The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
18 January 2004
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The Catholic Weekly
Goose bumps from
nuns’ Ave Maria
A
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College put George in volleyball’s courta
Goose bumps from nuns’ Ave Maria
The nuns of L’Eau Vive sing Ave Maria every night
By David Ellis
One group of sisters in New Caledonia certainly knows how to bring a tear
to the eye.
But it’s not with tales of hard-luck, pictures of the needy, nor even
how passionately they preach the Gospel.
It’s the way they sing – in particular a goose-bump-raising version of Ave Maria at nine o’clock every evening.
And so powerful is its effect on visitors that many rise to their feet rather than fall to their knees at the words and the harmony of the young singers, who are accompanied not by an organ in a local church, but by a guitarist in a Noumea restaurant.
Meet the South Pacific’s most unusual missionaries, a cobbled collection of young devotees from places as far-flung as their hometown South Pacific, France and Africa. They run a restaurant called L’Eau Vive to raise money to help the needy of New Caledonia while in its kitchens and dining room they train young aspirants to the hospitality industry.
Just how this strange operation came about goes back to France in 1950, when a Catholic priest – Fr Marcel Roussel-Galle – set out on an unusual crusade to support those less fortunate in Third World countries.
With the blessing of the Church he established the Travailleuses Missionnaires de l’Immaculée, a group of sisters who would travel the world to preach the Gospel and give help to the desperately needy.
In 1977 some of the order in France came up with the idea of taking a lateral step further, setting up little restaurants which the sisters would run to make money, and which could provide customers with an opportunity to “discover evangelism”.
With New Caledonia a French territory in the faraway South Pacific, L’Eau Vive Restaurant seemed a natural to soon follow, and today there are around 30 nuns who are members of the order, 10 of them working each night in the restaurant to raise money and train islanders looking for careers in hotels, resorts, restaurants and the like.
The restaurant is a real ‘must do’ among regular holidaymakers to Noumea, and its regularly-changing menu offers an extraordinary diversity of dishes that reflect the backgrounds of the nuns and the countries they come from, as well as local New Caledonian fare.
And you won’t go short for a nice wine to accompany your meal – these good sisters have one of the best cellars in Noumea.
During the evening they may suddenly break into song, and always, simply always, at 9pm will perform their signature Ave Maria.
Dressed in their island ‘Mother Hubbard’ dresses, heads adorned with tropical leaves and flowers, anklets of local nuts to click in tune with the rhythm of the guitar and their singing, the young missionaries take centre stage as L’Eau Vive falls almost deathly quiet.
And when it’s all over for the night, they put their profits towards New Caledonia’s less fortunate.
The restaurant is busy most nights and booking is advised; ask the tour desk or reception at your Noumea resort to make a booking for you.