100 years of caring, loving like Christ

The year 2024 has been a joyful time for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George — with the festivities beginning late last December — as the sisters have been taking measure and thanking God for all the good they’ve accomplished over the last 100 years in America.

The sister’s contributions to the faith and to others have been many, however, their story goes back to 1869. The order was founded in a little German village by Mother M. Anselma Bopp. Their numbers expanded quickly as the order appealed to women who were drawn to their mission, which was making Christ’s merciful love known to the world. A little more than five decades later, a few of those sisters headed to America.

On Dec. 12, 1923, five sisters departed the Thuine motherhouse. They boarded the ship Sierra Ventura on Dec. 15 and landed in New York harbor the day after Christmas of that same year. They reached Father Dunne’s Newsboys Home in St. Louis on Dec. 28, 1923.

Because that apostolate proved to be unsuitable for the sisters, by the next fall — on Oct. 3, 1924 — they embarked on a new apostolic endeavor. With a $60,000 loan they bought a place called the Nazareth Home in Alton — and in December the sisters converted this residence for the aged into a hospital known as Saint Anthony’s Infirmary.

On Sept. 30, 1925, their faith was put to the test. Although they fully believed they were doing God’s work and He would take care of it, the sisters found that they simply did not have enough money to pay the contractors (although generous benefactors had agreed to pay the interest on the loan for the first 10 years). With deep faith, the sisters prayed late into the night to their special patroness, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The next morning a donation arrived in the exact amount needed to meet their financial obligation.

From those humble beginnings a century ago, the sisters in America have continued to grow in both faith and numbers. Today there are 103 professed sisters and six women in the novitiate in 13 convents in the American Province in the USA. About half of those women live in Alton. Beginning in 1972, Sisters were also sent from the Provencial House in Alton to Brazil. Today 23 professed sisters and two novices are in Brazil, living in nine convents.

In particular, the 1980s saw growth in the sister’s apostolates. They established Saint Francis Day Care Center in 1980, and now a number of children who are cared for at the center are from second generation families. In the early 1980s, it was the sisters in Alton who opened the San Damiano Adoration Chapel adjacent to Saint Anthony’s Health Center for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The education apostolate also began in earnest during that decade. In the summer of 1987, at the invitation of the bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., the sisters began serving retired priests. They have also served in various bishop’s, cardinal’s, and nuncio’s households.

These days the sisters share God’s merciful work through their service in acute and extended health care, health care administration, community service (kitchen, laundry, sewing, province archives, leadership, formation, library, sacristan, choir director, organists and other instrumentalists), education at all levels, pastoral care,  and other places. Basically, the sisters do “whatever the Church needs,” said Sister M. Ancilla Matter, FSGM, province archivist.  And when sisters can no longer be active in an apostolate, they become adoration sisters, spending time before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

The sisters range from very young to older women, yet what they all have in common is a real joy in their vocations, which their provincial superior Mother M. Mediatrix Bexten, FSGM, has described as “the beauty and preciousness of each sister’s generous response to God’s merciful love.”

The sisters begin their day very early, praying the Liturgy of the Hours at 5:05 a.m. Their days are filled with various types of prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, Mass, meals together, work in their various apostolates, adoration, with time in the evenings for recreation or listening to speakers. Lights out is at 9:30 p.m. Sisters who live in smaller groups follow a similar schedule, depending on their apostolates. “We make sure that Lauds and Vespers are prayed in community,” Sister M. Ancilla said.

“We schedule monthly conferences,” she said. “We have had a variety of speakers, priests, and laity, depending on the given topic. We also have an adoration chapel in Alton that is open to the public. Sisters have scheduled adoration hours during the week. Sisters also make visits to the Blessed Sacrament during the day, as St. Francis of Assisi asked his followers to do. The sisters in the daughterhouses may go to the parish that has an adoration chapel.”

Sister M. Ancilla says the sisters’ families come to visit, usually on the weekend, about every six weeks. Sisters may also arrange home visits to their families.

The Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George continue to be blessed with new vocations. Sister Mariela Stodden, FSGM, has been serving as the community’s postulant director since 2017. “It has been a great joy to welcome and walk with the youngest members of our community. To introduce them to our way of life through daily class, one on one meetings every week, and just living together is a tremendous gift, and the way that I am able to be a spiritual mother,” she said. “The postulants follow our order of the day, including prayers, meals, and work in the apostolate. Our two postulants currently work mornings at our St. Francis Day Care Center. They love it!”

Sister Mariela says the young women who enter are from different backgrounds, family dynamics, and work experience. “Some have experienced hearing God’s call as a young child and some were only introduced to the idea of religious life as a college student,” she said. “Regardless of when they heard God’s call or how much experience they have living in the world, it is important for the young woman to have a real and deepening relationship with Jesus before she enters.

“There is usually a sense in the woman’s heart that is being called to experience and share the mercy of Jesus,” she said. “This is important to note because our particular charism is to receive Christ’s merciful love and to make it visible, visible in our relationships with one another, with those we meet, and with those we serve and work with.

“As we celebrate our 100^th jubilee this year we continue to be amazed by God’s faithfulness. Our community has always been blessed with vocations, blessed with young women who are eager to learn our life and share God’s merciful love,” said Sister Mariela. “We hope that the next 100 years we will serve Christ as faithfully as our first five Sisters who trusted God’s providence and gave everything in loving surrender.”