The desire to extend the Congregation’s Mission in Asia and expand the vocational and pastoral programme there led, in 1988, to the establishment of two groups of Sisters Hospitallers in the Philippines.
The first group from the English Province came to Cebu Island with a mission to work as volunteers, caring for patients with mental disabilities at Cebu Government Hospital. At the same time, a group of Sisters from the Italian Province, after receiving the Papal blessing, travelled to Luzon Island and began to provide voluntary community services at the National Centre for Mental Health.
From the beginning there were young girls who wanted to continue the charism of Hospitality, and travelled to Italy to join us. Slowly, with great effort and determination, the Sisters work for the sick was rewarded with the arrival of new vocations and for this reason it was decided to start aspirancy training in their own country. In 1990 took place the entrance of the first group of postulants and a year later they began the novitiate in Pasig City “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Formation House“.
In 1992 the Sisters of the English Province left the Philippines and, as a result of it the Sisters of the Italian Province assumed full responsibility and continued their work. Shortly after, the novitiate was centralized in Cebu under of the name “Novitiate House María Josefa Recio”.
After the canonization of the Congregation Founder, St. Benedict Menni, in November 1999 the Sisters Hospitallers were rewarded with the opening in Cebu the “Maria Josefa Recio Therapeutic Centre”, a day hospital for the recovery of people with mental illness. During these 14 years many users of the Centre have benefited from therapeutic treatment as well as recovery of self-esteem and have subsequently participate in numerous programmes that enhance their creativity in retrieving or acquiring new knowledge. Today the Centre is considered the best of its kind in the Philippines
In the year 2000 with the aim of improving community life and of reinforcing religious and professional training of the the junior Sisters, a house in Manila was bought as a training centre and put under the protection of “María Angustias Giménez Vera”. At the moment 15 Sisters live at the Centre.
In Pasig City the Congregation carries out its mission at the St Benedict Menni formation Centre, in which Sisters take care of and educate needy children, between the age of 3 and 13, some with mental disabilities. The Congregation also has a sponsorship programme that manages, from Italy, the association “Insieme se può” of Albese in order to provide education for under-privileged children in the area. The centre was opened in 1990, but it was not until 2004 that the school was legalized by the government.
Through the efforts of the Sisters Hospitallers and their professionals working in the centre, users are being given a new life, reintegrated into normal society.
The Philippines is currently dependent on the Italian Province and consists of 32 perpetually professed Sisters, 12 Sisters in temporary vows, three novices and 5 applicants. “We follow Jesus who calls us to live the charism of Hospitality, committed people who most need us to offer the best services that integrate faith with the best technology” as Sister Mary Ann said.
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