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The Sisters of the Institute are clearly its most significant resource because it is they who carry on the mission of Jesus.   From its inception the Institute has attracted and welcomed personnel from significantly different countries, languages and cultural backgrounds.

After starting two missions in Minnesota our Foundress, Elizabeth (M. Ignatius) Hayes went to Georgia to minister to the Afro-Americans so recently emancipated from slavery, but sadly a people against whom, at that time, discrimination still existed.   She saw that education would help these people achieve their potential.   It is interesting to find that the sixth name entered in the register of admissions to the newly founded Institute is a young Afro-American woman named Frederica Law.   This certainly indicates that the door of the Institute would be opened in welcome to all who wanted to embrace Elizabeth ’s vision ‘to manifest God's universal compassion through inclusive non-dominating relationships of love’(1): differences in race, culture and language were not to be a deterrent.

These are the countries of origin of the Institute membership over the years:

Africa
Australia
Austria 
Canada 
England 
Germany 
Ireland 
Italy 
Malta
Northern Ireland
Palestine 
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Scotland
United States 
Upper Egypt

Elizabeth had no doubt about her own vocation.  She wrote “God calls me to leave my home and country and to join a foreign mission” (2).  Her fourth vow “to devote myself to foreign missions” gave a firm direction to the Institute as missionary and many sisters were drawn to it for that very reason.   

In her Diary Elizabeth also wrote:  “An incessant longing to work for the poor dwelt in my heart and was the subject of my prayers”(3).  This desire to work for those who were disadvantaged or marginalised has also influenced decisions about the places in which new foundations have been made and the particular forms of service undertaken by the membership. While recognising that ministry ‘at home’ is authentically defined as missionary, the membership has always been characterised by its willingness to be sent and over the years more than 80% of the sisters have answered a call to minister outside their country of origin in places as diverse as Australia, Bolivia, Peru, Canada, Chad, China, Egypt, England, Ireland, Italy, Papua New Guinea, Sudan and the United Status of America.  

Today the languages spoken in the Institute’s missions are English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish and Melanesian Pidgin.

(1)     Mission Statement - http://www.mficgen.it/missionstatement.htm

(2)      Diary of Elizabeth (Mother M Ignatius) Hayes, Foundress, P 20

(3)     Diary of Elizabeth (Mother M Ignatius) Hayes, Foundress, P 3

Click here for photos of members in mission