1870/71 France,1872 USA,1874/75 Netherlands,1883-1988 Belgia,1933 Romania, 1964-1969 Indonesia,1967 Rome, 1973/74 – 1983 Malaysia, 1984 Malawi, 1991 Romania,1997-1999 Nigeria

The beginning of the Congregation in Germany is closely connected with the founding intention and the history of the foundation by Mother M. Clara Pfänder.

The German-French war of 1870/71 was for Mother M. Clara an occasion to send Sisters to Metz-Sablon, in order to carry out army medical service there. This was the beginning in France.

The first Sisters were sent to America in 1872 from the Motherhouse in Salzkotten, Germany, during the early developments of the “Kulturkampf” in Germany.

Mother M. Clara Pfänder was compelled to send her Sisters into other countries, and was at the same time able to give a response to requests she had received. In December 1872 some Sisters had already emigrated to Carondelet/St Louis in the United States. On Saturday, December 4, 1875, the “Deutschland” left Bremerhaven, and among the passengers were 5 Sisters. The following day, on December 5, the ship got stuck in a sandbank on the Kentish Knock, about 30 kilometers from Harwich, England. Sixty people lost their lives, and among them were our 5 Sisters.

Sister, a sister calling
A master, her master and mine! –
And the inboard seas run swirling and hawling;
The rash smart slogging brine
Blinds her; but she that weather sees one thing, one;
Has one fetch in her: she rears herself to divine
Ears, and the call of the tall nun
To the men in the tops and the tackle rode over the storm’s brawling.

In the distress of the Kulturkampf Mother M. Clara was compelled to go abroad to beg. So the Sisters approached Bishop Dr. Konrad Martin of Paderborn and the Holland Bishop from Utrecht and Haarlem, with their request for approval, to go to Holland to collect. With this, in 1874/75 the first connections to Holland were made and the foundation of branches prepared.

To fulfil the needs in North Sumatra, Apostolic Prefecture of Padang, Mgr. Mathias Brans and the missionary Capuchin priests who were already in Sumatra, asked our congregation to send Sisters to the mission in Sumatra. So on May 18, 1930 five sisters sailed from Genua harbour in the Netherlands to Indonesia.The number of Sisters continued to grow and in 1989 Indonesia became an independent Province of the Congregation.

After the political turnaround in 1990 our Sisters, through media reports, became aware again of the various needs in Romania. Several appeals to missionary service caused their return in 1991, but this time in Banat.

In December 1963, in response to the Holy Father’s call to send missionaries to South America, and in response to a direct request from Bishop James Ryan, OFM, for Sisters to come to Santarém, Brazil to assist the Franciscan Friars in serving the poor in northern Brazil, the first 3 Sisters from St Clara Province in the United States set out on their journey to Brazil.

In 1960 during the General Chapter the decision was made to transfer the Generalate to Rome. After intensive pioneer work and a long building process, the Generalate was transferred to Rome in 1967.

In 1984 our Sisters of the German Province made a start of a mission service in Madisi/Malawi, to bring the Gospel way of life to the African culture and to be open to the needs of the people. In 2000 our Sisters switched the emphasis from the activities in the mission hospital to the education and development of AIDS orphans, including the work of education and more aimed measures against AIDS.

Call from the Bishop’s Conference
In response to this concern, our Sisters felt called to answer this need, and in 1988 the Vice-Provincial Council went to East Timor and talked to the Bishop Belo. Then the Bishop gave Viqueque as a mission station area for the Sisters.