6p
Landing of the
First SPC Sisters
- Singles
(100,000)
Designers: Sr.
Rose Margaret Nuval, SPC; Sr.
Whilma Catolos, SPC
Design Coordinators: Sr. Mary George Siriban,
SPC; Sr. Ignatius of St.
Joseph Tal Placido, SPC; Sr.
M. Aquinas Lluch, SPC
Layout Artists: Sr. Ma. Lourdes Casas, SPC;
Alfonso V. Divina
Design:
Landing of the First SPC Sisters, sculpture by Vic Gulane, marker in
Dumaguete City set against the back wall of the chapel in Our Lady
of Chartres Convent, Antipolo and centennial logo
First Day Covers: Manila
Sisters of St. Paul Charities - 100th
Anniversary
For the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (SPC),
the year 2004 marks a century-long journey with the Filipino people,
which started on October 29, 1904 when seven Sisters, having left
Saigon on the 20th of the same month, landed in Dumaguete, led by
Mother Marthe de St. Paul Legendre, first Superior. At the time of
their arrival, the Congregation had been in existence for more than
two hundred years, having been founded by Father Louis Chauvet,
parish priest of the French village of Levesville-la-Chenard with
the help of Marie Anne de Tilly in 1696. In 1904, the Congregation
had already spread to various countries in Europe, the West Indies
and Central America, and in Asia.
In less than a decade after the arrival in
Dumaguete, the Sisters moved on to start five other foundations: in
June 1905 - the school in Vigan, known today as the St. Paul College
of (locos Sur; 1906 - in Culion, Palawan working for the leper
colony; 1907 - Tuguegarao, today the St. Paul University; 1911 -
Iloilo, today consisting of the St. Paul Hospital, the St. Paul
College of Iloilo, the Mother Antoine Pastoral Center, and Mere
Monique Home; 1912 - St. Paul College of Manila. In 1926, the
Sisters reached Mindanao to run the San Nicolas College in Surigao.
The year 1965 saw the passing of the
administration of the Philippine Province into the hands of Filipina
Sisters with the appointment of Mother Marie Madeleine Denoga, as
first Filipina Provincial Superior. With many foundations through
the rest of the 20th century, SPC Philippines journeys with the
Church and the Filipino people today through their service in
thirty-four (34) schools, ten (10) hospitals, and thirteen (13)
pastoral, formation and retirement houses found in twenty-nine (29)
dioceses in the Philippines. The Provincialate and he Novitiate are
in Our Lady of Chartres Convent along the highway to Antipolo City.
At present, the Congregation is in five continents and twenty-six
countries.