Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God

The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God ( Latin : Sororum Missionariarum ab Immaculata Conceptione Matris Dei , English : Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God ) in Germany also known under the name "Wilkingheger Missionsschwestern" ( order abbreviation : SMIC ) are a religious order of missionary sisters in the Roman Catholic Church .

history

The "Wilkingheger Missionary Sisters" emerged from the Congregation of the Conceptionists . Its origins go back to 1910, when the Bishop of the Mission Amandus Bahlmann OFM had some sisters assigned by the conceptionists from Rio de Janeiro to educate orphans in the Santarém prelature in Brazil . During a trip through Germany, Bishop Bahlmann was introduced to the teacher Elisabeth Tombrock in Münster . Her wish to join the Order of the Poor Clares in Münster was not fulfilled and so she went to Brazil together with Bishop Bahlmann as “Poor Missionary Clares of the Immaculate Conception”. She now had the religious name "Maria Immaculata von Jesus" and worked as a teacher in the mission station . Together with the four conceptionists, Bishop Bahlmann first founded the Congregation of the "Mission Clearances". Mother Immaculata, as Elisabeth Tombrock was called, also took over the leadership of the new religious community.

Wilkingheger Missionary Sisters

After a while the conceptionists left the mission station and were replaced by postulants from Germany. These had received their training as missionary sister in Münster with the Poor Clares, here in 1915 an independent congregation of the “Mission Clearances ” was also formed in the Lourdes monastery (at the same time novice house ) in Münster.

As a result of the First World War , the connection to Brazil was lost. However, in order to ensure the clothing of the postulants, the Bishop of Munster , Johannes Poggenburg , approved the community as a congregation under episcopal law under his jurisdiction . This part was reunited with the Brazilian community after the end of the war. In order to advance the training of the missionary sisters, the mission monastery and the new St. Joseph novitiate house were built in Wilkinghege near Münster. The term "Wilkingheger Mission Sisters" was derived from this later.

Further development

Missionary sisters from Münster took on missionary tasks in China at the end of 1920 ; the first missionary sisters were sent to China in 1931. During the same period, the Missionary Sisters established a branch in Olean , near St. Bonaventure University in New York , United States , which is run by Franciscans . In 1922 the previous community of missionary clarities was transformed into a congregation under papal law and was given the name "Missionary Clarises of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God". In 1925 the religious community was assigned to the Franciscan order and now lived according to the rules of the regulated third order of St. Francis . In 1929 the missionary sisters received their final name and were now called "Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God".

Expansion of the order

After the death of the General Superior Elisabeth Tombrock († April 23, 1938), the congregation was widespread in Brazil, the USA, China and Germany. In 1941 the two mission monasteries in Münster were confiscated by the Nazi regime and the further posting of missionary sisters was prohibited. The majority of the sisters were distributed to monasteries in the Oldenburger Land . After the new beginning in 1947, the German province began to reorganize itself, branches and charitable institutions were built in Warendorf , Mühlen , Griethausen , Hochheide , Wadersloh , Hagen , Münster-Nienberge , Meckenheim , Wesel and Bad Bentheim . The sisters worked in homes for the elderly, kindergartens, in outpatient nursing, as well as in missions college and in parishes .

In 1948 the branch in China had to be given up, the missionary sisters fled to Taiwan and established a new branch there. The sending of missionary sisters from Germany to Taiwan began in 1954. The branch in Namibia , established in 1962, has been an independent monastic province since 1998 . With the end of the Second Vatican Council a reorientation and restructuring began for the religious order, in 1988 the revised constitution was approved by Pope John Paul II .

organization

The Lourdeskloster in Münster has been the motherhouse of the German province since 2000 , while the monastery in Münster-Wilkinghege had to be abandoned. The German Provincial include the communities Lourdes monastery in Munster, St. Konrad in Munster, St. Joseph in Griethausen, St. Joseph in Meckenheim , the Chinese Sisters community in Sankt Augustin .

The American Provincial Motherhouse and Generalate are in West Paterson N.J. (USA).

Worldwide, the religious community is thus divided into the following provinces:

Germany: Provincial Office in Münster;
USA: Generalate and Provincialate in West Paterson NJ
Brazil: Provincialate in Belém , Pará ; Provincialate of Salvador in Bahia ;
Taiwan: Provincialate in Tainan ;
Philippines : Novitiate in Manila and
Namibia: Provincialate in Gobabis

Way of life

The missionary sisters do not live in monasteries but in residential communities . They share their life with their fellow human beings and try to adopt the local way of life. Its main idea is given by the rules of the order; Characteristics of their spirituality are common prayer and devotion to the “Holy Virgin Mary ”.

Web links