December 15, 2025 // Diocese

Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration Celebrate 150 Years in Indiana and the U.S.

Kasia Balsbaugh

 

The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration have been serving in the United States – and, in particular, the area that makes up what is now the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend – since 1875.

Bishop Rhoades celebrated a jubilee Mass for the sisters at their Mishawaka motherhouse, exactly 150 years to the day since their arrival in the United States, on Sunday, December 14. Some of the sisters from other locations traveled for the celebration, while others viewed it through a livestream. A few priests from the diocese were also able to assist with the Mass – some of whom had even been taught by the Sisters of St. Francis in their youth.

 

In fact, the whole weekend was full of celebrations for the sisters’ jubilee. Their mother superior from Germany, Sister M. Magdalena Krol, traveled to be present for the weekend. Another Mass was held on Saturday in Lafayette at the community’s first motherhouse in America, where Bishop Timothy L. Doherty of the Diocese of Lafayette and Bishop Robert J. McClory of the Diocese of Gary celebrated Mass with several other priests for the sisters and friends of the community. Mass with Bishop Rhoades at the Mishawaka motherhouse was a more intimate celebration just for the sisters. Another event of the jubilee weekend was the production of a play written by Sister Mary Amata Naville about the arrival of the first sisters in the U.S.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration was founded in Germany 12 years before their arrival in America. The sisters began their active apostolates working primarily with orphans and home nursing in Germany, many even serving as nurses in the Franco-Prussian War and other conflicts. Education and health care continue to be the community’s main active apostolates in their provinces in the United States, Germany, and the Philippines, alongside their most important charism: perpetual adoration.

 

Around the time of the community’s founding in 1870s Germany, the Catholic Church faced persecution during the Kulturkampf – a period when the government tried to gain control over Church organizations and communities in Germany. Church property was confiscated. Convents, seminaries, and Catholic schools were forcibly closed (including the sisters’ school for orphans). Several religious were banished or imprisoned. Also, the sisters’ community was prohibited from accepting new members.

With this in mind, the community’s foundress, Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel, sent six young sisters to start a new branch of the community in the United States. Bishop Rhoades commemorated them in his homily by name: Sister Clara, Sister Bonaventura, Sister Agatha, Sister Rosa, Sister Augustine, and Sister Alphonsa. They were all between the ages of 30 and 35.

When the sisters arrived in New York on December 12, 1875, they celebrated Gaudete Sunday – the same feast the Church celebrated on the sisters’ 150th jubilee day, which is December 14, the day the sisters arrived in Lafayette. (At that point in time, the Diocese of Fort Wayne encompassed both Lafayette and the sisters’ current motherhouse in Mishawaka, which are now part of two different dioceses.) The community has been serving in the area ever since.

The pioneer sisters had to work hard in the new country. When they arrived at the train station in Lafayette, no one was there to greet them. The sisters didn’t have much money or know many people besides the bishop of the diocese, but within three weeks, they had already started their first hospital.

“It’s just beautiful to think about the faith and the hope that those sisters had,” Sister Anna Joseph Nelling told Today’s Catholic.

Sister Anna Joseph, currently living in the convent in Fort Wayne, joined the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in 2006. She helped organize the 150th jubilee events over the weekend.

“We’re just really blessed to be celebrating our jubilee in a year that the Church is also having a jubilee,” Sister Anna Joseph said. “It’s been really special reflecting on what jubilee means for the life of the Church and all the graces that we can receive in a year of jubilee, and then thinking of that even more deeply for our community.”

In his homily on the jubilee day, Bishop Rhoades reflected on the perseverance needed for the sisters’ expansion to the United States, as well as the patience of the People of God for His coming, as seen in the Sunday reading from Isaiah.

“We can easily become distracted by the busyness of this season,” Bishop Rhoades said. “Blessed Mother Maria Theresia teaches us to fix our inner gaze on Christ during this time. True joy is linked to our relationship with Christ. It’s not just a passing state of mind or something we can achieve by our own effort. It is a gift, born from our encounter with the living Person of Jesus. All we have to do is make room within ourselves for His coming.”

As Bishop Rhoades said in a nod to the sisters’ origin country, “Rejoice in the Lord always; Freut euch im Herrn allezeit.”

“In the midst of the troubles of this life, the Lord wants us to be strong and fear not, to trust in Him and His love,” Bishop Rhoades said. “That’s what Mother Maria Theresia did, and what the sisters who came to America did.”