Hospital Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis

Sr. Cecilia Hisamatu


As one of the first Japanese candidates I (Sr. Cecilia Kachi Hisamatu) entered this Community, on Feb. 2-nd, 1950, and have celebrated 60 years of profession in 2013.

I was born in a village of which two- thirds of the people were Catholic. My family is Catholic. Three days after birth, I was baptized.  My given name is Kachi, the name of a martyr of our village.

It was a custom that when a mother gives her baby the breast, she takes the right hand of her baby to make the Sign of the Cross.  And so it was with my mother.  When the child becomes old enough to understand and sees the face of its mother, the child makes the Sign of the Cross on his/her forehead with the right hand and the child asked for the breast.

The sisters were near my home in my childhood, and I got used to seeing them. When I was 19 years, I went to St.Francis Hospital on the recommendation of a pastor of a parish. Sr. Polycarpa and Sr. Clementia went back and forth between Himeji and Nagasaki. Whenever they came to Nagasaki, I received Sr. Clementia’s greetings with a hardy hand shake. Even now, the warmth of the big hand she offered me is unforgettable and its memory is in my heart. I was touched and admired the nobility of offering oneself to God.

I entered the community, just after the novice mistress came to Japan from America and she was not able to speak Japanese.  Though I always had the dictionary in one hand my studying English hadn’t made any progress at all. Anyway I am here now.

As I look back, I worked in the kitchen at Francisco Villa, Himeji convent, retreat house and Nagasaki. I always enjoyed my ministry-- ‘’Eating is living”-- it was always a work of joy.

Through the joys and pains of hospitality, I have been working for the Glory of God. As I grow old I believe my apostolate is doing the Will of God, and shall gladly do anything my superior may ask of me, and am committed to do it gladly.