The Manila Priory

Social-political changes were an immediate catalyst that an all-knowing God used to bring the first Missionary Benedictine Sisters to the Philippines.  Spain turned over the Philippines to the United States in 1898.   English became one of the official languages of the government, and was made the language of instruction in schools. A majority of the Spanish religious men and women left the Islands to return to their native land. The Filipino clergy were few, and Filipino religious women were just as few. The Catholic Church was left with a very inadequate number to minister to the people of God and attend to the Catholic education of the young Filipinos.

On September 14, 1906 five German Sisters arrived in Manila to start what is now known as St. Scholastica’s College. The following year, Sister Baptista Battig, OSB, a former concert pianist, introduced formal music education in the Philippines. From an initial enrolment of 8 paying students and 50 in the free school in a small house in Tondo, St. Scholastica’s College, now on Leon Guinto Street, has a student population of more than 6,000 from the Prep Class to Graduate School. Household help in the neighborhood attend evening classes for free in the Night Secondary School.

At present the Manila Priory comprises 18 communities in the Philippines and one community in Western Australia. There are 12 schools, 1 hospital, 3 immersion communities (one of which is with aborigines in Western Australia), 1 spirituality center, 2 homes for the elderly and 1 refuge house for battered women and children. All houses and institutions engage in the socio-pastoral apostolate.