Read a poem by our Sister Patrica Forrest, which beautifully tells of our history.
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CHRONICLE OF OUR CONGREGATION:
1241 (Just 15 years after the death of Saint Francis of Assisi) Count Hartmann IV of Dillingen and his son, Hartmann V, Bishop of Augsburg (1248-1286), donated to the Community of Ladies in Dillingen a house near the parish church and with it one lot of land, a cabbage patch and a meadow. The Community received a Deed of Foundation for all of this. According to the intention of the founders, the Ladies should serve God, their Creator, peacefully, devoutly, and zealously for the benefit of all the faithful, giving praise and honor to the Blessed Trinity.
1303-1307 This free community of Sisters affiliate with the Friars Minor of the Province of Strasburg. The Sisters receive the Third Order Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi, which had been approved in 1289.
1438 Fire destroyed the convent building completely. The Deed of Foundation and other documents were lost in the fire.
1550 On the day of her election, Mother General Margaretha Rothin asked the Bishop of Augsburg if the Sisters might keep the Blessed Sacrament in their private chapel. This privilege was granted.
1607 Sister Maria Penkerin made the vow of unconditional poverty. She was the first one in this Community to make this vow.
1615 Mother General Anna Steffesin, born in Holland, gave the Sisters a white veil. In the chronicle we read: "We did not wear a veil before."
1629 Bishop Henry wanted to put into practice in our Congregation the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). On an experimental basis, they tried to live for a year sharing everything in common. A vow of strict enclosure had to be included in the profession. After a thorough inspection of the house, however, the Bishop could not insist on strict enclosure. The statutes prescribed an ash-gray habit, a scapular, and a cincture, as the religious garb. ... The Sisters received a bolt of gray cloth from the Archduke Leopold of Austria, through the office of the Royal Treasury of Innsbruck. The Bishop blessed the habits and the Sisters wore them for the first time on Laetare Sunday. ... In 1770 they changed back again from gray to black habits. Since 1969 they wear modified habits and a veil that leaves the forehead free.
1635 Thirty Years War: 25 Sisters flee in 1632 from the approaching Swedish Army. Five remained in the convent in Dillingen. By 1635 four of the five Sisters who remained die of the plague. The fifth one was spared because, as a leper, she lived isolated from those with the plague.
1648 The French Army plundered the town and convent in Dillingen.
1774 After being semi-cloistered for 200 years, Prince Bishop Clemens Wenceslaus commanded the Sisters to take over the elementary school for girls. Four Sisters volunteered to teach.
1800 The Dillingen Convent was saved from destruction by the French. The Sisters were able to provide the only two lemons available in the city of Dillingen to relieve the sore throat of French General Morreau. In gratitude the French General protected the convent with an extra regiment of soldiers.
1803 The government of Bavaria confiscated all the land and property belonging to the Sisters. In 1805 the Sisters were given permission to leave the convent and return to their families as lay persons; but not one of the 14 Choir and 6 Lay Sisters wished to do this. As a special favor, the government allowed them to remain in the convent building as long as they lived, but they were forbidden to accept any new members. ... Over the next 23 years, the little community carried one after the other of the Sisters, 15 in all, to their final resting place in the vault beneath the Convent church. By 1828 only 5 Sisters were left.
1829 The Sisters received new statutes from Bishop Ignaz Albert. On June 22 , the Restoration of convent and school was celebrated in the parish church. Three Choir Sisters and two lay Sisters were the only ones still living. These renewed their vows and two young ladies were received into the novitiate.
1837-1839 A boarding school is opened in 1837. This same year, an opportunity was offered to working mothers to leave their infants in the care of the Sisters during working hours. ... Fr. Vogel, pastor of Dillingen Parish, proposed that the Sisters take over the care of the sick. Discussions among the Sisters and with the city council were held for almost two years. The Sisters were willing to accept the proposal, providing that the school would not suffer thereby. ... January 6, 1839, the Sisters gave the city council a negative answer in writing. However, in 1894, the care of the sick was begun in the hospital and the next year home nursing also began.
1843 The first school mission was opened in Hochstadt on the Danube. ... The government counselor requested the school inspector to suggest to the Mother General that she send one or two candidates to Munich to prepare tem for teaching the deaf and mute. ... The purchase of the Dominican convent in Maria Medingen was registered. With great solemnity, the Franciscan Sisters moved there on October 24. At that time, nine Dominican Sisters were still living there.
1845 Two candidates started their training in the Central Institute for the Deaf.
1847 The School for the Deaf and Mute was opened in the Dillingen Motherhouse.
1854 Oggelsbeuren (later moved to Siessen) and also Au on the Inn River became independent convents.
1855 The School for the Deaf and Mute is transferred from the Motherhouse to the former teachers' college in Dillingen. Lohr is opened as a mission, also Neustadt/ Main.
