Secular Institute St. Boniface
"Passion for God – service to the people." These are the central elements of our way of life, as consecrated women in the heart of the world. As a missionary Benedictine community in the Catholic Church, we follow Christ's example: choosing a life of poverty, chastity, obedience and commitment to others, especially those who are searching for the meaning of life, encountering difficulties or are affected by poverty and hardship. Founded in 1949, we are today an international community with members in Europe, Africa and Latin America.
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Missionary projects
"Mission", i.e. our mission as a missionary Benedictine secular institute, means, for us, participating in the mission of Jesus: proclaming the Gospel – and proclaiming it with our lives. As far back as 1975, Pope Paul VI. wrote in his encyclical "Evangelii nuntiandi" on the subject of proclaiming the Gospel;
«Through this wordless witness these Christians stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live: Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? What or who is it that inspires them? Why are they in our midst?»
From the very beginning, our first missionaries – who left for Guatemala and Rwanda in the 1960s and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1980s – shared the life of the local population. They learned their languages, got to understand their mentality and their way of life.
With the first native members of these countries within the community, a new phase of living together began, side by side. Today, the leadership responsibilities for the community in Guatemala and Rwanda-Congo, too, is in the hands of native members.
The commitment of the community in these countries is varied and specific:
