Abbreviation | FHM |
---|---|
Formation | 1916[ citation needed ] |
Founders | Mary Theodore Williams |
Founded at | Savannah, Georgia |
Headquarters | Manhattan |
Parent organization | Catholic Church |
The Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary are a historically Black Catholic congregation of nuns co-founded by Mary Theodore Williams and Ignatius Lissner in 1916. They follow the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis. Their primary mission has always been education, primarily of children of the African-American community.
Elizabeth Williams was born February 11, 1868, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She received her education from the Ladies of the Sacred Heart and the Sisters of the Holy Family, second oldest society of African-American Catholic religious in the United States. At 19, Williams entered the Sisters of Saint Francis' convent in Louisiana. When that order disbanded in 1912, she entered the novitiate of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore where she was given the name Sister Mary Theodore.
Around that time, a bill in the Georgia legislature proposed to forbid white teachers from instructing black children. It threatened the closure of schools co-founded by Ignatius Lissner in Georgia and staffed by Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. When the two African-American congregations, the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the Holy Family Sisters, could supply no help, Lissner decided to form a new one. In 1915, while working at Trinity College in Washington, DC, Williams learned that Lissner, provincial of the Society of African Missions, needed a religious to found a congregation of black sisters in Savannah. [1] On October 15, 1916, received the habit of the new order and took the name of Mother Mary Theodore.
The Georgia bill never passed, and the new sisters found little support. They taught by day and, to supplement their meagre earnings, ran a laundry business at night and begged along the waterfront on weekends. [2] Thus, the sisters decided in 1924 to move the motherhouse of the congregation to Harlem in northern Manhattan, where it remains. [3]
By 1925, there were sixteen members, eventually including women from the West Indies. In 1930, Williams had the congregation enrolled in the Franciscan family as members of the Third Order Regular, thus becoming the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. During the Depression, the sisters established a soup kitchen. [4]
Williams died in New York in August 1931.
From 1952 to 2003 the sisters ran a summer camp on Staten Island, providing summer getaways for thousands of youth from New York City and North and South Carolina. [2]
At its height in the 1960s, the congregation counted 80 sisters. As of 2010, there were 18 sisters, mostly age sixty or older. [5] In 2014, the order's closing was anticipated, but encouraged by Pope Francis, the sisters extended their outreach to other parts of the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. [6] In 2017, there were twenty-four sisters, with seven in formation. The sisters then put the Harlem motherhouse up for sale, as there were only three sisters living there. [7]
The sisters continue to operate St. Benedict’s Day Nursery. Founded in 1923 at the request of Patrick Cardinal Hayes, [4] it celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2008. Initially providing custodial care, it became one of the first pre-school educational programs in the United States.
The St. Edward Food Pantry is another of the ministries of the sisters. The order has operated a food pantry on Staten Island since 1928. The food pantry collects food, clothing, gifts and toys for distribution during the Christmas season. The sisters serve in Harlem, Staten Island, Yonkers and Owerri, Nigeria. [8]
Katharine Drexel, SBS was an American Catholic heiress, philanthropist, religious sister, and educator. In 1891, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order serving Black and Indigenous Americans.
The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founded in 1737 by Marguerite d'Youville, a young widow.
The Franciscan Sisters of Mary is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of religious sisters based in St. Louis, Missouri, noted for its operation of SSM Health Care, a group of some 20 hospitals throughout the Midwestern United States. It was formed in 1987 from the merger of two related congregations that founded many of the hospitals.
The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi.
The Sisters of the Holy Family are a Catholic religious order of African-American nuns based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were founded in 1837 as the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Henriette DeLille, adopting the current name in 1842. They were the second Black religious order in the United States, after Mother Mary Lange's Oblate Sisters of Providence.
The Society of African Missions, also known as the SMA Fathers, is a Catholic religious society of apostolic life of pontifical right for men founded by Melchior de Marion Brésillac in 1856. They serve the people of Africa and those of African descent.
The Little Franciscans of Mary (P.F.M.) is a Catholic congregation of women. Founded in Worcester, Massachusetts, the motherhouse is in Baie St. Paul, Quebec.
Ignatius Francis Lissner, S.M.A. was a French-born Catholic priest who was instrumental in developing the ministry of the Church in the United States to the African-American population.
Historic St. Francis Xavier Church is a Black Catholic parish in Baltimore, Maryland. It is said to be the first exclusively Black parish in America, having been established in 1863.
The Sisters of Mary Reparatrix are a religious institute of women in the Catholic Church which was founded in France in 1857. Their way of life has been to combine adoration of God with the evangelization of society, especially for women.
Mary Ignatius Hayes, O.S.F., also known as Mother Mary Ignatius of Jesus, was an Anglican religious sister who was later received into the Catholic Church and became a Franciscan sister. Her lifetime of religious service, in the course of which she traveled widely, led to the establishment of three separate religious congregations of Franciscan sisters and the establishment of the Poor Clare nuns in the United States.
The Dominican Congregation of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, better known as the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, is a religious congregation of sisters of the Dominican Third Order established in 1877, with their motherhouse located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They were founded to provide education to the children of the Catholic populations of Michigan and other regions of the American Midwest. As of 2017, they have 209 sisters in the congregation.
Delois Blakely, also referred to with the honorary title Queen Mother, is an American former Catholic nun and current religious leader, pan-Africanist, writer, activist and humanitarian.
Black Catholicism or African-American Catholicism comprises the African-American people, beliefs, and practices in the Catholic Church.
Mary Theodore Williams, F.H.M. was an American Black Catholic nun who founded the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in 1916.
St. Anthony's Mission House and Theological Seminary was a Catholic minor seminary for the Society of African Missions founded in Highwood, Bergen County, New Jersey. It was spearheaded in 1921 by Fr Ignatius Lissner, SMA as an interracial institution to educate men for the priesthood.
The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities was formed in 2004 with the union of three separate congregations: Sisters of St Francis of Syracuse, Sisters of St. Francis of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, and the Sisters of St. Francis Third Order Regular of Buffalo. During the process of the reorganization, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Divine Child merged with the Williamsville Franciscans in 2003. The Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale merged with the congregation in 2007.