The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother are a Catholic congregation of Franciscan religious sisters founded in Rome, Italy, in 1883, who serve worldwide, particularly in the field of healthcare.
The congregation was founded at the initiative of Father Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan, founder of what was to become the Society of the Divine Savior, commonly known as the Salvatorians, as the female branch of the society. Jordan invited a young woman, Amalia Streitel (1844-1911), who had already been a sister of a Franciscan congregation, to move to Rome to lead this effort. She left Germany for Italy, where she made her vows, received the religious habit of the new congregation and the religious name Maria Franziska of the Cross on 16 February 1883. She arrived to find that the housing Jordan had procured for her was an apartment lacking furniture and cooking utensils. As she was joined by other women, the sisters took in orphans of the city, caring for them in their own rooms. [1]
Differences in vision arose between the two and in 1885, the sisters separated from the Salvatorians. [2] The 36 women who formed the community then went under the authority of the Diocese of Rome and were given the name by which they are now known. [1] The congregation took the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis at that time, combining a life of service with that of contemplation. To support themselves, the sisters provided home nursing care and worked in the sacristy of the Church of Santa Maria della Pietà in Camposanto dei Teutonici, the German national church of Rome. [3]
In 1890 Streitel arrived in the United States at the request of Bishop of Wichita, John Joseph Hennessy, that the congregation take over St. Francis hospital which was faltering. From there they expanded to Wisconsin, where they founded Mercy Medical Center (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), [4] and many other Hospitals in the US and Caribbean. A health resort was later opened in Denville, New Jersey, and a mission was opened in Oklahoma. [1]
Final approval of the congregation was received on 6 March 1911 by Pope Pius X, the same day that Streitel died in Castel Sant'Elia, Italy.
At present the sisters of the Sorrowful Mother serve in Italy, Austria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Germany, the United States, Grenada, St. Lucia, Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago. [5] The Generalate is in Rome. The motherhouse of the Saint Clare of Assisi provicialate is in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity are a Congregation of Roman Catholic apostolic religious women. The congregation was founded in 1869 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, later part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. The sisters have active apostolates in education, health care, spiritual direction, and other community ministries. As of 2021, there are 188 sisters in the community. The FSCC is a member of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, an organization which represents women religious in the United States.
Mary Alfred Moes, was a Roman Catholic nun who was instrumental in establishing first the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate in Joliet, Illinois, as well as the Sisters of Saint Francis of Rochester, Minnesota. She was also the founder of St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota, which became part of the famed Mayo Clinic. Moes had been given a vision from God of a great hospital rising out of the cornfields around Rochester–the little country town, with its one doctor. To that hospital, she had been told in her vision, would come patients from every part of the world and from every nation. And she had seen the name ‘Mayo’ respected the world over for surgical achievements.
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The Society of the Divine Saviour, abbreviated SDS and also known as the Salvatorians, is a clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men in the Catholic Church. The members of the congregation use the nominal SDS after their names. It has clergy serving in more than 40 countries throughout the world. It was founded in Rome, Italy on 8 December 1881 by Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan. The Generalate of the community is in Rome, at Via della Conciliazione in Palazzo Cesi-Armellini. The current Superior General of the Salvatorians is the Milton Zonta.
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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.
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The Sisters of the Divine Savior is a Roman Catholic religious institute Conventionally, the letters SDS are used to identify the institute.
Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan, SDS, was a German Catholic priest and the founder of the Society of the Divine Savior, commonly called the Salvatorians. He was beatified by Pope Francis on May 15, 2021.
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Franziska Streitel was a German religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. Streitel founded the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. In 2010 she was proclaimed to be venerable after the recognition of her life of heroic virtue.
Maria Therese von Wüllenweber, SDS, religious name Maria of the Apostles, was a German religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She established the Sisters of the Divine Savior – also referred to as the Salvatorian Sisters – with the assistance of the priest Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan, founder of the Salvatorians.
Bonaventure Lüthen, S.D.S., was a founding member of the Society of the Divine Savior, commonly called the Salvatorians, and a close collaborator of Venerable Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan. The cause for his beatification was introduced in 1943.
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