The Congregation of the Servants of Mary...

The Foundation Maria de Belen, functions for 21 years, in Goya city (a region of Corrientes), in Argentina. It is an organization of civil society, who toil to promote respect for rights and to improve the quality of the life of children, of adolescents and of families which undergo divers social and vulnerable situations, by carrying out a global work based on taking into consideration, prevention, promotion and the participation of the agents involved.

The Congregation of Servants of Mary is very much involved in the Foundation: Sr. Nidia, the president, is present daily wise and in direct contact with the team (general coordinator, coordinator of workshops, psychologist, social worker, instructor of the workshops, accountant). She is also responsible to find out funds for the Foundation, the most difficult job sometimes…

In 2005, the Congrgation of Servants of Mary wishes to hand over and administer the creation of the Association "Missions Père Cestac", said MPC.

It is born of the good will of persons sharing the common values and decided to join to put into action in favor of persons in vulnerable situation. "Missions Père Cestac" is a lay association. It administers 6 establishments and social services, medico social and sanitary:

at Our Lady of Refuge, Anglet (Pyrenees Atlantic)

    - a creche of 40 places

    - a home for children having social problems (MECS) of 48 places

    - a service for accompaniment of families (SAF) of 16 lodgings

    - an establishment of accomodation for aged and depending persons (EHPAD) of 95 places

    - a home  for differently abled  adults with 48 places

 and at Buglose (Landes)

    - a service of medical care and rehabilitation (SSR) of 45 beds.are and rehabilitation (SSR) of 45 beds at Buglose (Landes).

In the year 1867, a community of Servants of Mary was established in Bapaume, in the north of France, to welcome the orphans. They remained there till 2005 for the service of the children. In 1972, they merged with the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of Saint Agnes. Together they would work, to fulfill the vision of their founders under new forms.

In 1994, they created the Association "Accueil et Relais", having the objective "to bring support and to be a link between the Congregation of Servants of Mary and the institutions and the service for the children and adults in difficulty, created or to be created in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais and administered by them". By way of agreement, this association sees to delegate the responsibility of three institutions: Home for the children of Bapaume, Home for the children of "La Charmille" at Saint Catherine and the Maternal Centre "La Marelle" at Achicourt.

In the month of May 1998, the objective of the Association is modified. "Accueil et Relais" becomes administrator animator and founder of the institutions and services in the social and medico-social sector in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. In the middle of these structures, it attends to the promotion of political and pedagogical orientations of the Congregation of Servants of Mary. Simultaneously, "Accueil et Relais" becomes administrator of "Foyer Saint-Nicolas", home for the aged at Saint-Nicolas.

In the year 2003, the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence of Arras entrust to "Accueil et Relais" the administration of the Home for the Aged  "Saint-Landelin" at Vaulx-Vraucourt ; in 2012, at the request of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint-Mary of Paris, the Home for the Aged Saint Peter at Villecresnes joint the Association, then the Children’s Home Asermines, founded by the Association Asermines, join in its turn, the Association "Accueil et Relais".

Today, the Servants of Mary sit always at the office, this Association of solidarity of which the mission is to create, to animate, to administer the institutions and services in the Social and medico-social sector according to the principals of its Chart of Values.

Maria Bhavan is a home that we started in the year 2006, in Santhigiri, Kerala (India) in the diocese of Palai: a home for aged women or women in distress, with a capacity of 15 places.

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Reception of mothers with malnourished children

Women's Center for out-of-school girls: 

general education, sewing, cooking...

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The Foundation Gizaide is founded in the year 1997 by the Servants of Mary of Anglet, the Caritas of the diocese of Saint Sebastian and the Congregation of Salesians, with the aim of supporting the persons with mental sickness, having difficulties and give counselling to their near ones.

- home for marginalized women with mental disorder,

- day care center for mentally handicapped adults

At Konoor, Kerala (India) we have started a new mission on 2nd of October 2019. A "Day Care Centre" for senior citizens.

Many aged men and women sitting at home lonely, not listened and not cared for, will be able to find a listening heart and a helping hand in us through this mission.

Men and women irrespective of cast and religion, come and spend their time with us during the day. It is in collaboration with the laity.

The house is given by a charitable society called "Mercy Home", where we are free to use the house according to the need of the mission. Every day 20 t0 25 persons are present.

