In memory of Bernadette Clergues and Lucie Pruvost

The Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) joins in the sadness of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (White Sisters) for the recent loss of Sister Bernadette Clergues on 30 May 2021 in Verrières-le-Buisson, France.

Born on 5 June 1931 in Cransanc, in the department of Aveyron in the Occitanie region, Sister Bernadette taught Arabic at PISAI during the academic years 1981 to 1985. She had attended the Institute as a student and obtained the canonical licence in Arabic and Islamic Studies in 1969.
The dissertation presented by Sister Bernadette was in the form of an Arabic composition manual entitled Fī ṭarīq al-inšā’, beautifully illustrated by the author herself, who was a talented draughtswoman as well as a fine connoisseur of the Arabic language.

The PISAI also remembers with gratitude the service rendered to the Institute by another Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa, Sister Lucie Pruvost, who passed away on 11 November 2020 in Marseille, France. Born on 18 May 1932 in Bouïra, Algeria, Sister Lucie became a recognised specialist in family law in the Maghreb. After her higher education, she taught at the Faculty of Law in Tunis (1972-1976), before obtaining a doctorate in law at the University of Paris II in 1977. Sister Lucie taught at PISAI as a visiting professor from 1982 to 2002. She is the author of numerous books, including Femmes d’Algérie: société, famille et citoyenneté (Casbah, Alger 2002) and, in collaboration with Laurence Aïda Ammour, Algérie, terre de rencontres (Karthala, Paris 2009).