Who We Are
We are an international group of Religious sisters; apostles rooted in faith and hope. Ready to risk it all for the Lord.
We strive to be examples of “Women in Communion”. Living in international communities, we continue to fulfill the intense missionary dream of our founder, Fr Augustine Planque.
We were founded in May 1876, by SMA Fr Augustine Planque, when 19 young women from Anjou, Nantes, Coutances, Lyons, Cork and Dublin met in an old house in Lyons, France, to be of service to the Gospel by answering the challenge of West African Missions.
Learn more about Our History
What We Do
By God’s grace, we serve where the Gospel has yet to be rooted and where human need is greatest. Our priority is for the poor and marginalised, especially for women and children.
Promoting women and the marginalized is a priority in all of our apostolates. In solidarity with like minded people, we work in the areas of education, health care, social & pastoral works, and interreligious and intercultural dialogue. We also engage in non-violent action for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.
Our Charism and Mission
To know and love God, to make God known and loved.
Faithful to the missionary inspiration of our founder, and in order to witness to the meaning and power of the Gospel, we consecrate ourselves to evangelisation, particularly in Africa.
We draw strength and inspiration from the experience of Our Lady and the Apostles in the ‘Upper Room’ following the ascension of Jesus, as they hopefully awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit. Following their example we strive to be signs of Hope for all peoples to whom we are sent.
- To be courageous and competent women, like the Apostles, ready to leave all for the sake of the Gospel.
- To live the Spirituality of the Cenacle which prepares us for our apostolic work.
- To be witnesses to the universality of the Church by living in international communities
- To work for the formation and education of women and Christian families
We are called to respond with vigour and audacity to courageously commit ourselves to God’s Reign of Peace and Justice.
As Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, consecrated for mission ‘ad gentes’, we participate directly in the mission of the Church by collaborating in the building of a new world in accordance with the plan of God. We are thus ‘seeds of unity, of hope and of salvation’ (L.G.9) especially among the poor.
With Mary as our model, we desire to be open to the Word of God, and in the attitude of availability which was hers, we work so that, through the action of the Spirit in us, others too may receive the Word of God.
We see the Church’s call for a New Evangelization as primary among the new Calls being heard today. We wish to enter fully into this thrust for a New Evangelization, which will help to bring Gospel values alive in our country and wherever we are.
“the proclamation of the Gospel is made primarily through the witness of our personal faith in Jesus Christ” (Const. 15).