The Community of St Michael and All Angels was an

Anglican religious order Anglican religious orders are communities of men or women (or in some cases mixed communities of both men and women) in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows which often include ...

of nuns in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The Community was founded by Allan Webb, the second

Bishop of Bloemfontein The Diocese of the Free State is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. History The first service North of the Orange River to be taken by an Anglican clergyman was conducted in 1850 by † Robert Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town ...

in 1874 – although the idea was first mooted by Webb's predecessor,

Edward Twells Edward Twells (1823 – 4 May 1898) was the first Bishop of Bloemfontein in South Africa from 1863 to 1869. He was the younger brother of Henry Twells. He died at the age of 70 at his house, Pembrokegate, at Clifton, Bristol. Twells was consec ...

. In a letter he'd written in 1868, Twells highlighted the need for a Sisterhood to set up schools for girls in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

. Three novices and three lay helpers under Emma, a Mother Superior, traveled from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

via Port Elizabeth, arriving towards the end of April 1874. They immediately opened a boarding school, St Michael's, and a day school. St Michael's School exists to this day as one of the leading schools in South Africa. In 1877 the Community established the St George's

Cottage Hospital A cottage hospital is a semi-obsolete type of small hospital, most commonly found in the United Kingdom. The original concept was a small rural building having several beds.The Cottage Hospitals 1859–1990, Dr. Meyrick Emrys-Roberts, Tern Publicati ...

in Bloemfontein, the first hospital in the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

. The Community's work was extended to the nearby mining town of Kimberley, from 1876, where

Henrietta Stockdale Sister Henrietta, CSM and AA (9 July 1847 – 6 October 1911) was a British nursing pioneer and Anglican religious sister. Through her influence and pressure the first state registration of nurses and midwives in the world was brought about w ...

, a sister, pioneered the training of nurses at the Carnarvon Hospital. She was later influential in securing the first state registration of nurses in the world, in 1891. A St Michael's School was established in Kimberley but did not survive beyond the first years of the twentieth century. Sister Joan Marsh, the last member of the Community, died aged 97 in Bloemfontein in May 2016.

Prominent members of the CSM & AA

- the founder of professional nursing in South Africa. The

Anglican Church of Southern Africa The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are loc ...

commemorates Sister Henrietta annually on 6 October, the anniversary of her death - the Synod of Bishops having placed her on the church's Calendar. * Mary Hirst Watkins - qualified in nursing and midwifery under Sister Henrietta and is acknowledged as the founder of modern midwifery training in South Africa. Watkins established a school for midwives in Kimberley in 1893. Achieving renown, an appointment in England was offered – but the invitation letter reached Kimberley on the day that she died. Sister Mary Hirst Watkins is re-interred alongside Sister Henrietta in the grounds of St Cyprian's Cathedral, Kimberley.''A Cathedral Pilgrimage''. St Cyprian’s Cathedral, Kimberley, p 23 * Enid Barber - qualified in England as a nurse and became an Anglican Missionary in the 1930s after surviving Tuberculosis caught from a patient whom she nursed until death. She needed to live at altitude and spent the rest of her life in Bloemfontein, using money sent by her sister to purchase the donkey cart used as the Community's first ambulance, eventually being fêted by the national media as 'Sister Theresa' of South Africa, and appearing on television. She knew Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Link to CSM & AA Ambulance Photos

References

Anglican orders and communities Religious organizations established in 1874 Christian religious orders established in the 19th century 1874 establishments in the South African Republic Cottage hospitals {{Anglican-stub