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English translation of the text on the info-panel White Sisters on graveyard Munsel in Boxtel
History
The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (White Sisters) were founded in 1869 by the French Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algeria. A year earlier, he founded the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers). It was the first international congregation specifically for female missionaries in the Netherlands and the first convent was established in Maastricht in 1887.
Initially, the focus was explicitly on the mission in North Africa, but later this also shifted to West and Sub-Saharan Africa. Led for over 40 years by the Breton Mother Superior Marie Salome, the sisters were involved in education, health care and the position of women and the care of orphans. The White Sisters, as they were also called because of their white habits, had access to poor families and spoke the local languages. They had to improvise a lot with the few resources they had. The first generations went for eternity and knew that they would never return to the Netherlands. This changed in the 1960s. Since then, more and more African sisters have also joined. The missionary sisters who returned at the last have continued to make themselves very useful in parish and volunteer work in Boxtel and other places until old age.
There are about 200 sisters in this cemetery, in double graves and in a large collective grave, of the more than 450 who once joined from Boxtel. About 120 sisters died in Africa and are buried there.
Monument
In honour of the completion of the Congregation in the Netherlands, the White Sisters had this monument placed in 2025. They also commemorate all the sisters who left the Sancta Monica convent in Esch (Boxtel) for Africa between 1895 and 2005 and who may or may not have returned here. The carved cross in the middle represents the charism of the Congregation and the dedication to the Christian ideal of working for God’s Kingdom. Its mission is: ‘Be all to all’. The sisters carry this cross on their hearts and it connects them with the Source of all life. Towards the middle, it opens like flower petals towards heaven, serving God and people, connecting heaven and earth, action and contemplation. The white stones symbolize all the White Sisters who lie here. They radiate light as hopeful beacons in the night and are protected by the cross above them.
The hard steel represents the courage and perseverance of the sisters in the mission, on their way to unknown regions and often in difficult circumstances of poverty, hunger and bloody conflicts. The edge reads: Africa is a seal on my heart. This means that the love for Africa and the Africans will always remain. The artwork is round and is surrounded by the graves of the deceased sisters, just as the sisters used to stand around the tall palm tree in the courtyard of their motherhouse St Marie in Algiers, singing the Sancta Maria at the end of the day.
We hope that, partly due to the undulating green planting and benches, it will be a sheltered meditative place for anyone who wants to pray here or ponder about what his or her mission in life is.
Future
Even though the White Sisters in the Netherlands are completed, the mission in Africa will continue. African sisters, together with the 22 founded African sister congregations, are still committed to women and girls and other vulnerable groups in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Burkina Faso etc. Against social exclusion and sexual abuse, for economic independence, good education and health care, care for migrants and refugees and against the consequences of climate change. The mission continues! As ‘witnesses of hope’ they continue to work on God’s kingdom here on earth and they continue to commit themselves to the poor and weak.
For more information: www.wittezusters.nl and www.msolafrica.org
Design monument: Annelies van Rijn en Stephan van den Thillart: www.zonnevlecht.info
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Text and translation: Marina van Dalen, MSOLA 2025