Sr. Bernadette Sullivan leads the entry procession at Sunday Liturgy. When Sr. Benadette was our Congregational Liaison to the United Nations' NGO, she was instrumental in bringing one of our Associates, Suzanne M'Bengue, to the U.N. to speak about the condition of women in Senegal. The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Foundation sponsored Suzanne's trip. Associates are men and women, married and single, who choose to share in our life and mission. They do this in various countries and in a variety of ways.
Sr. Marie Augustine N'Dione is one of our Senegalese sisters who was a delegate to our International Assembly, held in Cincinnati OH in 2007. In this picture, Sr. Augustine is participating in the Assembly's opening session.
The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor are here because of Frances Schervier. Born in 1819 in Aachen, Germany; she was deeply moved by the life and mission of St. Francis of Assisi. The daughter of a wealthy manufacturer, Frances often visited her father’s factory to distribute food and clothing to the workers. As she worked among the poor she became more radically aware of how God was leading her and her group of friends to be instruments of healing for people. On May 11, 1845, she founded a religious congregation of women, the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, in Aachen, Germany. In the late 1950s, the U.S. branch changed their name to the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor.
Franciscan Sisters of the Poor are members of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis and choose to follow this way of life by making public vows of consecrated celibacy, poverty and obedience lived in community. Although the Sisters have worked closely with the laity from the beginning of the Congregation, in 1982, following the Directives of Vatican II, the Congregation formalized this relationship by adding structure to the associate relationship, and inviting Associates to participate more closely in the Sisters' work and prayer life.
