Marie Rivier Home for Children

Our Foundress St. Marie Rivier is a Woman of Compassion. Her whole life is a being of Compassion…her childhood, her adolescence, her adulthood up to her sublime offering to God of her life at the time of her death.

During her lifetime as consecrated and religious, St. Marie Rivier took good care of over 500 orphans. The orphanage was side by side in the foundation of her schools. Her profound understanding of human dignity was her second nature. Being a child of God is a value she most upholds. She realized in her lifetime this value by providing a safe, protective place where each child grows in love, care, gentleness and kindness…in a word a HOME. The children are the ‘darlings of her heart’. For St. Marie Rivier, she saw Christ in every small child. Dignity of life is a mission, and a vision taking care of life is not only for today but for the future.

Marie Rivier Home for Children (MRHC) was founded on this legacy of compassion. The Philippine Province was inspired to walk on the footstep of St. Marie Rivier by carrying her work of love, the orphanage. On the Lenten Season of 2012, the Superior General launched a solidarity project to build this haven for abandoned and neglected children.

Thirteen years now, the MRHC served the Mother Church in taking care of her poor children. The Home serve children ages 2 to 12 years old, who are referred to, by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. It continues to uphold the value and dignity of life which, in our postmodern society, is continued to be forgotten, even abused in some cases. The number of children in orphanages is a loud and clear reminder that the basic dignity of human life has been violated. It is God’s will that we engage in the work of compassion, of caring for the fundamental value of life beginning conception.

When we give care, love and create safe environment, life flourishes… Each child is precious in the eyes of God. To take care of a child is to take care for the future. Each child deserves a safer world to live, to grow and flourish.

For St. Marie Rivier, “The orphans are the darlings of my heart.” She says to us her children, “This work is the joy of my heart, I hope it will be yours too.” (Sr. Charito B. Gorgonio, PM)