Sestra Serafina Černe in druge šolske sestre misijonarke med Indijanci v Južni Ameriki
Sister Serafina Černe and other School sisters as missionaries among Indians in South America

slovenian

2026

volume 81, issue 1

Indians Nivaclé   missions   Paraguay   Slovenian School Sisters

Univerza v Ljubljani, Teološka fakulteta
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

In addition to working among their compatriots, Slovenian school sisters in South America developed a wide range of educational and health care activities among the Toba and Chulupi Indian tribes in Argentina and Paraguay. The first sisters encountered mission-ary conditions in Laishi, near the Paraguayan border. In 1936, the first four sisters opened the Mision San José Esteros mission station in that country. They later established a second station, Mision San Leonardo, in the Paraguayan province of Chaco Paraguayo in the marshy Pilcomayo River basin. For three decades (1936–1966), the central figure of the mission and superior of the sisterhood was Sister Serafina Černe, who, in addition to her other activities at the mission station, devoted herself to studying the native language of the inhabitants and preparing the first textbook in their language. This later became the basis for the preparation of other school books. Since the school sisters had accepted girls from the local population among their members from the very beginning, these gradually took over the care of the mission stations and the original work among the indigenous population. The last Slovenian to work in this mission was Sister Tadeja Mozetič (who died in 2019). The paper presents the work done by the Slovenian school sisters to preserve the original Native American culture.

02.11.2026