Anastasia of Maryknoll: Sharing: 100th Anniversary of the Arrival of Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong

Thursday, November 4, 2021

Sharing: 100th Anniversary of the Arrival of Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong

The first 6 sisters arrived in Hong Kong on Nov 3, 1921: Sisters Mary Lawrence Foley, Barbara Froehlich, Rose Leifels, Mary Paul McKenna, Monica Moffatt
and Imelda Sheridan.
Here is the excerpt from their travel account:
November 3 – “At last Kowloon came in sight – Hongkong on one side of the harbor high and mountainous, Kowloon on the other with a flat edge. Over on the dock crowds were waiting and we canned them anxiously. A while helmet waved at us – we occupied no little space along the deck rail – and we knew China’s Maryknollers had located their Superior. And more helmets waved and cassocks hurried through the crowd to join another group watching at another point. We drew up beside a pier and the gang way was let down. Everywhere handkerchiefs and hats waved but we had eyes for only one group that moved with the crowd to the gangway. Within thirty feet of the deck the crowd was stopped until all passports were vizeed and Father Cairns with Fathers Meyer, Wiseman, Donovan, McShane were in called distances and greetings were exchanged… [At the convent] there was mail and it was welcome – a card from Mother, a letter from Sister Philip. We went to dinner and had just finished when Father Superior returned to gather us for our pictures in front of Holy Rosary Church. You know, no doubt, the result of the gathering. It included two proposed teachers, our [housekeeper], and Father Cairns’ and Father Spada’s boys. The Sisters went back to the convent and to make themselves feel more at home began to move the furniture. The desk and bookcase went into the combination refectory and community room and chairs were shifted. We really were comfortably even if gaudily and unusually established. There were two rooms on the first floor not including the kitchen. One is a combination refectory and community room, the other a reception room. Upstairs are three large rooms, a lavatory, a bathroom with a real bathtub, a little clothes room. There is running water, electric lights and a gas stove. Father Superior came in and wondered about a chapel – the absence of which we had felt. Did we have any suggestions and could we spare any room? Promptly we gave our plan – the second floor back room could be used and we would crowd into the two other rooms – four in one and two in the other... There was much to do everywhere but we only looked at it all on this, the first day. Holy Hour at 5:30 and we went. It was good to have the opportunity and we were grateful. Office was in private while supper was being coaxed along on the lame gas-stove. Supper and evening recreation were combined because it was after eight-thirty when we sat down to table. We had rosary with night prayers and turned over on our straw mattresses after eleven. Our first day at home in China! Blessed be God!”