MISSIONARY BENEDICTINE SISTERS OF TUTZING

“O Linda!” (Oh, how beautiful!) the Portuguese sailors are supposed to have exclaimed when they first beheld this hill rising above the lush vegetation and the ocean. The name “Olinda” remains to this day, as well as the ancient colonial style “Misericordia Church” that belongs to our sisters and is visited by many tourists.
The Olinda Priory, located in northeastern Brazil, was founded in 1903. The sisters devoted themselves to the education of youth and soon the St. Gertrude’s Academy (Academia Santa Gertrudes) rose on this hill. Many young Brazilians joined the sisters, making it possible to found nine more communities, several of them in the interior of the country. A university named FACHO (Faculty of Human Sciences of Olinda) also arose nearby.  (more: www.academiasantagertrudes.com.br)

Besides a kindergarten and school, the priory runs an equipped hospital with many departments in the country’s interior. In addition, the sisters in all the houses devote themselves to pastoral ministry, lead communities without priests, and run social centers for the overwhelmingly poor population. Novitiate members take care of a nearby favela (slum) named “V8”. (More about it below.)

                             The Priory’s Chronicler wrote about the activities in Favela V8:

“Here in Olinda the postulants and novices do practical engagement in this favela. They seek to help the destitute children in many different ways. They have a school there in which 80 children aged 4 to 7m receive a glass of milk daily and participate in the school’s meal program. This nutrition is the indispensable basis for development and the learning process.

Beyond the school there is a nutrition program for small children (from eight months to 3 years old). This group receives a daily glass of milk enriched with vitamin concentrate that is especially good and nourishing—a great gift from the Swiss Caritas. Since poverty is ever increasing due to rising unemployment, for most children this is the only nourishment they get per day, almost unimaginable! But the situation is unfortunately so and has terrible consequences in daily life. Drug trafficking with concomitant acts of violence continually increase. Various groups fight against each other. Even relatives of the children who attend the little school are involved. Thus the school classes in which the children can learn and play together mean there’s a space where they can breathe and still be children. Without help from benefactors it would not be as easy to help this group.”

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