The Institute was founded in Bafwabaka, in the Apostolic Vicariate of Stanleyfalls (Kisangani, Eastern Province), on 27 April 1936, by Bishop Gabriel Grison, the first Apostolic Vicar.
His Excellency Bishop Grison deserves credit for welcoming and sending the first girls from Kisangani to Bafwabaka with the aim of making them Religious Sisters, after their studies at the Teacher Training School and their formation in religious life. In 1930 he accompanied Demoiselle Angèle Lunza, originally from Avakubi, to Bafwabaka, but she did not embrace religious life. In 1931 he sent other girls from the Mission of Saint Gabriel, including Demoiselle Lucie Kasima, who took her first vows on 11 February 1939, in the Church of Saint Michel, in Bafwabaka, under the name of Sister Marie-Léontine Kasima. She would become the first elected Superior General, from 1961 to 1968. Among the collaborators of His Excellency Bishop Gabriel Grison in the creation of the Institute were also the Reverend Fathers Joseph Haurand and Vincent kepu, of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Sisters of the Child Jesus of Nivelles, including the Reverend Sisters Marie-Angélique Bogaerts (appointed first Superior General), Marie Berchmans (first Mistress of Novices) and Henriette-Marie Leloir (appointed second Superior General). The Congregation was canonically erected as a Religious Institute on 2 January 1937, by His Excellency Bishop Camille Verfaillie, the second Apostolic Vicar. Initially, the Institute was founded under the name “Sisters of the Holy Family”; it was then renamed by the 1996 General Chapter “Sisters of the Holy Family of Kisangani”, abbreviated as SSFK. At its beginnings, the Institute had several Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as formators. The principal seat of the Institute was initially in Bafwabaka, in the Apostolic Vicariate of Stanleyfalls, (Kisangani, Eastern Province), from 2 January 1937 to 1965; then, following the events of the “Mulelist Rebellion” of 1964, it was transferred to Kisangani in the Archdiocese of Kisangani in 1965. Since 1949, the Institute has operated in several dioceses. The Institute is under the pastoral responsibility of the Archbishop of Kisangani, and today has approximately 85 sisters serving in 17 communities.
Charism
The inspiration to found an Institute of Religious Sisters of Diocesan Right arose from the concern of His Excellency Bishop Gabriel Grison, the first Apostolic Vicar of the Apostolic Vicariate of Stanleyfalls, to promote evangelization in his Vicariate with the collaboration not only of expatriate missionaries, but also of indigenous pastoral workers, Congolese priests and sisters. Bishop Grison simultaneously founded three evangelization structures: the minor seminary for the formation of future priests; a Novitiate for the formation of Religious Sisters and a Teacher Training School for future Primary School Teachers. He established all these houses of formation in the same place, “Bafwabaka”, because he wanted the students to benefit from the teaching of the same formators available to the Apostolic Vicariate. Grison wanted the Religious Sisters to serve the Apostolic Vicariate of Stanleyfalls by dedicating themselves to evangelization, particularly to the “Liberation of Children and Women from Oppression”. This idea would be reformulated by the 1971 General Chapter as “The human and Christian advancement of families, the fundamental cell of society and the Church“, then revised and clarified by the 1992 General Chapter as “The Christian advancement of families”. Faithful to the founding inspiration, the 2021 General Chapter returned to the formulation of the extraordinary General Chapter of 1971: “The human and Christian advancement of the Family, the fundamental cell of society and the Church”. For this reason, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Kisangani will show their readiness to serve “families”, especially in the catechesis of young children, the education of women, teaching, hospital care, and care for orphans.
