ABSTRACT

"Go you afar, teach all countries, and bear testimony to me until the end of time; I am with you" (Matthew 27:20). This is our Lord Jesus Christ's effective mandate, which led the missionaries to risk their lives and travel to strange and unfamiliar locations to proclaim the Word of God and convert people to Christ. Mother Mary Charles Walker, RSC, intuitively understood the prophecy and was driven to save souls in southern Nigeria, Africa. She came, conquered, and established the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus in Nigeria. Data were gathered from literature-based sources. Angela Margret was born in Brighton, England, on March 16, 1881, to Colonel Edward Walker, a British soldier, and Mary Josephine Woodhead. Her name was Margaret Mary Angela. She attended Holy Child School in Mayfield. She pursued a religious vocation and joined the Congregation of the Irish Sisters of Charity, later called the Religious Sisters of Charity. She professed her first vows in 1804 and her final vows in 2007. She graduated from a pedagogical institution as an experienced instructor. She worked in Dublin, Ireland. Her zeal for souls and the underprivileged led her to accept Bishop Shanahan CSSP's invitation to come to southern Nigeria for missionary evangelization. She landed at Calabar on October 3, 1923. She laboured tirelessly, created schools, health services and founded the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus in 1931. They were the first indigenous religious women's congregation in Nigeria. Her religious role model deserves to be emulated.