Precious Blood Sisters 140th Anniversary: Bishop Celebrates Legacy of Congregation Five Women in South Africa Started

Mariannhill, 10 September, 2025 / 5:04 PM

Five women who wore red skirts started the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood (CPS), a Congregation that has spread its roots and is now present in 20 countries across five continents.

At the celebration of the CPS’s 140th anniversary on Monday, September 8, the Bishop of South Africa’s Mariannhill Diocese where the Congregation was started lauded its growth, and prayed for more vocations to Religious Life in the country.

Bishop Neil Frank said that the Congregation, started in 1885 by Abbot Franz Pfanner, had come in strongly to meet the needs of the time in education, health and pastoral care, creating a rich legacy along the way.

Addressing members of the Congregation in his homily, Bishop Frank said, “You started here in Mariannhill in 1885 and have spread to many parts of the world. We are proud of the rich history; of the achievements of the ministry; the legacy that has been built and in places has passed on the government services.”

“There are many memories to honour; people to celebrate; a vision to cherish and to continue to fulfil,” the Bishop of Mariannhill said at the event that was held at Mariannhill St Joseph’s Cathedral.

Born in Austria, Pfanner is said to have pronounced his first vows at the Mariawald Trappist Monastery in Germany, as Father Francis. He would later joyfully respond to the call by a visiting Bishop from South Africa who asked for missionaries for his diocese.

On 1 September 1885, five young German women travelled to South Africa to join his missionary work.

According to information provided by CPS, the women, eager to embrace Religious Life, were   given red material to sew a simple uniform, which they wore for the first time on 8 September 1885.

In his homily, Bishop Frank lauded the courage of the five founding members of the Congregation, saying, “I try to imagine what was in the minds of those young women, he first five, aged between 22 and 42, that made them in 1885 to consider leaving everything – family, country, culture – and come to this part of the world.”

“I try to grasp the impact the vision of Abbot Pfanner had and the way he articulated it that pulled on the hearts of those women,” the South African Bishop said, and added, “Surely, their faith-upbringing led them to set as a priority the Gospel injunction: “Go out to all the world and make disciples of all the nations”, and to imagine themselves as fulfilling it.”

“If one has that depth of faith, one has the strength to make a life-long commitment, leaving the future in God’s hands,” he said.

According to the Bishop, Abbot Pfanner had a vision that was generated by the needs he saw in Mariannhill.

“There were people, living in this area, who could benefit, according to his own thinking, from education, medical help, from faith in Christ,” Bishop Frank said, and added, in reference to the CPS founder, “He saw the need, determined within the mission, he created the vision, he found the strategy to meet the need, he communicated the strategy. Four steps in his missionary endeavour.”

When he sent out a call for more missionaries, Abbot Pfanner was not looking for Professed Sisters, but lay volunteers, the Bishop recalled.

The Abbot, he said, “asked for women who were not particular about food, drink, sleep, clothing or shelter; who would persevere through physical difficulties; who would be practical in educating the young women of this place.”

Bishop Frank described Abbot Pfanner as “a masterful craftsman” who was “forceful, with the certainty of the mission of his vocational calling.”

“The practitioners of the Gospel need to be daring. Abbot Pfanner was not lacking in that regard,” he said.

In choosing the colour red for the founding CPS members’ uniform, Abbot Pfanner was “daring”, Bishop Frank said, and adding that the red skirts “received some protest from the more fashionable minded European ladies.”

“Abbot Pfanner convinced them of the need to be different from others and then he theologized about the significance of the red, which was to be a reminder of the Precious Blood of Christ,” the Bishop said, and added, “How can you argue against such theological understanding of the redemptive blood that must bear fruit in the souls of the African people?”

He said that Abbot Pfanner’s mind and heart were inserted into Mariannhill that he did not wish to be elsewhere. “How important this is for the missionary, an incarnational spirituality and praxis, becoming one with the people to whom you are sent, for their salvation. This is how Jesus did it!”

Bishop Frank described the celebration of CPS’ 140th anniversary as “a moment to delve into the hearts of the first five “sisters” who he said came to be known as “The Red Sisters”.

He appealed to missionaries to draw from the hearts, the courage and faith of the CPS founding members, saying, “The Spirit is the same; the ways of the world are somewhat different. People still need to hear the word of life, to see the example of living faithfully, and to accept God’s grace.”

Praying for more vocations in South Africa, he said, “May more young women hear the call, may they feel the pull in their hearts and may they respond with generosity as did the first five ladies, and the hundreds that followed after them.”