2022 – Year in which our Congregation celebrates 180 years of foundation. As we look at this history, we realize how much life in mission has taken place on the four continents where the Congregation is present: Europe, America, Asia and Africa.
Eduard Michelis's initial goal was not to found a Congregation, but to create a healthy educational environment for the poorest children in his city. Children and youth, through education and training received, would be preserved from decay, and would become citizens with a solid foundation for the peace and happiness of his homeland. But who would take on the mission of educating these orphans? Eduard realized that this would only be possible if altruistic educators did it, without expecting any remuneration. So, with deep trust in Divine Providence, he founded our Congregation.
From then until the present time, the Congregation stands out for its commitment to the formal and informal education of children and youth. We have this story recorded in many books, brochures, and other forms. However, it is impossible to put on paper the scope that the Charism intuited by Father Eduard Michelis, lived and passed on by the founding generation, had and continues to have. Today it is being lived by many Sisters, shared and lived by a great number of lay people, in the most different ways.
In 1957, Sister Montfort-Gabriëls, SDP, from the Netherlands, a teacher and pedagogue, after extensive research, as a conclusion work for a Higher Course, wrote a book that is a historical review of the life and prophetic performance of Father Eduard Michelis. Its focus is “Eduard Michelis - his influence on Education and Training”.
Believing in the richness of this work, Sister Imelda Bieger, from the Mother of Providence Province, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil, translated this work into Portuguese, in the certainty that its content will strengthen today's youth, inspire educators and trainers who believe in education and Christian values as the basis for a more just and fraternal world.
Sister Montfort, in this research, deepened the action of God in Eduard, in the midst of daring and dangerous struggles for his commitment to truth and right, in the reality of Church and Society. In every work, Eduard's courage and influence in the political, religious and ecclesiastical environment of that time are evident. In his endeavors Father Eduard Michelis never acted alone, but he knew how to include other people, listen to the voice of God and act as the Holy Spirit instructed and guided him.
As we celebrate 180 years of the Congregation, we are all invited to know a little more about Eduard Michelis. In addition to all the literature already existing in our Congregation, this book has some very peculiar additions that will help to better understand our Founder. Let us, therefore, get to know our Congregation more, because “we only love what we know.”
Eduard was a man with a synodal and worldwide apostolic heart. A great example for us, today.
“In the human soul lie dormant and undeveloped faculties, which need the help of other people to be properly developed and activated.” (Father Eduard Michelis)