The history for the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood has its truest origin in the moment when their founder Abbot Francis Pfanner stood up during an assembly of Trappist Abbots and responded to a request of the South African Bishop Richards of the Eastern Cape for Trappist with his famous words, “If nobody goes, I will go.”

Who was this courageous man, steeped in God`s will and ready to go wherever he was sent? Abbot Francis Pfanner was born on 20.09.1825 on a farm in Langen in Austria. Already as a seminarian he felt called to become a missionary but because of ill health resigned himself to serve God a secular priest and then in 1863 as a member of the Trappist priory of Mariawald in the Eifel/Germany . After turbulent years of contemplative living that went hand in hand with hard physical work, he had built up Maria Stern in Bosnia, only to find himself challenged by God to venture out into His kingdom anew. With 31 fellow Trappist volunteers, he left Europe and arrived at Port Elizabeth on 28 July 1880. There they started to build the Monastery Dunbrody yet adverse conditions made it a failure. Yet he did not tire and moved on up the coast where he decided to stop near Durban in 1882. This was an important decision since of it sprang a flourishing Trappist mission that soon reached across the whole of the Eastern coast of the then Natal.

However, without female helpers the work of evangelisation was too limited. To attract female helpers, to assist him in his various missionary endeavours, Abbot Francis published enthusiastic articles in German catholic magazines while also preaching in Europe about his missionary endeavours. He asked helpers to work side by side with the Zulu woman and girls, in a hot climate. Abbot Francis, a man of prayer and action, believed more in the effect of lived examples than of spoken words. Eventually, five young women responded and joined him leaving their home country forever. On 8 September 1885, which was to become the founding date of this young congregation of women called “the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood”, they appeared in a common uniform, a red skirt, black bodice, apron and cape, and a white bonnet. The founder explained that the colour red was to remind them always of the blood of Christ and the mandate of the fledgling congregation: ” to honour the Precious Blood in a special way and to make it fruitful through their apostolate” (cf. Const.1).

The life of these early women and those that were soon to follow them was simple and characterised by deprivation and great poverty. Yet, as cheerful and happy women, these pioneers entered the houses of the people, brought them the good news of Christ with its gifts of redemption, hope and joy through their tireless work, and committed availability. Initially, these women did not join a regular novitiate but received direct instructions from their founder himself and were after two years admitted to private vows. One of them was Sister Paula, who was to become the first novice mistress, but also the faithful follower of the founder, who handed on his spirit that he wanted to have seen imparted on his sisters in the form of The Inner Spirit of a Missionary Sister of the Precious Blood, and thus the co-foundress.