Almost 80 Sisters of the Infant Jesus have served in Yokohama since 1872. A total of 49 of these sisters are buried in the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery (YFGC). They all lived in the Yokohama convent, and most of them were teachers at Saint Maur International School and/or Yokohama Futaba Gakuen. The earliest grave is that of Sœur Saint Ferdinand Constantin, who died less than five months after arriving in Japan; the most recent is that of Sister Louis Minagawa in 2013.
While the 19th-century and early 20th-century graves contain entire corpses, according to Catholic custom, it appears that more recent graves were designed to include the cremated remains of multiple sisters; the largest number is fifteen, as you will see in Photograph # 3. It will be obvious that remains were added at various times; therefore, in several cases one grave is shared by sisters from multiple generations. A wide range of nationalities are represented.
Below are photographs (taken on a bright sunny day in August 2024) of each of the eleven gravesites, arranged in chronological order of the interment of the first corpse. The names of the sisters interred are listed before each photograph.
Names are styled in French for those who died before 1945 and in English thereafter. Information is based on the headstone and the Infant Jesus (EJNB) Archives in Paris. (There are some discrepancies between the years of birth or death on the headstone and in the Archives, and some birth years were evidently not recorded for Japanese sisters. The discrepancy may be due to the continuing use of the traditional lunar-solar calendar, even after the Gregorian calendar was legally adopted in Japan.)
Photographs # 1a (full view) and #1b (close-up):
Mère Saint Norbert Lévesque (1834-1875)
Mère Sainte Mathilde Raclot (1814-1911)
Mère Sainte Thérèse Hennecart (1870-1940)
Sœur Saint Wilfrid Sweeney (1878-1923)
Sœur Saint Ferdinand Constantin (1847-1872)
Sister Rosalie Hurtemel (1885-1971)
This grave includes some of the most important founding figures of the Infant Jesus sisters in Japan.
Photograph # 2:
Sœur Sainte Marguerite Fuku (1857-1886)
Sœur Saint Grégoire Connolly (1829-1885)
Sœur Sainte Marthe Aguiel (1844-1905)
Sœur Saint Guillaume Michel (1849-1914)
Sister Simone Cormalti (1982-1957)
Sister Pierre Chanel Ceruti (1893-1969)
Photograph # 3:
This shared grave contains the remains of ten of the eleven Infant Jesus sisters who were killed in the Great Kantō Earthquake of September 1, 1923, as well as sisters who died earlier or later. Jeanette Thomas has pointed out that, since their bodies were burned to death in the fires following the earthquake, it would have been impossible to ascertain the individual remains. She also explained that Mother Enda Fitzgerald specifically requested that she be buried with them, following her death 57 years later.
Sœur Saint Oswald MacDonald (1875 or 1876-1907)
Sœur Sainte Clarisse Vivarez (1858-1916)
Sœur Sainte Marie des Sept Douleurs (Mary) Keegan (1854-1923)
Sœur Saint Dunstan Keegan (1863 or 1868-1923)
Sœur Saint Pierre Sifferlin (1879-1923)
Sœur Saint Sebastien Muneuvria (1869-1923)
Sœur Saint Wilfred Sweeney (1873-1923)
Sœur Saint Etienne Seguin (1875-1923)
Sœur Saint Hélène van der Heyde (1874-1923)
Sœur Saint Michel (Michaël) Duffy (1891-1923)
Sœur Sainte Gertrude Matsuda (1863-1923)
Sœur Sainte Eugenie Shikado (?-1923)
Sœur Saint Patrick O’Brien (1893 or 1898-1933)
Sister Dolorès Onodera (1895-1956)
Mother Enda Fitzgerald (1890-1980)
Photograph # 4:
Sœur Sainte Clarisse (Angelique) Sakuyama (?-1915 or 1916)
Sœur Sainte Agnes Nakazawa (?-1929)
Sœur Saint Benedict Matsuda (?-1931)
Sœur Sainte Mathilde Maru (1883-1937)
Sœur Sainte Marguerite Yamakami (1863-1939)
Sister Philomène Yasumura (1868-1949)
Sister Bernard Kobayashi (1917-1961)
Sister Maria Tajima (1923 or 1924-1986)
Sister Anna Ogishima (1900-1992)
Sister Claire Ogawa (1912-2010)
Sister Louis Minagawa (1921-2013)
Photograph # 5:
Sister Antonia Lomboni (1892-1971)
Sister Denis Twohig (1897-1986)
Photograph # 6:
Sister Martha Aketa (1893-1974)
Mother Véronique (Veronica) Lyne (1903-1987)
Photograph # 7:
Sister Joseph Boutavant (1889-1976)
Sister Elise Seghezzi (1900-1989)
Photograph # 8:
Sister Zoé Zanga (1889-1979)
Sister Edith Visinon (1905-1989)
Photograph # 9:
Sister Jeanne d’Arc (Joan) Twomey (1909-1980)
Photograph # 10:
Sister Marie-Angèle Finazzi (1904-1982)
Photograph # 11:
Sister Maria Laetitia Marra (1987-1985)
Photograph # 12:
While 49 members of the Infant Jesus Congregation rest in the Yokohama Foreign Cemetery, the grave of the most influential leader of Saint Maur is far, far away—but very close to her roots. Sister Carmel O’Keeffe (1918-2011) is buried near her birthplace in Cork, at the southern tip of Ireland. Brendan Agnew, who taught Religious Studies to a generation of Saint Maur students, visited her grave on a trip back to his home island and thoughtfully took this photograph.
While the YFGC staff cut the grass and maintain the overall appearance and safety of the cemetery, cleaning the individual plots is the responsibility of the families of the deceased. In the case of Infant Jesus sisters, their "families" are all members of the Saint Maur and Futaba communities. Putting this into action, an after-school club which includes both Futaba and Saint Maur students goes to the cemetery once a month to clean the graves and surrounding areas. This activity, overseen by Eriko Shinozaki '91 (Saint Maur graduate and Futaba mathematics teacher) and Rosina Mansson (Religious Studies teacher at Saint Maur), brings students from the two schools together and helps to deepen their understanding of the long heritage of the Infant Jesus sisters in Yokohama and their deep commitment to education and social service.