1856 The hall with the Stations of the Cross was built above the sacristy of the convent church.
Volkach is opened as a mission.
1857 The school for the candidates, the secondary school for girls of Dillingen and surrounding areas, and the kindergarten were transferred to what is today "St. Joseph's," on August 1. ... The building had belonged to the Dominican Sisters, who had used it since the Secularization as a storage room for grain. The Franciscan Sisters bought the farm buildings from the Dominicans.
1858 Dettelbach was opened as a mission. It was planned that this mission, together with Lohr and Volkach would eventually become independent. In 1864 these three missions did receive that status, together with the right to have their own novitiates and to establish their own missions. But in 1874, the government of Unterfranken demanded that the three convents return again to their original status as missions of the Motherhouse in Dillingen.
From now on, the number of missions steadily increased. The number of Sisters increased from 51 in 1847 to 2,306 in 1968.
1883 Bishop Pankratius Dinkel approved the Statutes compiled from the Statutes of 1628 and 1829, including the regulations made after the Visitation of 1839, to meet the needs of the time.
1891 The choir loft of the church was enlarged.
1894 The Little Convent was made two stories higher, blessed and from now on called St. Joseph (now four stories high).
1913 Under Mother General M. Innocentia Mussek, the twenty-four Sisters who had volunteered to work in the culinary department of the Benedictine Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, said farewell, and left the Motherhouse on August 4. In spite of many obstacles, the urgent request of the Abbot for Sisters to work in Collegeville was granted, largely because of the threatening political situation in Europe.
1926 Mother General M. Laurentia appointed two Sisters to help her in guiding the Congregation: Sister M. Leokadia as local superior of the Motherhouse and Sister M. Honoria as General Assistant.
1927 Pope Pius XI rewrote the Rule for the Third Order, adapting it to contemporary Canon Law, the new Statutes went into effect in 1938.
1928 The Sisters started their first American community-owned mission in Hankinson, North Dakota.
1935 Perpetual Adoration was started in the choir of the convent church at the Motherhouse in Dillingen.
1937 When the Sisters were forbidden to teach in the schools of Nazi Germany, some of the Franciscan Sisters from Dillingen emigrated to Brazil.
1943 The Holy See declared our Community as a Papal Congregation. It had to be divided into Provinces. New Statutes had to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation for Religious for approval.
1947 A Province in Germany, with its Motherhouse in Dillingen, and a North American Province, with its Motherhouse in Hankinson, were established. The missions in North and South Brazil were a "Commissariat," with its center in Areia, North Brazil.
1948 South Brazil became a separate Commissariat with its center in Duque de Caxias.
1950 The new Constitutions of our Congregation were approved.
1951 The German Province was divided into three provinces:
1956 North and South Brazil established as a province with the Motherhouse at Duque de Caxias.
1957 The Franconian Province, too, united again with those from Swabia and Old Bavaria.
1960 The Comboni Missionaries invited our Sisters to Saldana, Spain, to do the domestic work in their Seminary.
In 1963, the Colegio Regina Mundi was started in Saldana.
1967 The Sisters moved into San Antonio (a residence connected with the farm buildings) in Rome-La-Storta. ... The first Sisters from India to enter our Congregation made their Profession in Dillingen. From 1976 to 1980, 14 of these Indian Sisters returned to India to begin mission work in North India. On August 4, 1979, they established their first mission in Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh; and on October 29, 1981, they could move into their newly built convent, which was blessed and dedicated in the presence of Mother General Irma Staudinger.
1968 The General Administration moved into our Generalate building in Roma-La-Storta.
1969 A special General Chapter was held, together with an election Chapter, in La Storta.
1960-1971 During the second session of the General Chapter, which was held in Volkach, Germany, the text of constitutions, which was obligatory for an experimental period, was completed.
1973
-- The final decision about the establishment of the German provinces was made in three "Foundation Chapters":
-- April 26, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting in Volkach, to establish the Bamberg Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St. Elizabeth
-- June 12, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting at Maria Medingen to establish the Medingen Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St. Francis
-- July 26, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting in Dillingen, to establish the Regens-Wagner Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St. John the Evangelist The term of office for the newly elected provincial Administrations began on September 1, 1973
1982 Our Constitutions, which had been revised by the General Chapter of 1981, were approved by the Sacred Congregation for Religious on January 18, 1982. On that same day, the community of Sisters from the Generalate in Rome-La-Storta was received in a private audience by Pope John Paul II, who gave his special blessing for the Constitutions.
