When classes begin next week at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, students will be greeted by two new teachers: nuns from the Salesian Sisters order.

Sisters Ngan Do and Ignacia Carrillo, both of whom served most recently in San Antonio, will be teaching all-ages religion and second grade, respectively. The duo, along with a third nun from their order, Sister Jeannette Palasota (who is focused on community outreach, not teaching), will be moving into a brand-new convent on NE 27th Street in Bend, right next to St. Francis, after a public blessing ceremony Saturday evening.

“When there is a need somewhere, our leadership chooses and sees what sisters might fit in that mission,” Carrillo said. “They call us, and we go. We were called here, so we came.”

Carrillo and Do said they love Bend after living here for a month, calling the city “beautiful” and “awesome.”

They have lived in other Salesian Sister convents around the western United States, from California to Colorado to Arizona.

Father Jose Thomas, the pastor at St. Francis, said he asked the Rev. Liam Cary, the bishop for Eastern Oregon, to invite a religious order to send nuns to teach at St. Francis. After a couple orders didn’t have enough people to send, the Salesian Sisters quickly said they would send nuns to meet with St. Francis leaders, which surprised Thomas.

“I wasn’t expecting a quick response. We thought if we got nuns in the next three to five years, we would be lucky,” he said. “A month later, I got a call saying they wanted to send a couple of nuns to our facility.”

Principal Crystal Mooney agreed, saying that the speedy process “was shocking to everybody.”

St. Francis’ new teachers took different paths to sisterhood. Do said she joined because she loved working with youth — the Salesian Sisters are focused mainly on education, according to the nuns — and because her aunt joined the order, as well.

“Sometimes, she came to visit my family, and I loved the habit that she wore,” Do said.

Carrillo said she grew up with the intention of becoming a teacher, not a nun. But during her collegiate studies, she had to find a place to work with young children for class, and the only place available quickly was a nearby parish.

“That’s where I discovered my calling … because I found great joy in serving and helping and helping teach the faith to children,” she said.

According to Thomas, nuns taught at St. Francis when it opened 82 years ago. But in recent years, before Carrillo and Do arrived, the school had only one, a member of the Kenyan order Sisters of Mary of Kakamega, who left this summer. Thomas said he hoped the Salesian Sisters could bring that tradition back to the school.

“We are a Catholic school, and we really want to have Catholic nuns teach the children,” he said. “Most of the people who have gone to Catholic school, they’ve been taught by nuns, and they love that teaching.”

According to Mooney, St. Francis plans to add more Salesian Sister teachers to its ranks. The recently completed convent, which took only three months to build and was a “special project” of Hayden Homes CEO Dennis Murphy, has six rooms, so the church will have space for new sisters.

“The vision is, as my teachers retire, we replace them with a Salesian Sister if one is available,” Mooney said. “We don’t know if there will be a Salesian Sister available, but they have a six-bedroom home.”

Carrillo said the nuns’ mission in Bend is not only to educate kids, but also to attract locals to join their order.

“Our goal is to work here and to work hard so we can bring local vocations, to have sisters from Bend,” she said. “There’s a lot of young families and young women to promote that this way of life is beautiful and possible.”

The sisters said they’re excited to continue their spiritual journey in Central Oregon.

“We are so happy; we’re just waiting for the children to come and get to know them, get to know their families better,” Do said.

“The community has been so welcoming and generous and has donated so much for our home,” Carrillo said. “The joy in the people … they express that they’re so happy for our presence, and you just feel very welcome.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7854;jhogan@bendbulletin.com