Welcome to our region ...
TAHITI: The first 4 sisters set sail from Brest on "LA CHARTE". After a six-month voyage, they arrived in the Marquesas Islands, their original destination. However, because of the tribal wars and cannibalism, the authorities refused to let them stay there and sent them to Tahiti.
16th March 1844, they arrived in Papeete and their immediate task was to care for the many wounded from the "war in Tahiti". The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny were only involved in caring for the wounded until they were expelled. In 1845, they took in a few young girls to give them an intellectual and manual education. By decree of 7 November 1857, the sisters' school became the Papeete Girls' School. The school had a modest boarding school.
MARQUISES: In June 1847, two sisters opened a girls' school on Vaitahu. However, the war between the islands of Tahuata and Hiva-Oa forced them to leave the island in September of 1847. On March 4, 1864, four sisters landed in Taiohae. Their boarding school had over 80 pupils. At Christmas 1884, the sisters arrived in Atuona to start a boarding school for girls, at the request of the bishop. They soon had more than 110 pupils from the islands of Tahuata and Hiva-Oa.
RAIATEA : On the Leeward Islands of Raiatea, the sisters open a school 1st September 1925. By the following October, there were 80 pupils. Since then, the apostolate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny has diversified.
Tahiti
3 communities
12 sisters
founded in 1844
Marquesas Islands
1 community
2 sisters
founded in 1847
Raiatea
1 community
2 sisters
founded in 1925
Let's share love and hope with our world ...
The French Pacific region is made up of 5 communities scattered across the vast Pacific, in French Polynesia. French Polynesia covers a maritime area of 4 million km², an area the size of Europe. The 118 islands, all different, are grouped into five archipelagos with very distinct characteristics.
We are located in the Society archipelago (made up of the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands), a group of high tropical islands surrounded by lagoons. It includes :
- Tahiti, the largest of the Polynesian islands, and the home to the administrative capital, Papeete, and the territory's only international airport.
- Raiatea, a sacred island of fertile valleys...
- The Marquesas archipelago, made up of a dozen high islands, a kind of dark green fortress that seems to spring from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, located just a stone's throw from the equator and some 1,500 kilometres from Tahiti.
Today ...
Initially trained for the education and health sectors, the sisters have adapted to meet today's needs.
Today, we continue to be responsible for certain schools which we have founded (Mission school, Anne-Marie Javouhey secondary school in Papeete and Raiatea, Sainte-Anne school and secondary school in Hiva-Oa), as well as the supervision of certain boarding schools and hostels such as Maria No Te Tiaturi.
We are also active in the social sector by acting as guardian of the Te Maru Pererau children's home, owned by the C.P.S (Caisse de prévoyance sociale), whose purpose is to take in children placed by the juvenile court judge and give them a human and spiritual education.
We are also working on the social and professional reintegration of prisoners. One of our sisters gives them lessons so that they can take the National Certificate of Secondary Education exam.
Missionary disciples ... to this call from God, we respond with total availability, ready to leave our country to go where God calls us to serve our brothers and sisters.