Educational establishment with boarding-school (English language)

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The Saint Foy School was founded by the Congregation of Servants of Mary.

Though, the religious are not physically present in the school since few years, the congregation remains active and present, so that the spirit in which the school was founded continue. The objective is to keep up the spirit, define and render live our essential values, and taking into account the realities of our world.

The school buildings are the property of the congregation, who participate in decision making regarding maintenance and renovation, in close collaboration with the OGEC and the director of the institution.

The Institution Nuestra Senora de Monte Grande was founded in 1958 by Sr. Redentor, of the Congregation of Servants of Mary, who came from France.

The class started with 8 students. In 1976, Nuestra Senora School, stood with tens of Higher Secondary out going students. It was a period of strict discipline, uniform and performance.

The school developed fast and since then, never stopped development, so much so, in the level of buildings, the number of students and the quality of its teaching.

Stella Maris was opened in the year 1871: At the request of the families who wanted to entrust the education of their little girls to the Servants of Mary, we transformed for them, the novitiates house, into boarding, in the place where the actual school building is.

The school functioned for few years under the name of Our Lady Boarding, giving education of that epoch, arts and language study had been given more importance. The Institution Stella Maris, private institution of catholic education under agreement of association with the State was then founded in 1939.

Since, Stella Maris, continue its educative mission, according to the norms of all the private educational institutions, signing with simple agreements with the State, and then agreements of associations appointing lay teachers, admitting boys and girls, updating the teaching methods to the needs of the time. Open to all, Stella Maris welcomes children from the age of two in pre-nursery class, from primary to Higher Secondary, without any distinction of social origin or religious opinions.

The Congregation of Servants of Mary ensure the guardianship of the school. The spirit that animates, founded on the Gospel, is a "Spirit of service that wants to allow each one to become the master of his/her own development".

Educational establishment (English language)

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Boarding school for middle and high school students from neighboring villages

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Private primary school

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Sentries of Hope,

the Bernardines unite with Mary on Holy Saturday,

in silence, prayer and solitude.

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 Community of Bangalore (Karnataka)

 Community of Chapirevula (Andra Pradesh)

 Community of Gudalur (Tamil Nadu)

 Community of Konoor (Kerala)

 Community of Kuzhivilai (Tamil Nadu)

 Community of Mysore (Karnataka)

 Community of Panakahalli (Tamil Nadu)

 General Council of the Congregation in Anglet

 Notre Dame du Refuge (Head quarter in Anglet)

 Community of Biarrotte

 Community of Bidart

 Community of Biscarrosse

 Community of Buglose

 Community of Hagetmau

 Community of La Renglore

 Community of Latchague

 Community of Saint Jean Le Vieux

 Community of Saint Pierre du Mont

 Community of Sainte Catherine Lès Arras

 Community of Abidjan-Dokui

 Community of Adzopé

 Community of Toupah

 Community Nuestra Señora de los Treinta y Tres à Colon-Montevideo

 Community of Betania in Llavallol (prov. Buenos Aires)

 Community Madre del Taragüi in Goya (prov. Corrientes)

 Community Nuestra Señora del Refugio in Florencio-Varela (prov. Buenos Aires)

 Community of Burlada (Navarra)

Tea, coffee, pepper and mushroom plantations

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our myciculture activity

 the agricultural activities of our Communities

  Discover the agricultural activities of our Communities

The farm between city and nature.

Covering 25 hectares in the heart of the city, the Jardins du Refuge have perpetuated Anglet's market gardening tradition since 1839, preserving an island of healthy greenery in a residential ocean.

Direct sale of vegetables, eggs and poultry from our social and solidarity project.

  Hours (the point of sale closes only on public holidays)

- October to May:

    Tuesday to Friday: 9h30-12h15 & 15h30-18h - Saturday: 9h30-12h15

- June to September:

    Tuesday to Friday: 9h30-12h15 & 16h-18h30 - Saturday: 9h30-12h15

05 59 52 81 32 - 102 avenue de l'Abbé Cestac - ANGLET

  Discover the agricultural activities of our Communities

My vocation, the mystery of God... 

I was born in a small village in the Basque Country in a Christian family of seven children. Our mother wanted us to continue our studies with the Servants of Mary after the local school. It was there that the first call to religious life arrived, through the Superior of the Community. I took part in the spiritual meetings, I loved the Word of God in order to live it, to transmit it. How did she perceive it?

