Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception

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The Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception ( SMI ) are a congregation of sisters in the Roman Catholic Church , which was founded in 1854 by Pastor Johannes Schneider in Breslau .

history

The background to the foundation were the social upheavals and the rural exodus as side effects of industrialization . At the instigation of Prince-Bishop Heinrich Förster , Pastor Schneider founded an association for the care of endangered maids, which was called St. Mary's Association . From this the Congregation developed under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception of Mary , which was dogmatized in the founding year 1854. In 1891 Prince-Bishop Georg von Kopp confirmed the Constitutions of the Community and in 1897 awarded Pope Leo XIII. her the Decretum laudis , making her an institute under papal law . The final recognition was granted by Pope Pius XI. 1932.

Before the Second World War , the congregation had 831 sisters who worked in 115 branches. The congregation is dedicated to social and charitable tasks, education, care and work in hospices . There are currently over 400 sisters working in six countries. There are provinces in Germany ( Berlin since 1934 and Cochem since 1950), Poland , Italy , Tanzania , Ukraine and Latvia ; the General Motherhouse is in Rome.

Places of activity in Germany

The St. Augustine Monastery in Berlin-Lankwitz , where most of the Sisters of the German Province live, is also the seat of the provincial government for Germany. The St. Marien Hospital is also located on the site of the monastery. This was inaugurated in 1993. Other places of activity of the sisters are the St. Marien Seniorenstift in Berlin-Kreuzberg and the Seniorenstift St. Antonius in Berlin-Karlshorst .

In addition to Berlin, another focus of the work is in Cochem . The St. Hedwig senior citizen center, which opened on April 1, 1997, is located on the monastery mountain there. A small community of nuns takes care of the chapel there and is active in pastoral care. The St. Marien Hospital, which opened in 1993 and has a helicopter landing pad for emergency rescue, is located in the Cochem-Cond district . The nuns live in a monastery on the site and are active in pastoral care.

Another place of activity is on the Moselle in the district of Treis . The Sisters of Mary who live there take care of the St. Katharina Seniors' Foundation and live on the ground floor of the monastery.

literature

  • Johannes Mertens: Congregation of the Sisters of Mary V. - History of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception 1945–1999 . Berlin 2000.
  • Johannes Mertens: Short version of the chronicle in words and pictures - Congregation of the Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception . Ed .: Congregation of the Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Berlin Province, 2002

Web links

Commons : Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The History of the Congregation . Congregation of the Sisters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception website, accessed March 15, 2018.