First inspiration

Patriarch Elias Howayek first thought of founding a national missionary religious Congregation for women the year 1870 when he entered the priesthood. As he visited the towns and villages, as priest and then as bishop, he could see how much poverty and neglect existed among the population, especially in remote areas. Finally the time came for him to realize the vision given to him by God of a work that would answer the needs of the people and of the Church.

Patriarch Elias Howayek believed that a female religious Congregation devoted to forming young girls was necessary for society to prosper and be preserved from neglect and ignorance; a young girl in his opinion was a future mother, and the mother is the heart and the soul of the family. It is she who raises up future priests, officials, military and police officers, teachers, farmers, merchants, and businessmen able to ensure a just and prosperous society. The family is the first to benefit from the education of young girls, and it follows that society also benefits. So Elias Howayek wanted to provide girls with all the education, know-how, and social skills, founded on humanitarian and Gospel values that they needed. This desire spurred him on to ensure that the new Congregation focused on giving young girls an education firmly fixed on values that would strengthen families and benefit all their members, the parents, the children, the teenagers, the elderly and the sick.

At this time in Lebanon there were only religious missionary Congregations focused on education in the large cities and towns. The need of a female missionary maronite Congregation of Antiochean Patriarchal obedience emerged to reach out the poor and isolated villages, something which represented a new initiative in the Maronite Church.