t the request of two Chinese scholars that the Holy See open a university under Catholic auspices in Peking, Pius XI asked the Benedictines of the Archabbey of St. Vincent, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to undertake this work. Begun in 1924, the university prospered, and by 1929 the Benedictine priests wanted Benedictine sisters to work with them and be responsible for the founding of a women's college in connection with "Fu Jen University" (as their school was known).

The appeal to the Benedictine sisters of St. Joseph, Minnesota, came through Father Francis Clougherty. He had just been appointed the future chancellor of Fu Jen University. In August, 1929, Father Clougherty appeared at St. Benedict's Convent with a request for sisters to work in Peking, China.

On September 1, the Community Chapter voted to accept this call and thus committed St. Benedict's Convent to mission work in Peiping, China.

By the spring of 1930, Mother Louise Walz chose six sisters from a list of a hundred volunteers to be the pioneers in the community's first foreign mission.

These six were:
Sister Francetta Vetter,
head of the home economics department of the College of St. Benedict:

Sister Regia Zens,
head of the kitchen at St. Benedict's Convent:

Sister Ronayne Gergen,
English teacher from Cathedral High School, St. Cloud:

Sister Rachel Loulan,
6th grade teacher from St. John's school, Wahpeton, North Dakota:

Sister Donalda Terhaar,
language teacher from the College of St. Benedict:

Sister Wibora Muehlenbein,
mathematics teacher from St. Boniface High School, Cold Spring, Minnesota:

- Sister Wibora Muehlenbein,OSB - from her book Benedictine Mission to China

thus began the 60 year mission of Sister Ronayne Gergen in China.