France Papers

This letter reveals the pressure the SHCJ faced to find and retain property for their schools and convents as M.M. Xavier shares information with her superior in England regarding the mortagage payments on the large and expensive buildings of 3 Boulevard de La Saussaie. Despite these financial concerns, she finds joy in the way that 'the sisters are so happy this year' and the school 'full & of such nice children'.

On 9th June 1940, the SHCJ communities of Neuilly and Fribourg were warned by the British Embassy that they and all other remaining British citizens were to leave France immediately. Assisted by the women of the Mechanised Transport Corps (MTC), who had been renting the SHCJ Convent as a central meeting space, the sisters made a daring escape through the French countryside and finally to Royen from which a boat took them on a long and cold journey across the channel to England. 

Shown here is a page of the account of this journey written by Mother Grace Thomas and a newspaper clipping describing the couragous escape from imprisonment by Penelope Otto, a member of the MTC, that was enclosed within the written account. Mother Grace was evidently proud of the SHCJ's connection with her and the other women working for the war effort in this way. 

This 1975 copy of 'Le Pepin' is the only school magazine from Creteil held within the SHCJ European Province archives, but it allows us to have a snapshot of the school at this moment. Not only does it give an account of school life after 15 years of the Ecole and College de Maille in Creteil, but it also includes comics drawn by children, showing how here , as in other SHCJ schools, the children were encouraged to present their ideas in a creative way.