlines the Delegate sent for this occasion
by the Holy See, "because one usually carries out
a similar operations only to counter a more or less catastrophic
situation, whereas this time it's about the fusion of
congregations that are quite alive ". Others join
a larger Congregation. National
and continental federations of Dominican sisters forge
bonds among congregations, and make sharing of formation
resources possible. For example, since 1995, the majority
of congregations set up a world-level coordinating body
called Dominican Sisters International.
The
sisters of the various congregations are currently more
than 32.000 in the world and their brothers understand
better and better the place that they occupy in the Order.
The general Chapters, for 30 years, have been very interested
in the sisters, stimulating them in their studies and
their apostolic life, encouraging their meetings and their
collaboration. The Chapter of Manila was more decisive
still: "Our Order, say the Acts, is confronted with
two great movements of the Church and the world: promotion
of the laity and Women's Liberation. One must remember
that St. Dominic initially founded a community of sisters,
before that of the brothers; little time after, groups
of laity. They are the beginnings of what we call "Dominican
Family". The time is now favorable for this "family"
to practise true equality and complementarity among its
various branches. " 
(Source
: Sr. Jeanne-Catherine in Dominicains,Cerf. 1980)
