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HISTORY OF CANOSSA CONVENT

Canossa Convent was the first Canossian community directly dependant on the Diocese of Singapore and the last before the Japanese Occupation in 1941. It was the outcome of Rev. Father Stephen Lee's dream of having an orphanage and a private Chinese school for the education of the poor.  Subsequently when the British surrendered to the Japanese in February 1942, the chapel was used as their office and the rest of the building was converted into a hospital for their wounded soldiers. The sisters and orphans had to evacuate and they were sent to Fiji Village, Bahau in Negri Sembilan where they spent more than two years until the Japanese surrendered. This historical surrender took place in the parlour of Canossa Convent.