About Us
History of the Province of Ghana-Liberia
About Us
Bl. Mary of the Passion Foundress of FMM
The Province of Ghana-Liberia was created in 1936 and 1939 respectively. The missionaries arrived first in Liberia in 1936 and to Ghana in 1939. In Liberia the FMM were invited by Fr. Michael Collins a General Councillor of the Society of Africa Missions. He wrote a letter to the Superior General asking for sisters to come and work among the sick, young girls and women in Liberia and also to run a small dispensary. So six sisters were assigned to Monrovia and they arrived on the 9th of December, 1936. The six Sisters were Althryda, M. Patern, M. Basien, M. Cornelius, M. Fergus and Respicius. During Fr. John Collin’s term of office, he managed to beg for funds from the United States to build the first convent in Liberia for the sisters. A new era began in the catholic mission in Liberia, in December 1936 when the sisters arrived. Bishop Collins gave them a large building but it was only a ‘shell’ no windows, no doors no partitions inside the four square walls; and was also located near the beach roaring waters of the Atlantic Ocean. But their joy was complete when they entered the building, as Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was awaiting them in these humble beginnings. The magnificat was sang most gratefully as they courageously faced the future. Already a patient was there on the doorstep and was taken care of.
Sr. Sebastiana Bekyane Provincial Superior
The Bishop proceeded to the convent to install the sisters in their home, the going was difficult because there were no roads in the vicinity. The Bishop was so grateful for their mission and anytime he was celebrating mass in their convent he spoke encouraging words to the sisters as they started their apostolate among the people of God in Liberia.
In 1939 another group of FMMs arrived in Jirapa on the 13th of May and began a Foundation of the Our Lady of the Passion convent (OLP) in Jirapa. They were sisters M. du Precurseur de Jesus (Jeanne Bartholomew), superior with Jurisdiction over the house at Dissin, in Burkina Faso, accompanied by M. of St. Wynnin (Catherine Mehugh), M. de St. Caltry (Therese Belzile), M. of St. Canice (Teresa Mugovan), M. Blane (Edith Clay) and M. of St. (Conran Annie Welsh). The six sisters were of different nationalities such; French, English, Canadian, Irish and Scottish. Though their first ministry was the dispensary which they started on the 15th of May, 1939 ten years after the arrival of the white fathers in Jirapa. The main reason that the Mission of Africa popularly known as the White Fathers invited them was to help with the evangelization, nursing and education to the people of North West of Ghana. 
Fr. Paquet was able to give M. Caltry a first class introduction to tropical diseases. M. Caltry was a registered nurse, the first of such to work in the north-west of Ghana. She soon saw that the demand on the medical services offered were great and that until more nurse could be sent, she would have to train some of the local women to help her. People came from miles away to be attended to and for injection for the prevalent diseases of yaws and leprosy.
Maternity work also started immediately and gradually as more and more pregnant women came for consultations. Several small thatched huts, made of mud, were built in the convent compound in which the expecting mothers could stay while awaiting the arrival of their babies. In 1941 the mud huts were replaced with a splendid brick building comprised of labour room, ward, nurse’s room and an isolation room that had soon to be used as an orphanage. These sisters also took part actively in educational development and pastoral works, such as catechesis and women development and so on. Even though there was no good infrastructure the sisters did their best to support the people in the society. These mission works still continue in diverse ways in the Ghana-Liberia Province in fifteen (15) communities, three (3) in Liberia and twelve (12) in Ghana. The works have been expanded as many indigenous sisters as well as missionaries from different countries are involved. Currently we are ninety-seven sisters working as Teachers, Physician Assistants, Nurses, Pastoral/Social Workers, Administrators, directresses of Sewing and Host Baking Centers, women development, youth work etc.
