On October 27, 2021, the Portuguese Province of Sisters Hospitallers celebrates the 75th anniversary of its canonical constitution.
The creation of the Province of Portugal, of Sisters Hospitallers, like all the others in our Congregation, was preceded by a period of relative autonomy in relation to the mother province, continuing under its tutelage or directly dependent on the General Council, under the name of “Delegation”. The first houses in Portugal also went through the state of delegation.
The number of Sisters with which the Portuguese Province began, in 1946, expresses the vitality that the Congregation had, already at that time with 274 sisters distributed by the existing houses. At the time of the canonical approval and creation of the Provinces, the quality of the religious who worked in Portugal was so high that three of them were called to govern the provinces then formed:
– Sister Dulce Nombre de Jesús, Superior of the House of S. Gonçalo (Funchal), was elected Provincial of Spain.
– Sister Maria de la Circumcisión, who was in Idanha, went to preside over the Provincial Government of Italy.
– Sister Soledade de Maria assumed the position of first Superior of the Province of Our Lady of Fatima, therefore, of the Province of Portugal.
Growth and reorganization
After the founding of the Casa de Saúde do Bom Jesus in 1932, a period of 16 years followed without any new foundation, until in 1948 the
Children’s Sanatorium of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in Parede, which was followed by: in 1950 the Sanatorium of the Sagrada Familia, in S. Roque (Funchal), in 1956 the Psychiatric Clinic of S. José was founded, in Quinta da Luz (Lisbon ), in 1959 the Marracuene Psychiatric Hospital (Lourenço Marques-Mozambique). That same year, the Casa de Saúde Rainha Santa Isabel was also founded in Condeixa. In 1963 the sisters began the presence of the Congregation in Brazil, in 1967 the Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo Health Houses were founded, Azores, in 1968 the sisters opened the Center for the Recovery of Minors in Assumar, Alentejo.
At the same time, the sisters of the Province of Portugal broadened the horizons of the hospital mission in their way of caring for the sick, collaborating in the opening of some “Homes for the elderly” in the interior of the country: S. Simão de Litém, Aldeia do Bispo, Castelo Branco and Moimenta da Serra, some of these places were true nurseries of hospitable vocations.
In 1994, with the celebration of the centenary of the Casa de Saúde da Idanha, the Sisters were born in the city of Guarda, a place of great significance in the life of Father Menni and the first Portuguese Sisters.
A feeling of gratitude invades us all for this path of continuous adaptation and restructuring, of so many sisters who have preceded us and who are for us a source of inspiration for the moment we live. Brave and determined, the sisters adapted with apostolic creativity to the signs that God was placing on their path.
75 years after the canonical constitution of the Province of Our Lady of Fatima, we continue to believe that God’s plans go through joining forces and resources, in favor of a better service to those most in need.
Congratulations to the entire Hospital Community of the Province of Portugal!
