Hedwig sisters
The Hedwig Sisters , full name Congregation of the Hedwig Sisters of the most pure and immaculate received Virgin and Mother of God Mary and of the III. Order of St. Augustinus CSSH , are a Catholic women's order that is particularly dedicated to child and youth welfare.
history
The congregation was founded by the Breslau canon Robert Spiske on June 14, 1859. The forerunner of the order was a women's community founded in 1847, which was dedicated to the care of children who were affected by poverty and neglect during the industrialization of the mid-19th century. The community was based on the example of the patroness of Silesia , St. Hedwig von Andechs , in order to fulfill "through her way of life and through her service the commandment of love for God and active neighborly love".
The first four sisters made their profession before Robert Spiske according to the order of life of the congregation of the Hedwig Sisters. For the habit Spiske chose a blue veil as a reference to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary announced five years earlier . After the first children's home opened in Wroclaw the year before the order was actually founded, the Hedwig Sisters founded the associated school in 1864.
The final recognition as a congregation of papal law by Pope Pius XI. took place on January 12, 1931. With the expulsion of the Superior General and all German sisters after the end of World War II , a new motherhouse had to be built. The expelled sisters found a new place of work in Berlin. In 1948 the Sancta Maria home for orphans, neglected and refugee children was founded in Berlin-Wannsee , where the mother house of the order was also established. A charge of sexual abuse was brought against a Berlin Hedwig sister. A former resident of the Hedwig sisters' children's home reported that she had been abused by a nun for years in the 1950s and 1960s.
On March 25, 1959, the Congregation joined the Augustinian Order, whose rule is the basis of their life together. The Hedwig sisters now have branches in Germany, Austria, Poland, Belarus, the Czech Republic and Denmark. Sister Simone Nocon has been the Superior General since 2017.
tasks
The Hedwig sisters see their task in praising God and social work. The focus to this day is the care and support of children and adolescents with impairments in social, emotional or cognitive development. In addition, there is the care and support of the elderly.
Superior General
- Augustina von Doualliers, 1888-1894
- Felizitas Salutz, 1894–1914
- Ludgardis Slowik, 1914–1920
- Margareta Fleischer, 1920–1938
- Augustina Schmidt, 1938–1969
- Michaela Andörfer , 1969–2005
- Vincentia Weide, 2005–2017
- Simone Nocon, since 2017
literature
- Clemens Jöckle : Blessed are the merciful. 150 years of the Hedwig Sisters 1859–2009 . Éditions du Signe, Strasbourg 2009, ISBN 2-7468-2026-9 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Hedwig sisters in the catalog of the German National Library
- Homepage of the Hedwig Sisters , accessed on December 1, 2014
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d history of the order. In: Homepage. Congregation of the Hedwig Sisters, accessed December 1, 2014 .
- ^ Allegations of abuse against former nun , Spiegel Online, March 7, 2010.
- ↑ New Superior General of the Hedwig Sisters. hedwigsschwestern.de, August 31, 2017, accessed on October 21, 2018 .