The history of the “House Brig” is a part of the history of the Federation, see www.ste-ursule.org. The “House Dole” (F ) founded the “House Fribourg” in Switzerland through Porrentruy. In 1661, Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper brought the Ursulines from Fribourg to found the “House Brig” (VS/CH) to give to the girls formal education in schools. After almost 200 years, in 1853 the state VS asked the sisters to build up a community for teacher training . From then on the number of sisters increased very fast and with that schools in each village in the upper Valley, with sisters also being involved in pastoral work in the different Parishes.
This allowed us to widen our fields of work. The social work was from the beginning till today, one of our fields of work. Through homes for orphans, namely, the home in Sion, a new autonomous “House Sion“ was established in 1884. Some Ursulines were nurses in the nearby hospice of St. Antony. The school of home science was converted into a clinic in 1934 and later the the Hospital Santa Maria in Visp with a nursing school (except during the years of war). Since 1990 and 1995 the state of VS has taken them over. Nevertheless the sisters had been working in the Hospital till 2009, and in the school of nursing till 2010. The sisters also had the responsibility of nursing in different villages. This work was taken over by the SPITEX in 1976 and following years. As the number of sisters increased, it became possible to spread out to Missions in South Africa in 1934 and to India in 1952.
In 2011 we had the 350 years jubilee of the Ursulines of Anne de Xainctonge in Brig. We were astonished to see, what God worked with us and through us and in us. Thanks to be God.
On 21.11.2017 we celebrated the 450th birthday of our Foundress Anne de Xainctonge.
Through the working and meetings with the other Provinces and with the Federation, our relationship became international. In the USA, South Africa and India we speak English, in Switzerland German and in Romania, Romanian. In the Federation we speak French, German or English.