From 1952 to 1956 I was a student at the Aspirat du Refuge, studying at Stella Maris and Saint Anne. I did the Postulancy and Novitiate from 1956 to 1958. 

I was called to go to the Pas de Calais, to a parish... I found myself in a beautiful community where I knew no one. The youngest of the sisters was at the age of my mother!

I lived there for 13 years...Catechesis, YCWB, community animation in the workplace, factory work. These commitments matured me.

After two years of training and work in the social sector in Paris, 13 years in Béarn, social work, ACO, animation of communities in a working-class environment.

All this committed life in the world could only be lived in me through fidelity to the Prayer every morning... The community prayer services...the Eucharist...Regular rereading of life with a religious...

One day, the message of Saint John passed through me, pushed me around, transformed me (1 John 4:7-16).

A rereading of this new call to leave everything for Him, only for Him.... Five years of journeying through the Solitude of Saint Bernard on weekends and during weeks. It was a reading and rereading of the work of the Blessed Father. Why there? 

Why living this radicality with the Bernardines? Because they are the same Marian religious family that I loved.

35 years of my presence in this place where God has not finished His work in me...here...

"For the love of your People...of this land...your glory dwells with us" and Mary remains our Star.

Anglet, January 2021

My Vocation, a precious pearl ever cherished! 

"You did not choose me, but I chose you." 

I am extremely glad to introduce myself and my congregation to you all. May the Lord be glorified through my sharing and many of you be inspired to follow Him, more closely and love Him more dearly.

I am Sr. Jhancy, the only daughter to my parents with my 3 brothers. I remember my childhood with gratitude to my parents, my brothers, teachers and friends through whom God sprouted the seed of faith in me. It was God’s abundant mercy and love that added to my growth in faith time to time.

When I was 13 years old, I happened to listen to a song in Malayalam which means "I have died for you, what you have done for me?". It was an inspiration for me to respond to the call of God to religious life. I wanted to offer my whole life to the Lord and His people. But I expressed my desire to no one for the fear that they wouldn’t let me allow joining the convent.

My desire to follow Jesus, the sole Master of my life grew day by day. After my PDC (17 years) I wanted to join a convent named after Mary, our Mother. I came to know about my congregation Servants of Mary. Though I have 8 of my cousins in different congregations, God let me be here in this congregation as I have a special attachment to our Mother Mary.

It was a shock to my parents and brothers and one of them stopped talking to me and my parents, when I expressed my desire. Though it was a painful situation, God sustained me in my vocation with His powerful word time to time, "My Grace is sufficient for you." (2 Cori 12:9) 

My love for religious life and my congregation multiplied as I came to know the meaning of Servant of Mary. To be a Servant of Mary is to be like Mary who always lived according to the Will of God and to partake in her spiritual Motherhood. Our founder Fr. Cestac was always inspired by her to do the will of God all through his life.

God who calls us to be with Him and to be sent out to carry out His mission, has got a plan and purpose for each of us and He knows and discerns where we have to be and that’s why I am here as a Servant of Mary in our congregation where we breathe a real family spirit supporting and encouraging one another to spread the message of love through our different apostolate like education, upliftment of the downtrodden particularly women and the children, and health care. Every human being has got a vocation to be a child of God. Another call He gives is either to family life or to religious life. Every call is divine for it is God who calls and it is challenging because we need to witness to His own very life which was totally selflessly self-giving.

Dear friends, you are most welcome to imitate Jesus, our Master being a Servant of Mary. God who is ever faithful in His promises and merciful in His deeds (Ps145:13) will always be there with us in all our ups and downs of our life.

"By the Grace of God, I am what I am." (1Cori 15:10)

Hello, my name is Blanca Arregui y I am Spanish. 

I met the Servants of Mary of Anglet through the Sisters of Our Lady of Compassion, with whom I work and collaborate, because the two congregations have decided to share in Alliance a part of their way of communion.

Last year, I came for the first time to Our Lady of Refuge, to work with the MNA (non-accompanied minors) of Foyer Cestac, that keeps the name of the Father founder of the congregation, Fr. Louis Edouard Cestac, of whom the tomb is found in the site.

