In 1877 German settlers in South Africa requested that Sisters from their homeland be sent to them, and the Dominican Convent of St. Ursula in Augsburg - itself a religious house dating from 1335 - sent seven Sisters to King William’s Town in the Cape. Their work would eventually lead to the establishment of the Oakford Dominican Congregation.

In 1889, Mother Mauritia (Prioress of the Sisters in King William’s Town) responded to a request by Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I. (Vicar Apostolic of Natal). He had asked her to send sisters to help in his vicariate -- at the Oakford Mission which was situated a few miles outside the town of Verulam. This mission was known as the Mission of the Sacred Heart and was established by a young and zealous missionary, Fr. Mathieu, O.M.I.

Mother Mauritia generously sent eight sisters to this new mission. These were the first Dominicans to go to Natal and the first Dominican missionaries to work among the African people of South Africa.

Oakford in those days was a large, tumbledown farm, containing a few derelict buildings, some magnificent views and almost nothing else. What was life like for these eight pioneer sisters? The hardships were many, the poverty intense; but then, they were working among poor people and they had the example of their untiring priest, Fr. Mathieu, whose parish extended for some hundreds of square miles. If there were snakes, ferocious heat and the difficulty of teaching in a strange language, with no equipment and little accommodation; if food supplies did not come through because of lack of transport; if communication was often cut off and water hard to come by, and locusts destroyed hard-won crops, and prejudice and bigotry hampered the work of spreading the Gospel - there was also the knowledge that Christ was being preached.

The days began to form a pattern of service: schooling for blacks and whites and colored, spiritual direction and involvement in the liturgy, medical attention for the sick, visiting Catholics and non-believers as well - a wearying labor because of the heat and the danger of snakes and wilderness. Indeed these pioneer sisters had to clear away bush, rock, and trees, cultivate crops, take care of animals, put up buildings, learn Zulu and French. The Sisters saw a need to school the children of the farmers who worked on the mission and soon they built and opened a boarding school at Oakford for white children and one for African girls. This would also begin to provide a stable income for the missionary work that had been begun.

During this time Mother Mauritia indicated to Bishop Jolivet that the Motherhouse in King William’s Town could no longer support the Sisters at the Oakford Mission. She offered the Sisters the choice to return to King William’s Town or to remain at Oakford and become independent. The Sisters voted unanimously to continue at Oakford and that year - 1890 - the Oakford group of Sisters became a separate entity. Mother Gabriel Foley was elected the first prioress of this new congregation. Expansion of this new group of sisters quickly happened. In 1891 another house was begun at Newcastle, Natal and a school flourished there. In the same year two postulants arrived from Germany, and these were the first among many German, Irish, and English girls who would join these sisters in the Oakford missions.

A novitiate house was established in Neustadt, Germany and was the first among others that would follow in England and California.

As Oakford grew and numbers of vocations increased there were many requests from Bishops in many other parts of the country for Sisters to staff missions in their provinces.

As regards the actual apostolate of the congregation, a pattern was emerging which often followed closely the original sequence employed at the Motherhouse. First, a mission providing a school and medical clinic for Africans, as well as spiritual instruction; then a school for whites which helped to support the missionary work and provided a much needed service as well. Some of the apostolates the Sisters took on in following years: a hospital for African people, hostels to serve working girls in big cities, a Boys Town for white boys in need of correction and care, schools for the children of those who worked on the sugar plantations, a school for colored children, maternity homes, tuberculosis and general hospitals -for Africans and Indians.