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November 16, 1941
Newfoundland Nun Interred in German Prison Camp
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew B. Edwards of Lawn, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland wrote Cluny McPherson, Assistant Commissioner of the Red Cross, St. John’s on 16 November 1941 informing the Red Cross that their daughter Marie Andrew Edwards, age 22 was interred in a German prisoner of War Camp in France.
Mary Andrew Edwards: was born in Lawn, Placentia Bay, September 2, 1918. She was the daughter of Andrew Edwards and Nora (Picco) Edwards. She received her early education in Lawn and at age sixteen she went to work in St. Pierre et Miquelon. (Source: 107-15-8)
After a few years in St. Pierre et Miquelon she felt the calling to religious life, this she confided to her confessor who got her in contact with the St. Joseph of Cluny Sisters, a teaching order of nuns at St. Pierre. The sisters paid her way to France, where she entered the order of St. Joseph of Cluny as a Novitiate. On entering she stated her preference to be a missionary sister. Upon being accepted into the congregation she took the name Sister Therese du Christ Roi. She left St. Pierre et Miquelon 19 September 1938 going to the Mother House at Paris.
After the Nazis victory over France in 1940, Sister Therese, her name in religious life and four hundred nuns from different congregations were rounded up and sent to Prisoner of War Camps. She was in a particularly difficult position, as a Newfoundlander, she was carrying a British passport.
POW CAMP
During one period the commander of the POW camp, a Catholic, allowed the nuns to have Mass celebrated by priests and bishops who were also prisoners of war there. Sister Therese and two other sisters of the order were allowed to make their Consecration to God and pronounce their Religious Vows there in the camp itself.
At this stage of the war the Allies were bombing the area of the POW Camp and they were in severe danger. The Swiss Red Cross investigated the camp as many of the priests and nuns were very sick, so they insisted that the sisters be sent to a healthier camp. This was done.
When she was liberated she was sent to Africa for six years after which she was recalled to France. After a few months in France she was sent to New Caledonia.
After twenty three years there she was allowed home to visit parents and family members, after which she returned to the mission. She did this a few times in the ensuing years and at one time her and her sister Nora came home together.
Mary Andrew Edwards died in 1997.
Her sister Nora (in the convent she was known as Sister Joseph de Notre Dame) also joined the religious order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny. During the war years, Nora was working in a mission in Chandernagore, India. As of August 2007, Nora was living in a seniors home in Newport, Rhode Island.
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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