Diocese: Kohima
Pioneers: Sister Lucy D‘Souza, Salomi Rongmei and Apoline Pinto
The district of Dimapur in Nagaland is exceptional as the doorway of Assam into Nagaland, as a business centre for people of Nagaland, Manipur and Assam and as a hub of tribal culture and customs. Dimapur is special to the Ursuline Franciscan Sisters due to the fact of the geographical extension the district has awarded them. Besides Assisi Convent at Dimapur and the institutions attached to it, Dimapur accommodates the novices of North-East Province. St Ursula Novitiate is situated at Kuda ‘A’ village (Nagarjan), a suburb of Dimapur; it lies two kilometres south of the town of Dimapur. Sr Edilburga Monteiro had dreamed of establishing the novitiate of the Province in the Province itself in order to contextualize the novitiate formation; Sr Jeraldine D’Souza, the first Provincial Superior and her team realized the dream on January 6, 2003 when an existing house was renovated and erected as the novitiate house.
As mentioned above, the house existed already. A piece of land measuring one and a half acres was purchased and a study house was constructed in it; it was inaugurated on July 31, 2000 and named St Ursula Study House. Sisters Lucy D’Souza, Salomi Rongmei and Apoline Pinto were the first batch of students at St Ursula. The house catered to students of all the four provinces of the Congregation specifically to obtain their B. Education degree. Sr Lavina Lobo rendered her selfless services at the Study House from May to December 2002 until her untimely death due to cardiac arrest on November 16, 2003.
Prior to shifting the novitiate programme to St Ursula Study House, it was being held at Assisi Convent from June 2002. On January 2, 2003 the programme was shifted to St Ursula Study House. Twelve novices and Sr Gretta Sanjeevini D’Souza occupied the Study House until the construction of the novitiate building was complete. The House was blessed on January 6, 2003 by Fr Mathew Keemattam, Vicar General of Kohima Diocese. It was inaugurated solemnly on May 9, 2003 by Sr Edilburga, Superior General. Bishop Jose Mukala of Kohima Diocese blessed it. The day was solemnized by the enacting of the history of the Congregation through a light-and-sound programme. The same was enacted at St Ursula, Bolar, at the Congregational level in December 2002.
Novices make the best use of their programme of two years at St Ursula. Along with spiritual exercises, they involve themselves in apostolic and social exercises. The second year novices visit the central jail, listen to the woes of the inmates, pray with them and entertain them with cultural programme. They reside with people in villages for a month as part of the exposure programme. On Sundays they visit families, orphanages and the sick in hospitals. The student Sisters of the Province studying for graduation and B.Ed in Salesian College run by the Salesians of Dimapur Province are accommodated here.
A good number of novices have passed the portals of St Ursula under the guidance of Sisters Gretta Sanjeevini D’Souza (2002-2004) Dominica Lopez (2004-2009) and Jyothsna D’Souza (2009- ). In view of addressing the signs of the times beckoning them constantly, the Church is in need of zealous missionaries. St Ursula Novitiate helps in its realization.
