The Third Order of Saint Francis comprises the Secular Franciscan Order and the Third Order Regular. Many religious congregations follow the Rule of the Third Order Regular. There are approximately 80 congregations of Third Order Regular women and men in the United States. [1]
By 15th century congregations of regular friars following the Rule of the Third Order had been established in Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and in the Netherlands.
Congregations of religious sisters of the Third Order were also established; for instance, the Grey Sisters of the Third Order served in hospitals France and the Netherlands. In 1403 Elizabeth of Reute and several other young women who were Franciscan tertiaries, under the guidance of the provost of the Canonry of St. Peter in Waldsee, acquired a house in Reute on the outskirts of Waldsee. [9] Angelina of Marsciano is generally credited with the founding of the Third Order Regular for women around 1395, but the Third Order Regular was not made official until Pope Nicholas V authorized it. [10] [11] Unlike the Second Order of the Franciscan movement, the Poor Clare nuns, they were not an enclosed religious order, [12] and lived under the authority of the local bishop of the diocese.
While many religious congregations have their motherhouse in Europe, some emigrated to the United States to establish new branches of their congregation. Others followed the examples of those from Europe and established their own communities. Some monasteries were established to pursue a purely contemplative life, usually in an urban setting; while other communities consider active works of charity, tending to the poor and sick as part of Franciscan charism.
The Congregation of the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception was founded in Lisbon, Portugal in 1871 by Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles e Albuquerque (Sr. Maria Clara), and is represented in fifteen countries. They came to the United States in 1960 in order to aid Portuguese immigrants. They serve in the state of California in the dioceses of San Jose, Fresno, and Monterey. The majority of the California sisters now are involved in healthcare. The Motherhouse is in Lisbon. [13]
The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration was founded in Olpe in 1863 by Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel as the "Poor Sisters of St. Francis Seraph of the Perpetual Adoration". Introduced into the United States in 1875, St. Joseph Province is based at Mt. St. Francis in Colorado Springs, Colorado. [14]
The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother was founded in 1883 and inspired by the Salvatorians. They came to the United States at the invitation of the Bishop of Wichita, Kansas, in 1889, and within two years had opened four hospitals and an orphanage, as well as teaching in parish schools.[ citation needed ]
The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, more commonly known as the "Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow", was founded in Glasgow in 1847 by Adelaide Vaast and Veronica Cordier from the Franciscan Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, in Tourcoing, France. The sisters first came to the United States in 1971, where they work in various ministries in Kentucky and Washington, D.C. [36]
In 1911 Mother Marie de Bethanie Crowley with five companions of the Franciscan Sisters of Calais came to central Louisiana at the request of Cornelius Van de Ven, Bishop of Alexandria, Louisiana. Their first foundation was a sanitarium in Pineville, Louisiana. They went on to found several medical facilities: St. Francis Hospital in Monroe, Our Lady of Lourdes in Lafayette, Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge and St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales. In 1964, the congregation adopted the name Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady. The North American Provincial Motherhouse is located in Baton Rouge. [37]
The Sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio was founded in 1867, when Father Joseph Bihn asked for volunteers to help start a home for orphaned children and the aged. Four women answered the call, including Elizabeth Greiveldinger Schaefer. The institution was incorporated in 1869. [73] The congregation operates St. Francis Senior Ministries which provides housing and healthcare choices for seniors. As of 2019, there were eighty-one sisters. [74]
The Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows was founded in China in 1939, by Bishop Rafael Palazzi, an Italian Franciscan missionary. [81] Due to the Communist takeover, the Sisters were forced to flee from the motherhouse in Hengyang, Hunan, to Hong Kong. After several years as refugees, the community came to the United States, opening retreat houses in California and Oregon. They became involved in the teaching apostolate in both locations, and in care for Navajo girls in Gallup, New Mexico. [82] As of 2022. there were forty-five members serving in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the US, and Canada. The Generalate is in Beaverton, Oregon. [83]
The Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate was founded in Columbia in 1893 by Swiss missionary Maria Josefa Karolina Brader. Introduced to the United States in 1932, the Sisters combine social service with Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. They serve in Texas, California and New Mexico. The Provincial Motherhouse in Amarillo, Texas. [94]
The Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis were established in 1700 in the South Tyrol. In 2000, the Cameroon Province joined a program called "Common Venture" with the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, who had developed from one community. [95] The Common Venture program was completed in 2018. A fund developed over the years for the education of the sisters from Cameroon is now held by the FSPA Development Office in La Crosse. [100]
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.
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. The congregation traces its roots to 1849.
The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (I.H.M.) is a Catholic religious institute of sisters, founded in 1845 by Fr. Louis Florent Gillet, CSsR, and Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, a co-founder of the Oblate Sister of Providence.
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 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 Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are a Roman Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women founded by Mother Mary of the Passion at Ootacamund, then British India, in 1877. The missionaries form an international religious congregation of women representing 77 nationalities spread over 74 countries on five continents.
The Sisters of Saint Francis of Rochester, Minnesota is a Roman Catholic religious congregation for women. The congregation was founded in 1877 by Mother Mary Alfred Moes in the Diocese of St. Paul of Minnesota. The motherhouse, which is in Rochester, Minnesota, is called Assisi Heights.
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 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.
The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor are a religious congregation which was established in 1959 as an independent branch from the Congregation of the Poor Sisters of St. Francis, founded in Germany by Blessed Frances Schervier in 1845.
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.
The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God are an institute of religious sisters in the Roman Catholic Church. The congregation belongs to the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. They were founded in 1910 in Santarém, Brazil, by Armand August Bahlmann, OFM, and Mother Immaculata, both natives of Germany, to educate the children of the poor throughout the world.
The Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family are a congregation of religious sisters of the Franciscan Third Order Regular. They were founded in Pirmasens, Germany, in 1855 by the Blessed Paul Joseph Nardini. They are therefore commonly known as the Nardini Sisters, or the Mallersdorfer Sisters from the German town where they are headquartered.
The congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, with its motherhouse at St. Elizabeth's Motherhouse, Allegany, New York, was founded in 1859 by the Very Rev. Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.F.M.
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."
Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore were the American members of a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in the London suburb of Mill Hill, England, in 1868. Connected to the Society of Mill Hill Missionaries from the time of their founding, they were committed to serving the needy of the world. Members of the congregation came to the United States in 1881, where they were the first white religious order dedicated to serve the African-American population of Baltimore. The United States Province merged with the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in 2001 and continue their ministry in Baltimore.
The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia is an Aston Township, Pennsylvania-based women's religious congregation of the Third Order of Saint Francis founded in 1855 by Maria Anna Boll Bachmann, an immigrant from Bavaria. The congregation is known for its work in education and healthcare.
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.