Mother Saint Ludgarde Nourrit (1856-1931) is often associated with Mother Saint Mathilde Raclot, whose assistant and successor she was in Yokohama. As a teacher and then community superior in the provinces, she dreamed of becoming a missionary. Her wish came true and she spent more than 25 years of her life in Japan and Singapore, where she served with dedication and reached several high positions.
Youth and entry into the Institute
Early years in the Institute
Mother Mathilde's assistant
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Mother Saint Mathilde Raclot had been the superior in Japan since 1876. She was very old and found it difficult to carry on with this very heavy task and asked the Superior General to appoint an assistant. Mother Ludgarde was chosen and in 1897 she left her position as Superior of Armentières.
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The first superior of Shizuoka
Mother Mathilde wanted to found a third community in Japan. She hoped to establish the congregation in Nagoya, but the local authorities were not in favour of this project. The project was diverted to Shizuoka. Mother Mathilde and then Mother Ludgarde worked in collaboration with Father Pierre Rey of the Foreign Missions of Paris to enable a community to be opened. Father Rey played an essential role as intermediary with the authorities in Shizuoka and played an active part in the progress of the project, to which Mother Ludgarde contributed as soon as she learned of her appointment as superior. Mother Ludgarde and the sisters left to found the community in 1903, where they opened a school, which was enlarged and refurbished in the following years.
From Yokohama to Singapore
In 1907, Mother Ludgarde returned to Yokohama to take over from Mother Mathilde as superior of the community. Little is known about these years, but it seems that Mother Ludgarde followed in Mother Mathilde's footsteps. The Japanese mission developed and focused more on education : in 1910, the sisters had a European boarding school, two girls' schools, a workhouse, an orphanage and a dispensary.In 1917, at the age of 61, Mother Ludgarde was called to become superior of the Singapore mission, the previous superior having died a year earlier. Mother Ludgarde left Japan after twenty years of mission, a departure that must have been difficult for her. Mother Ludgarde fully assumed her role as superior, being present at the ceremonies, visiting the mission establishments, accompanying the sisters on their travels, travelling to Malaysia and being a figure of authority for the community. In 1919, the Singapore mission had schools with around 700 children and 200 in the orphanage, not counting the babies. She was superior of the mission when Georges Clemenceau visited on 22 October 1920, and a reception was organised in her honour.
The last years
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Mother Ludgarde returned definitively to France in 1923, after 26 years spent in Asia. Health problems forced her to leave the Missions, much to her regret.
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Far from being a shadow of Mother Mathilde, Mother Ludgarde was able to chart her own course as an Infant Jesus Sister. She fulfilled her wish to become a missionary and contributed to the flourishing of the congregation in the twilight of the century of missionary renewal. When she left for the missions, she took on a number of high functions, which offered her rare opportunities for a woman of her time. Her correspondence, incomplete over many years, reveals her personality and her feelings, as well as their evolution and constancy. Mother Ludgarde reveals herself and appears as an enthusiastic, zealous woman, concerned for her fellow sisters, firm in some of her ideas, loving the missions and completely abandoned to God's will.
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This article is an abridged version of the virtual exhibition of the same name.
By Anaëlle Herrewyn, archivist of the Infant Jesus Sisters