The SFIC Novitiate
The General Board considered the request of Msgr. Jurgens favorably. His diocese would become the Congregation’s new mission. Fr. Colen was designated to plead the cause in Rome. The approval came on October 24, 1930 under Act. No. 6555/30. The Congregation of Religious gave the Ordinary of the Tuguegarao diocese the power to canonically erect the Novitiate of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Mother of God in his diocese.
To implement Rome’s approval, pertinent resolutions were formulated. The document was signed by Rev. Anton Colen as plenipotentiary of Msgr. Jurgens and by the members of the General Board. The document was sent to Msgr. Jurgens who wired back his approval on November 10, 1930. The Congregation would be known in the Philippines as Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Philippine Mission
From 1929 to 1963, when the Congregation in the Philippines assumed the status of a Region, the leadership was assigned to three Superiors respectively: Mother Chantal Tummers (1929-1935), Mother Ildephonse Verhoeven (1935-1938) and Mother Willemina Aben (1938-1963).
During the period of thirty four years, twenty five Dutch Sisters came as missionaries to the Philippines. Fifteen houses of the Congregation were established: Bayombong (1929); Aritao (1930); Solano (1931), New Manila (1932), San Jose, Manaoag and Guimba (1946), Ilagan, Bambang and Mangaldan (1952); Gapan (1959), Cabanatuan, San Antonio (1961) and San Narciso and San Felipe (1962).
There were important events which occurred during this period. St. Joseph’s Academy (now St. Joseph’s College) was formally inaugurated with forty (40) pupils in 1933. St. Mary’s High School in Bayombong was established with Sister Margaretha as the first Principal in 1934. It was the first Catholic high school in Nueva Vizcaya.
The centennial celebration of the Congregation was celebrated in 1944 at the height of the Pacific war. The Dutch Fathers gave the sisters a beautiful gift: the mural painting on the chapel walls and ceiling. This was done by Galo Ocampo and Mr. Franco (national artists). The murals depicted the vocation of Francis and Clare as well as the vocation of the modern woman.
That same year, during the Japanese interregnum, all religious of “enemy countries” were interned in Los Baños. Our Dutch sisters went through this difficult experience until their liberation by the American soldiers in 1945.
St. Joseph’s Academy received its college status in 1947 and its recognition in 1948. The Novitiate was transferred from Solano to the Little Flower Novitiate in Baguio City in 1950.
In line with the papal directive to adapt religious life to the modern world so as to serve its needs more effectively, the religious attire of the Sisters took on a different style. The headgear – the starched coif, head band, ear band; the stiff guimp, starched sleeves and the large black rosary were done away with. On May 19, 1956, the Sisters donned a white cotton tunic and a white veil.
1959 was proclaimed Mission Year. In response to the call, the Congregation in the Philippines sent its first missionaries to Kalimantan Barat (Indonesia). They were Sister Gregory Salvador, Sister Immaculata Manzano and Sister Marietta Antonio.