Sunday, August 29, 2010

Philippines: ICM Nuns Celebrate 100 Years

THIS OCTOBER, former students of schools established or administered by the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Immaculati Cordis Mariae, or ICM) will come together for the first time to celebrate the congregation’s 100th anniversary in the Philippines.

It was in 1910 that Rev. Mother Marie Louise de Meester, a Belgian nun who founded the ICM, originally the Missionary Canonesses of St. Augustine, arrived in the Philippines. With three other Belgian nuns, she opened the St. Agustine School in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur.

Over the years, the ICM sisters spread out all the way to Sulu, setting up mission houses, clinics and more schools, the biggest of which are St. Theresa’s College (STC) in Quezon City and Cebu City, named in honor of St. Teresa of Avila, a doctor of the Catholic Church.

Other ICM schools are St. Louis School Center in Baguio and St. Francis Academy in Balamban, Cebu. (STC on San Marcelino St. in Manila was closed down in 1980.)

STC in Quezon City will be the venue of the culminating activities of the centennial ICM celebrations from Oct. 8-10.

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