Welcome to IFNSBC!

Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel (IFNSBC)

 

The Institute and its mission

 

 

The Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel was founded by Friar Caetano de Messina, an Italian Capuchin Franciscan friar who arrived in Brazil in the first half of the 19th century. In 1841, the friar began his religious activities in the north-east of Brazil, through various works, including the foundation of the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in the old town of Papacaça, now Bom Conselho, in the state of Pernambuco. In this small town, in 1853, Friar Caetano founded the "Colégio Nossa Senhora do Bom Conselho" (Our Lady of Good Counsel College) under the care of the sisters.

When he founded the college and, together with it, the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Friar Caetano de Messina wanted the institute to develop a missionary and educational activity.

The Institute was born with a view to sheltering "destitute orphans". Friar Caetano received the gift of being, doing, calling and uniting. The first Sisters received the gift of responding and congregating. The Sisters who came after received the gift, the responsibility to continue, to make the legacy left by him grow, to the extent that the Institute was able to present and actualize, through a transforming response, the desires and needs of the Church and the People of God. The Institute is the living monument that bears witness to the passing among us of this man of peace and courage, capable of believing that this small group of young people would carry forward his nascent project of love.

Caetano believed that God manifests his power in the weak. His trust was not in vain, because the mission of education, which he left as an instrument to express the gift of peace and reconciliation, is still present in the most diverse activities undertaken by the institute. From this perspective, the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel have always been and always will be non-violent and non-dominant. As long as there is a human being on the face of the earth who thirsts for justice, love and peace, there will be an environment, an open space where the charism of the Institute founded by Friar Caetano de Messina on April 24, 1853 will be expressed.

 

The Founder

​