This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Mission Sisters’ (Notre Dames de Missiones) founding in France and the milestone was marked at Nelson’s St Mary’s, in Friday.
The celebrations started with a mass, followed by a lunch. A PowerPoint presentation of photos of the Nelson mission including historical photos up to the present day was also put together.
Ou Lady of the Missions province leader Sister Josephine Kane said Father Garin arrived in Nelson in 1850 and there was a presbytery and church at the Manuka St site when the sisters arrived.
Records show that when the sisters started teaching at the school in 1871 there were 117 pupils, four of whom were boarders. Only one of the sisters spoke English, she said.