Our history
From a healing ministry to a community
Selected milestones from MLCC’s official history and early records: people gathering for prayer, finding a home together, and growing in formation and mission.
This account follows the Community’s official history (Chapter II), together with the surviving historical notes, Rule, Statutes and Foundational Charism, rather than a complete history to the present day.
How the Community came to be
The Community’s history describes God’s design as a community that would reflect the whole Church: lay people, priests and religious together forming one family, that of Mary’s Little Children, with a ministry of healing, deliverance and evangelization.
The history names 1998 as the year Mary’s Little Children Community was founded. Its founder, Msgr. Fred Kriekenbeek, prepared it to become a community the Church could accept and approve. Cardinal Vidal first established it as a Pious Union; on 22 August 2003, the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, he canonically erected it as a Public Association of the Faithful, and on 25 January 2006 he approved its two Institutes of Consecrated Life, for priests and for sisters.
The history describes brothers and sisters formed in close contact, to prepare both for mission in the world. It calls this a challenging but fruitful experience, and records that visiting retreat masters called the Community a prophetic community.
Understanding the founding dates
The early historical notes and the Rule’s emblem name 6 January 1998 as the Community’s beginning, and the Rule and the Community’s traditions keep Foundation Day each 6 January, the Epiphany. The statutes’ postscript identifies 12 April 1998, Easter Sunday, as Foundation Day, connecting it with the writing of the Community’s foundational text over the Easter Triduum.
Both accounts belong to the written record. MLCC is being asked to clarify how these milestones relate; a single exact founding date is not settled here.
Milestones in the records
1998Founding year
Mary’s Little Children Community is founded
The Community’s official history names 1998 as the year Mary’s Little Children Community was founded. The Historical Data marks 6 January 1998, the Epiphany, as the day “MLCC was born”, with the first commitment as a healing ministry. In the third week of February the ministry moved to Tabunok, which remains its mother house. The records also describe the beginnings of the Basic Healing Seminars, a mission to Australia, and Christmas outreach to hospitals, prisoners, poor communities and older people.
Source: History, Chapter II; Historical Data, pages 1–2
Visit Mother House and Healing Centre6 January 1999
Commitments and a chapel blessing
The historical record describes members signing commitments to ministry and community, the blessing of the chapel, and the transfer of the Tabunok property. The statutes record approval ad experimentum in 1999.
Source: Historical Data, page 2; Statutes, page 5
2000–2002
Formation takes shape
The history records the first acceptance of seminarians in 2000, religious sisters in 2001, and the first batches of sister and brother postulants in 2002.
Source: Historical Data, page 3
22 August 2003
A public association of the faithful
On the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, the Archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal, canonically erected Mary’s Little Children Community as a Public Association of the Faithful. He had first established it as a Pious Union, and the statutes, approved ad experimentum in 1999, bear his approval for the Archdiocese of Cebu.
Source: History, Chapter II; Statutes, page 5; Historical Data, page 4
April 2005
Groundbreaking in Minglanilla
The historical record notes the groundbreaking of the seminary in Tungkop, Minglanilla. This is a construction milestone; it does not establish the college’s founding date. The Community’s history describes the seminary as Mary’s Children Formation College for Philosophy, with its brothers going on to study theology at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
Source: Historical Data, page 4; History, Chapter II
Visit Mary's Children Formation College9 January 2006
The first MLCC priest is ordained
The historical record names Fr. Jerome Antogop as the first MLCC priest ordained, followed by his first Mass in Lilo-an on 10 January.
Source: Historical Data, page 4
25 January 2006
The Institutes of Consecrated Life
On the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, Cardinal Vidal approved two Institutes of Consecrated Life named Mary’s Little Children Community: one for priests and one for sisters. The Foundational Charism places them alongside the lay association within the MLCC family.
Source: History, Chapter II; Foundational Charism, “Integration”
8 October 2006
The community in Iligan
The historical record marks the establishment of MLCC Iligan on this date, naming Sis. Nerissa “Bing” Salandron as its Head Discerner at the time.
Source: Historical Data, page 5
Visit MLCC Iligan
Our founder
Msgr. Fred Kriekenbeek is the founder of Mary’s Little Children Community. Then pastor of St Joseph Parish in Tabunok and spiritual director of the Catholic Charismatic Communities of Cebu, he gave the Community direction and raised it to the status of a community the Church could approve.