I was impressed to see how, around the religious community of the church and of the contemplative community of Bernardines, so many projects and different works coexist in this vast space.

Social and educative works such as the four homes for children and adolescents, the apartments for one parent mothers or fathers and their babies, the residence for old people in which live the religious and the lay people, home for differently abled adults or again a school and a college… Other ecology aspects such as the "Les Jardins du Refuge", for the cultivation and sail of agricultural products and of animal raring where work the handicapped persons… And of course, different places of prayer, of meeting and get together. Till the famous cemetery with tombs of sand on which the crosses are made of sea shells…

In this place, too close to the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by trees and greenery, in spite of so many activities, all is peace and serenity; a feeling that is impossible not to feel when we come there.

What touches me more, it is to think that 180 years ago, in this same place, lived the first young girls saved from prostitution, welcomed by Fr. Cestac and his sister Elise, origin of the congregation of Servants of Mary. And how, since then it is always a place where the persons who are in need, find assistance with dignity. A true refuge of love and tenderness.

Anglet, August 2019.

My experience, this week of translator and interpretress among the religious women who have nothing to see with those of my childhood, all "in civil dress" living in small communities of 2, 3, or 5, not more than this, in Argentina, Ivory Coast, India, Spain and in France, gathered together here in the Mother House of their founder, it is too strong. These are the Servants of Mary, a kind of G5…

All are "social workers" in their country, they had to choose, in the light of the Gospel, the orientations for the 5 years to come. They also work in the world and for the world. They repair family disasters, they help the women in distress, they educate the children, adolescents, they nurse the sick. They pray.

In an attitude of simplicity and humility that contrast strongly with the unfolding of the forces invested in our region during this week at the occasion of the meeting of the political leaders of this world, they question the values that motivate our actions.

Anglet, August 26, 2019

Gabriela Portale (coordinator of Escuela de Vida du college "La Milagrosa" at Llavallol) & Guillermo Somaschini (legal representative & pastoral coordinator of college "Nuestra Señora de Monte Grande" at Buenos Aires), in Argentina

Gabriela: Good morning! How are you? We are Gabriela and Guillermo, the lay people who do pastoral work of 2 colleges of Servants of Mary in Argentina. La Milagrosa and NSMG.

Guillermo: The general Chapter of the Congregation starts in few hours; it is a time of great responsibility that we are very happy and impatient to participate in it.

Gabriela: Since our arrival here, we feel the hospitality of the sisters without ceasing, attentive to all our needs… They helped us to discover their various activities and we could observe the permanent presence of their deep social commitment.

Guillermo: It is amazing to see the joy and happiness with which they do their activities, accompaniment of women with psychiatric problems, giving duties to handicapped persons, shelter and access to education for the immigrants without shelter, among others…

Gabriela: The Bernardines who toil and pray in silence are equally remarkable.

Guillermo: Everywhere, whether it is in the activities or near the persons met, one feels the spirit and the charism of Fr. Cestac.

Gabriela: This year the Sisters asked us to put together the pastoral activities of the two colleges. So, we started to meet regularly in order to know each other better.

Guillermo: Following these meetings, we stepped into a new stage, during the first semester. We then proposed to gather youth groups of both the colleges so that they meet together.

Gabriela: The youth groups are formed of students who wish to participate freely in these meetings.

Guillermo: As you can see in the video, we pray, we share our reflexions on the theme of service, we play and we take our lunch together… And we have sent an invitation for the future meetings and we pre-plan to realize a common mission for the year ending.

Gabriela: We hope to continue to weave links with these youth and as Fr. Cestac said, we try to "give to others the taste to live".

The two: Bye see you…

Notre Dame du Refuge, Anglet, August 3, 2019

It was during the Beatification of Father Cestac, on 31st May 2015, that I met the Servants of Mary; what a beautiful meeting!

At this time, I was the assistant of the General Vicar of the Diocese, Father Lionel Landart and, as professional of event management, I had the mission to organize this extraordinary ceremony in the cathedral of Bayonne. A difficult but exciting challenge, crowned by the happiness and smiling faces of the Sisters, who came from all over the world.

Since then, we haven't left each other! Neighbour of Notre Dame du Refuge, I assist them in their communication actions and the organization of their events, but also share with them, exceptional friendly parentheses!

Anglet, August 15, 2019.