 | |
| Formation | 1849 |
|---|---|
| Type | Religious institute |
| Headquarters | La Crosse, Wisconsin |
President | Sister Linda Mershon |
| Website | fspa.org |
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) is a Roman Catholic religious congregation for women whose motherhouse, St. Rose of Viterbo Convent, is in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in the Diocese of La Crosse. The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration founded Viterbo University and staffed Aquinas High School in La Crosse. [1] The congregation traces its roots to 1849.
In 1849, a group of Third Order Secular Franciscans traveled from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria to Milwaukee to assist Bishop John Henni in the newly organized Diocese of Milwaukee. The group consisted of both men and women and was led by Father Francis Anthony Keppeler and his assistant, Father Mathias Steiger. They arrived on May 18, 1849, and were formally received into the diocese on May 28, a day which is celebrated annually by the sisters as Founders Day. The six women of the group, led by Mother Aemiliana Dirr, began their mission to care for the region's German immigrants, both physically and spiritually. In 1850, these women officially became part of the Third Order Regular Franciscans as religious sisters. They took their vows in 1853. [2] [3]
The sisters were initially tasked with caring for land and performing housework within the religious community. In 1855, they assumed care and education of orphaned boys at the diocese's St. Aemilian's Orphanage for Boys. [2] In 1856, the sisters were reassigned to the newly established Saint Francis de Sales Seminary to perform household duties. Frustrated by the menial and spiritually lacking work they had been assigned at the seminary, many sisters left the diocese in 1860. A new motherhouse was established at St. Coletta Convent in Jefferson, Wisconsin in 1864. At the request of the Bishop of La Crosse, Michael Heiss, the motherhouse was again relocated in 1871, establishing the St. Rose of Viterbo Convent. In 1873, Mother Antonia asked the remaining sisters in Milwaukee to relocate to La Crosse, though thirty-seven choose to continue their work in seminary ministry and split off to form the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. Mother Antonia's community in La Crosse thus became known as the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. [2] [4] [5]
The congregation is named for its practice of perpetual prayer. The community initiated the practice of Perpetual Adoration in 1878. At least two people would pray at all times in the congregation's adoration chapel, with sisters rotating through one-hour shifts. Due to declining numbers of sisters, volunteers were asked to participate in these shifts beginning in 1997. [6] This practice continued until 2020, when overnight prayer ceased, and the ritual was consolidated to a 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. schedule. Of the change, Sister McKenzie stated that, "the sisters and prayer partners will continue adoration in the Adoration Chapel to the extent possible, and by definition of perpetual repeated continuously even though interrupted for portions of time." [7] The practice officially ended on Ash Wednesday, February 26, 2020, at which point perpetual prayer had been maintained without interruption for 141 years. [8] Prayer requests continue to be complied each week, which the sisters then assemble into a pamphlet of names and intentions for prayer. [9]
As a result of a period of renewal leading to a divergence of vision within the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, fifty-five sisters left to form a separate congregation, the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, on December 2, 1973. [10] [5]
In 1890 the sisters began St. Rose Normal School to prepare sisters to teach in elementary schools. It is now known as Viterbo University, a Catholic, Franciscan, liberal arts university. [11]
In 1955 the FSPA arrived on Guam, where they serve in the Archdiocese of Agana. Their encompass work at the Catholic Medical Center (FHP) as staff and coordinators; Guam Memorial Hospital as administrator, directors, and volunteers; Catholic Schools as superintendent, administrators, and teachers; and Parish Ministers. [12]
The Sisters are a sponsoring member of 8th Day Center for Justice.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have their retirement home in St. Joseph's Ridge, Wisconsin.
Under the "Common Venture", is a cooperative effort on the part of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Milwaukee, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Meriden, Connecticut. "Common Venture" grew out of a 1999 150th anniversary celebration of the common founding of the three American Franciscan communities. Together they have contributed more than $1.5 million in goods and services to the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis in Cameroon. Sr. Marla Lang FSPA compared the role of the sisters in Cameroon to that of sisters in the United States in the late 19th century. “The systems of health care and education are being built up through religious orders. The sisters are pioneers for the people in their country." [13]
Viterbo University is a private Catholic university in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Founded in 1890 by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Viterbo is home to three colleges with nine schools offering 48 academic programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels.
Rose of Viterbo, TOSF, was a young woman born in Viterbo, then a contested commune of the Papal States. She spent her brief life as a recluse, and was outspoken in her support of the papacy. Otherwise leading an unremarkable life, she later became known for her mystical gifts of prophecy and having miraculous powers. She is honoured as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Eucharistic adoration is a Eucharistic devotional practice primarily in Western Catholicism, but also to a lesser extent in certain Lutheran and Anglican traditions, in which the Blessed Sacrament is adored by the faithful. This practice may occur either when the Eucharist is exposed, or when it is not publicly viewable because it is reserved in a place such as a church tabernacle.
John Joseph Paul was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as an auxiliary bishop and bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin from 1977 to 1994
The Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse is a Latin Church diocese in west-central Wisconsin in the United States. The metropolitan for the diocese is the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The mother church is the Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman in La Crosse.
The Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George is a Roman Catholic Congregation of consecrated women whose spirituality is derived from St. Francis of Assisi. Mother M. Anselma Bopp and Father John Gerard Dall founded the Order in Thuine, Germany, in 1869. The Order expanded to the U.S. in 1923 with the founding of a Provincialate and Novitiate in Alton, Illinois, which continues to be the location of the Provincial House. They are also located in other areas of Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, New Jersey, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin, as well as on missions in Brazil and Cuba.
Michael Heiss was a German-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin (1868–1880) and the second archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in Wisconsin (1881–1890).
Kilian Caspar Flasch was a German-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin from 1881 until his death in 1891.
William Richard Griffin was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration is a papal congregation of the Roman Catholic Church, founded on July 20, 1863, by Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel in Olpe, Germany. In 1875, they opened St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana; now part of the Franciscan Health healthcare system. In 1890 they founded Saint Francis Normal School, a teacher training school; which is now the University of Saint Francis (Indiana).
The Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist (FSE) is a Roman Catholic religious congregation for women. The motherhouse is in Meriden, Connecticut, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.
The Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi is a Catholic religious congregation for women founded in 1849. The motherhouse is in St. Francis, Wisconsin, in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis (SSJ-TOSF) is a Roman Catholic Franciscan religious congregation for women. The Congregation was established in 1901. Their motherhouse was in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in the Diocese of La Crosse.
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.
St. Rose of Viterbo Convent is the motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, an American religious congregation, which is located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The convent is dedicated to Rose of Viterbo, a 13th-century Franciscan tertiary who was a noted mystic and street preacher in Italy who died while still a teenager.
Tadeusz Żukotyński was a Polish count, professor, and painter.
Paul Matthias Dobberstein was a German American priest and architect.
The Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are members of a Roman Catholic religious institute of consecrated women, which was founded in Portugal in 1871. They follow the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. and, as the term “hospitaller” indicates, focus their ministries on a spirit of medical care. Their charism emphasizes hospitality and service under the model of the Good Samaritan. In this congregation, the postnominal initials used after each sister's name is "F.H.I.C."
