HISTORY OF OUR LADY OF PRAISE, ABBEY, BUTENDE MONASTERY

 In 1964 at the invitation of his Lordship Adrian K. Ddungu, 13 nuns from the Netherlands  came to Uganda to establish a monastic Cistercian life.

In 1950, the superiors of the foundations of Onze Lieve Vrouw Van Koningsoord, the Father Immediate of Koningsoord, came to visit the community and told the sisters about their experience in Indenesia and Kenya.  Also how they saw possibilities for the sisters to make foundations there.  In the end the choice fell on Africa.  At the time  Kenya seemed less favorable for a foundation and since the community of Our Lady of Victoria Abbey had many vocations from Uganda, they looked for a place there.  In June 1963 the Abbess of Koningsoord and the Cellarer went on an orientation- journey together with the Abbot of Koningshoeven.  They visited the community in Congo; La Clarte Dieu, the first community of Cistercian sisters in Africa.  From there they came to Uganda, where they visited several places in the Archdiocese of Kampala and in Masaka diocese.  The choice fell on Masaka, at a place called Butende.  Butende in luganda means “praise”: that is why our monastery is called; Our Lady of Praise, Abbey, Butende Monastery.

At that time, Butende parish was newly erected and had mud-church and a newly built parish house, but there was no resident priest yet.  The bishop of Masaka offered the parish house to the sisters as a temporary dwelling- place.  It was close to the piece of land, which the bishop put at the disposal of the sisters to build a monastery.

In April and September 1964, 13 foundresses travelled to Uganda by boat and by plane.  The first arrival were welcomed at the Kitovu hospital of the Medical Missionaries of Mary where they stayed in a newly built wing of the hospital till the parish house at Butende was made habitable.  A monk of Victoria and from Zundert monasteries were sent to help the sisters as chaplains and as helpers in driving the Volkswagen Combi, generously donated by the Abbey of Scourmont.  As foundation day, we wish to keep 5th July, because in 1964 the sisters moved from Kitovu hospital to Butende parish where they lived with the later arrivals during the building period.

From that day on the sisters started a more or less regular community life with the Divine Office and daily Mass in a room converted into a chapel.