A as a result of his enthusiastic articles in the German Catholic press, five young German women travelled to South Africa to join Abbot Pfanner’s missionary work and arrived on 1 September 1885. They aspired to a vocation in the religious life, and were eager to have a specific common rule of life.
They were given red material to sew a simple uniform which they wore for the first time on 8 September 1885, and received their community rules. This is considered the foundation date of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood.
Mother Paula arrived at Marianhill at 19 years of age on 7 October 1886. A month later she made her commitment and took her first vows on 8 December 1888. At age 22 she took up the leadership of the Sisters.
In 1907, Sr Paula was elected as First Canonical Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood. By this time new congregations had spread to many parts of the world.
Abbot Franz Pfanner regarded himself as the founder of his “Red Sisters” and personally recruited all the members of the newly founded congregation up to 1892. Impressed by his personality and his program, hundreds of women followed him into uncharted territories as he instilled in them his God-given charism, zeal and enthusiastic penchant for mission life!
