Little Brothers/Little Sisters of the Incarnation

History of the Fraternities

The Little Brothers and Little Sisters of the Incarnation were founded in the Central Plateau area of Haiti in the Catholic Diocese of Hinche in 1976 and 1985 respectively. Today they number almost 100 Haitian religious divided into 16 fraternities.

Their mission is "to become one with the peasants" as they follow Jesus. The fraternities are currently located in 6 dioceses throughout Haiti: Hinche, Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes, Jeremie, Jacmel, Fort-Liberte, as well as one in Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic (see map).Map of the Fraternities in Haiti

Haiti, is like the reed which bends in the wind but does not break, it shows to the world once again the historic strength of the poor. The poor, the blessed of God, are a sacrament of the weakness as well as of the saving and liberating power of God, a sacrament of God's justice, which is to say God's mercy for all people and a sign of God's forgiveness and non-violence.

Haiti knows how much it is loved and cherished by God precisely because it is one of the poorest countries on earth. It's poverty is it richness. Haiti knows it is loved and cherished by a father who would never abandon his children.

Typical peasant house before housing improvementsThe peasantry (more than 3/4 of the population of Haiti) live amidst the poorest conditions on Earth. Pushed-back into the mountainsides or a few less-than-fertile plains, the poor peasants practice a subsistence level of farming which has changed little in the past 200 years. While competition drives the economic market, the dwindling productivity of these arid lands forces many to abandon the countryside and to seek a living elsewhere. Many migrate to the nearest city or to the capital looking for work, where they are obliged to live in squalor and filth outside the city limits. Some even take their chances on the open-seas as "boat people", or cross over illegally into the Dominican Republic; actions which have cost many their lives. Plow and oxen for tilling the fields

In a society where misery of all kinds, great wealth as well as immense poverty, dehumanizes men and women... then those men and women who have devoted their lives to the service of God become an urgent necessity. This closeness to God becomes the stabilizing force which brings harmony and equilibrium to each person individually and to society as a whole.

To rekindle hope in the peasants, to give back to them a taste for life, to reconcile them to their surroundings: such is the mission of the fraternity of the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnation. To achieve this, the fraternities must be true witnesses to life, to hope and to liberty. Uniting work and prayer, a life of service as well as a long-term effort to become self-sufficient, the fraternities share the poverty of their neighbors but also work to pursue an ideal of material and moral dignity. The fraternities strive to be "salt and light"for the world; servants in Christ and for the Christ.

Some Little Brothers of the IncarnationSome Little Sisters of the Incarnation

 

 

 

 

 

 

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