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CHRONICLE OF OUR CONGREGATION:
1241 (Just 15 years after the death of Saint Francis of Assisi) Count Hartmann IV of Dillingen and his son, Hartmann V, Bishop of Augsburg (1248-1286), donated to the Community of Ladies in Dillingen a house near the parish church and with it one lot of land, a cabbage patch and a meadow. The Community received a Deed of Foundation for all of this. According to the intention of the founders, the Ladies should serve God, their Creator, peacefully, devoutly, and zealously for the benefit of all the faithful, giving praise and honor to the Blessed Trinity.
1303-1307 This free community of Sisters affiliate with the Friars Minor of the Province of Strasburg. The Sisters receive the Third Order Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi, which had been approved in 1289.
1438 Fire destroyed the convent building completely. The Deed of Foundation and other documents were lost in the fire.
1550 On the day of her election, Mother General Margaretha Rothin asked the Bishop of Augsburg if the Sisters might keep the Blessed Sacrament in their private chapel. This privilege was granted.
1607 Sister Maria Penkerin made the vow of unconditional poverty. She was the first one in this Community to make this vow.
1615 Mother General Anna Steffesin, born in Holland, gave the Sisters a white veil. In the chronicle we read: "We did not wear a veil before."
1629 Bishop Henry wanted to put into practice in our Congregation the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). On an experimental basis, they tried to live for a year sharing everything in common. A vow of strict enclosure had to be included in the profession. After a thorough inspection of the house, however, the Bishop could not insist on strict enclosure. The statutes prescribed an ash-gray habit, a scapular, and a cincture, as the religious garb. ... The Sisters received a bolt of gray cloth from the Archduke Leopold of Austria, through the office of the Royal Treasury of Innsbruck. The Bishop blessed the habits and the Sisters wore them for the first time on Laetare Sunday. ... In 1770 they changed back again from gray to black habits. Since 1969 they wear modified habits and a veil that leaves the forehead free.
1635 Thirty Years War: 25 Sisters flee in 1632 from the approaching Swedish Army. Five remained in the convent in Dillingen. By 1635 four of the five Sisters who remained die of the plague. The fifth one was spared because, as a leper, she lived isolated from those with the plague.
1648 The French Army plundered the town and convent in Dillingen.
1774 After being semi-cloistered for 200 years, Prince Bishop Clemens Wenceslaus commanded the Sisters to take over the elementary school for girls. Four Sisters volunteered to teach.
1800 The Dillingen Convent was saved from destruction by the French. The Sisters were able to provide the only two lemons available in the city of Dillingen to relieve the sore throat of French General Morreau. In gratitude the French General protected the convent with an extra regiment of soldiers.
1803 The government of Bavaria confiscated all the land and property belonging to the Sisters. In 1805 the Sisters were given permission to leave the convent and return to their families as lay persons; but not one of the 14 Choir and 6 Lay Sisters wished to do this. As a special favor, the government allowed them to remain in the convent building as long as they lived, but they were forbidden to accept any new members. ... Over the next 23 years, the little community carried one after the other of the Sisters, 15 in all, to their final resting place in the vault beneath the Convent church. By 1828 only 5 Sisters were left.
1829 The Sisters received new statutes from Bishop Ignaz Albert. On June 22 , the Restoration of convent and school was celebrated in the parish church. Three Choir Sisters and two lay Sisters were the only ones still living. These renewed their vows and two young ladies were received into the novitiate.
1837-1839 A boarding school is opened in 1837. This same year, an opportunity was offered to working mothers to leave their infants in the care of the Sisters during working hours. ... Fr. Vogel, pastor of Dillingen Parish, proposed that the Sisters take over the care of the sick. Discussions among the Sisters and with the city council were held for almost two years. The Sisters were willing to accept the proposal, providing that the school would not suffer thereby. ... January 6, 1839, the Sisters gave the city council a negative answer in writing. However, in 1894, the care of the sick was begun in the hospital and the next year home nursing also began.
1843 The first school mission was opened in Hochstadt on the Danube. ... The government counselor requested the school inspector to suggest to the Mother General that she send one or two candidates to Munich to prepare tem for teaching the deaf and mute. ... The purchase of the Dominican convent in Maria Medingen was registered. With great solemnity, the Franciscan Sisters moved there on October 24. At that time, nine Dominican Sisters were still living there.
1845 Two candidates started their training in the Central Institute for the Deaf.
1847 The School for the Deaf and Mute was opened in the Dillingen Motherhouse.
1854 Oggelsbeuren (later moved to Siessen) and also Au on the Inn River became independent convents.
1855 The School for the Deaf and Mute is transferred from the Motherhouse to the former teachers' college in Dillingen. Lohr is opened as a mission, also Neustadt/ Main.
