Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ

The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ is a religious order of Catholic men and women. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ American Province has its motherhouse in Donaldson, Indiana.

Ministries

The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ is an international congregation of apostolic women religious within the Roman Catholic Church. They minister with the poor, the sick and children in the United States, Mexico, Germany, England, the Netherlands, India, Brazil, Kenya and Nigeria. With prayer and community living as their foundation, they minister in rural, urban and inner city settings in the Midwest. Focused on partnering in the work of the Spirit, they invite others to join them in various facets of education, pastoral and social work, neighborhood-based health ministries, spiritual guidance and care for the environment. They are recognized more by the love and simplicity with which they serve than by any particular ministry.

History

The Foundress: Catherine Kasper

The foundress of the Poor Handmaids is Blessed Maria Katharina Kasper (also known in English as Catherine Kasper) of Dernbach, Germany, who was beatified by Pope Paul VI on 16 April 1978.

The start of the community

The official foundation date of the congregation is 15 August 1851. On this date Katharina Kasper and four other women (Sr. Theresia (Katharina Schoenberger); Sr. Agnes (Elisabeth Haas); Sr. Elisabeth (Anna Maria Mueller); Sr. Klara (Elisabeth Meuser)) took the vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty in front of the Bishop of Limburg, Peter Joseph Blum. Owed to the fact, that Dernbach did not have a church yet, it took place in the nearby village of Wirges. (The exact location, if church or vicarage, is a matter of debate between historians.)

The beginnings in the USA

On 8 August 1868 the first eight sisters left Dernbach (Prussia) to sail for the US from Le Havre de Grace (France). Their names were: Sister (Sr.) Rosa (Blum / She served as their Superior. Due to her presence, the whole endeavour had quite a prominent standing, as she was also the niece of the Bishop of Limburg.), Sr. Eudoxia (Bender), Sr. Hyazintha (Neuroth), Sr. Matrona (Moehring), Sr. Facunda (Wand / other spelling Fakunda), Sr. Bella (Sienoecke), Sr. Henrica (Sienoecke) and Sr. Corona (Jahn). They were chosen out of 200 sisters which had volunteered to serve in the US. They boarded ship on the 13th and reached New York on 24 August 1868. From there, they took the train to Fort Wayne. From here, they left on the back of a horse-drawn cart on to Hessen Kassel. Here they established their first mission on the 'Feast of St. Rose', the 30th August 1868. Their tasks were nursing and schooling and they were introduced to the local community by Father Edward Koenig. He acted on behalf of Bishop John Henry Luers of the Fort Wayne Diocese who had issued an invitation for them. (In due course Father Koenig remained as 'advisor' with the sisters in their newly established Motherhouse in Fort Wayne. With this position, he established a close working relationship between the sisters and the bishop. He served in this function three consecutive bishops of the Fort Wayne diocese (John Henry Luers, Joseph Gregory Dwenger and Joseph Rademacher) until his death on January 22, 1898.)

St. Joseph Hospital became the first American hospital founded by Kaspar and the Society on May 4, 1869. It was located in the former Rockhill Hotel near Fort Wayne, which also served as the motherhouse of the order. They operated a school of nursing from 1918 to 1968, and operated the hospital until 1998, when it was sold. Saint Joseph, who was married to the mother of Jesus, is the patron saint of death.

Luers himself was of German descent, being born in Muenster/Germany. He had left Germany with his parents when he was a child. He became the first Bishop of Fort Wayne (1848–1871). His diocese extended at the time to the Illinois border including Donaldson, Indiana.^[1]

The Poor Handmaids established a college to train candidates and novices in Donaldson, Indiana in 1937.

Today in the USA

In 1966 this motherhouse opened its doors to the public as a two-year private community college under the name Ancilla College Their website is www.ancilla.edu.

The stations in Great Britain

The sisters established three main stations in England. They were intended as a refuge, in case Bismarckian church policy (i.e. Kulturkampf) would make such steps necessary. All were located in the diocese of Westminster: London (05.05.1876 - 01.08.1941 (destroyed in the war)); Hendon, St. Joseph monastery (01.05.1882 - ) and Walthamstow (03.09.1898 - 28.10.1940 (destroyed in the war)). Nowadays there is only one station left.

The stations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its successor states

The sisters founded eight stations in various towns in the Czech part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. 1) Prague, a monastery (Kloster zum hl. Joseph; 01.06.1881 - 09.08.1945), 2) Prague, an orphanage (Waisenhaus zum hl. Schutzengel; 13.09.1895 - 11.05.1945) , 3) Weipert, a poorhouse and old peoples home (Armenhaus; 02.09.1896 - 13.07.1943), 4) Weipert, a hospital (10.03.1909 - 18.11.1946), 5) Bürgstein, a monastery (St. Johannes von Nepomuk; 16.10.1890 - 09.08.1945), 6) Hirschberg, a monastery (St. Josephskloster; 10.07.1893 - 02.08.1945), 7) Böhmisch-Kamnitz, the regional hospital (Bezirkskrankenhaus; 31.10.1895 - 27.11.1946), 8) Türmitz, a monastery (Kloster Immakulata; 10.10.1887 - 01.08.1945). None of theses stations survived.

References