For over 110 years the TORM and SMSM have served in Tutuila, American Samoa. However, the links with our pioneers go back even further: the first sisters who arrived in Leone in 1883, Sister M St Vincent de Paul Tuluiga, Sister M Ste-Claire Nu’u and a novice Sister M Ste-Therese Silika, were Sisters of Our Lady of Oceania, the congregation founded by Sister M. de la Misericorde. In 1897, these sisters withdrew from Falefa, to be closer to their two remaining communities in Lotofaga and Aleipata in Samoa; the TORM took over their school in Leone, American Samoa.
Since that time 115 TORM/SMSM have ministered in American Samoa, and so it was with great sadness that we had to withdraw from this diocese. Sr M Emanuela wrote: “The sisters of the sector gathered on Friday-Saturday 27-28 May at Maota Marista in Samoa to pray together at the time of the closure of our presence and mission in Tutuila. We were encouraged and strengthened by the Spirit of God present with us and in our midst, the Spirit of Peace and Reconciliation, reminding us that “it is all God’s work” and that we are “ambassadors for Christ” (cf 2 Cor 5:17) and for his mission.”
In American Samoa our main ministry has been teaching: in the primary school in Leone from 1883 to 2005, and in the primary school in Lepua from 1909 until June 2001. Private typing classes were begun in Leone in 1940, and in 1960 Sr M Patrick began a commercial school in Lepua which trained many young women for professional work until it closed in 1984. Over the years, sisters were engaged in catechetical work, general pastoral work and communications. They were also involved with the Children of Mary, and the Old Girls’ Associations. The last sister to work in American Samoa, Sr Malia Sekolasetika, left there in June 2007.