1856 The hall with the Stations of the Cross was built above the sacristy of the convent church.
Volkach is opened as a mission.
1857 The school for the candidates, the secondary school for girls of Dillingen and surrounding areas, and the kindergarten were transferred to what is today "St. Joseph's," on August 1. ... The building had belonged to the Dominican Sisters, who had used it since the Secularization as a storage room for grain. The Franciscan Sisters bought the farm buildings from the Dominicans.
1858 Dettelbach was opened as a mission. It was planned that this mission, together with Lohr and Volkach would eventually become independent. In 1864 these three missions did receive that status, together with the right to have their own novitiates and to establish their own missions. But in 1874, the government of Unterfranken demanded that the three convents return again to their original status as missions of the Motherhouse in Dillingen.
From now on, the number of missions steadily increased. The number of Sisters increased from 51 in 1847 to 2,306 in 1968.
1883 Bishop Pankratius Dinkel approved the Statutes compiled from the Statutes of 1628 and 1829, including the regulations made after the Visitation of 1839, to meet the needs of the time.
1891 The choir loft of the church was enlarged.
1894 The Little Convent was made two stories higher, blessed and from now on called St. Joseph (now four stories high).
1913 Under Mother General M. Innocentia Mussek, the twenty-four Sisters who had volunteered to work in the culinary department of the Benedictine Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, said farewell, and left the Motherhouse on August 4. In spite of many obstacles, the urgent request of the Abbot for Sisters to work in Collegeville was granted, largely because of the threatening political situation in Europe.
1926 Mother General M. Laurentia appointed two Sisters to help her in guiding the Congregation: Sister M. Leokadia as local superior of the Motherhouse and Sister M. Honoria as General Assistant.
1927 Pope Pius XI rewrote the Rule for the Third Order, adapting it to contemporary Canon Law, the new Statutes went into effect in 1938.
1928 The Sisters started their first American community-owned mission in Hankinson, North Dakota.
1935 Perpetual Adoration was started in the choir of the convent church at the Motherhouse in Dillingen.
1937 When the Sisters were forbidden to teach in the schools of Nazi Germany, some of the Franciscan Sisters from Dillingen emigrated to Brazil.
1943 The Holy See declared our Community as a Papal Congregation. It had to be divided into Provinces. New Statutes had to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation for Religious for approval.
1947 A Province in Germany, with its Motherhouse in Dillingen, and a North American Province, with its Motherhouse in Hankinson, were established. The missions in North and South Brazil were a "Commissariat," with its center in Areia, North Brazil.
1948 South Brazil became a separate Commissariat with its center in Duque de Caxias.
1950 The new Constitutions of our Congregation were approved.
1951 The German Province was divided into three provinces:
- The Swabian Province with its Motherhouse in Dillingen;
- The Old Bavarian Province with its Motherhouse in Straubing;
- The Franconia Province with its Motherhouse in Lohr.
1956 North and South Brazil established as a province with the Motherhouse at Duque de Caxias.
1957 The Franconian Province, too, united again with those from Swabia and Old Bavaria.
1960 The Comboni Missionaries invited our Sisters to Saldana, Spain, to do the domestic work in their Seminary.
In 1963, the Colegio Regina Mundi was started in Saldana.
1967 The Sisters moved into San Antonio (a residence connected with the farm buildings) in Rome-La-Storta. ... The first Sisters from India to enter our Congregation made their Profession in Dillingen. From 1976 to 1980, 14 of these Indian Sisters returned to India to begin mission work in North India. On August 4, 1979, they established their first mission in Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh; and on October 29, 1981, they could move into their newly built convent, which was blessed and dedicated in the presence of Mother General Irma Staudinger.
1968 The General Administration moved into our Generalate building in Roma-La-Storta.
1969 A special General Chapter was held, together with an election Chapter, in La Storta.
1960-1971 During the second session of the General Chapter, which was held in Volkach, Germany, the text of constitutions, which was obligatory for an experimental period, was completed.
1973
-- The final decision about the establishment of the German provinces was made in three "Foundation Chapters":
-- April 26, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting in Volkach, to establish the Bamberg Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St. Elizabeth
-- June 12, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting at Maria Medingen to establish the Medingen Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St. Francis
-- July 26, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting in Dillingen, to establish the Regens-Wagner Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St. John the Evangelist The term of office for the newly elected provincial Administrations began on September 1, 1973
1982 Our Constitutions, which had been revised by the General Chapter of 1981, were approved by the Sacred Congregation for Religious on January 18, 1982. On that same day, the community of Sisters from the Generalate in Rome-La-Storta was received in a private audience by Pope John Paul II, who gave his special blessing for the Constitutions.