Passing through Montreal at the beginning of 1908, His Excellency Jean-Marie Mérel, Bishop of Canton, China, visited our young community and spoke about the Chinese people and their various needs. On September 8, 1909, six newly professed sisters set out for Canton. In those days, missionaries left never to return... Among the first responsibilities awaiting our missionaries were a nursery for abandoned babies, an orphanage, and a Catholic girls school besides the tasks of learning the language and acclimatizing to their adopted country where everything was so very different.

In October 1913, the Shek Lung Leprosarium, on Saint Marie Island, was entrusted to our missionaries. Our Nurses got down to work with a great deal of dedication in order to dress the horrible sores of the lepers and to win their trust by dint of attentiveness and good care. They received, from the Government, five cents a day per person ! Missionaries bore witness to the Good News of Christ by trying to respond to the urgent needs of the population. Besides nurseries, orphanages and the leprosarium, the Sisters got involved in a lot of services : dispensaries, workshops, homes for senior citizens and handicapped persons, a hospital for the mentally ill, educational centres, apostolic schools, the formation of virgin catechists and native Religious women, etc.