The Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Jesus of Nazareth was founded in Malta, Europe in 1931, by Miss Guseppina Curmi. The aim of the Congregation is to work with children, young girls, the old and the sick, and also to help in the mission lands.
The Congregation in Malta has a home for the elderly, a hostel for troubled young girls and three daycare centres to help single mothers while they work.
In 1961 Father Collins, the pastor of Powell River, had just finished building Assumption School, but he could not find Sisters to staff the school. On Sundays he would ask his congregation to pray to Our Lady so that he could find Sisters.
A Maltese gentleman, Mr. Joe Formosa, told Father Collins to write to the Archbishop of Malta, who then passed the letter to Bishop Galea, who was the director of the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Jesus of Nazareth, who then sent it to Superior General, who in turn accepted the request and so prepared to send the Sisters to Powell River.
After a long and tiresome trip the Missionary Sisters of Jesus of Nazareth arrived in Canada on October 7th 1961. On October 9th was Thanksgiving Day and the sisters were treated with a Thanksgiving Dinner prepared by the C.W.L. Ladies.
On October 10th the first six sisters started teaching at the newly built Assumption School. The school consisted of seven classes, from Grade One to Grade Seven.
The first year there were 240 students in the school 48 of which were in Grade One in Sister Agostina’s classroom. In the coming years the number of students kept on increasing. The second year Grade One had 54 students. By the third year there were over 300 students in the school. The sisters worked in the school for the minimum salary of $50.00 each per month.
For the first few years there were no supplies or any kind of equipment at the school, except for text books, a spirit duplicating machine, a film projector and an enlarging machine which is still in use to this day at the school. To put stickers on the student work the sisters would cut small pictures from old Christmas cards or used Christmas wrapping papers.
Every morning when the bell rang for the students to enter the school, the children would walk down the hallway to their classrooms singing a hymn to Our Lady, ( Hail Holy Queen the Ocean Star) led by Father John Collins on the P.A.system.
Sister Petronilla worked tirelessly to improve the school. She would go to Vancouver whenever she could to visit other schools and see what was needed for the benefit of the students and then find a way to get the funds to buy it. It took a lot of hard work and many sacrifices on the part of the sisters to make the school what it is today.
At the present time we are three sisters, one is teaching at the school, the others teach C.C.D. and do parish work.
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