Order of the Visitation of Mary
The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary ( lat. : Ordo Visitatio Mariae , religious symbol : OVM ), the members of the German language area also known as the Salesian Sisters or Visitation known, was founded in 1610 by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal founded.
prehistory
Francis von Sales, Bishop of Geneva - Annecy , had met the young Baroness Johanna Franziska von Chantal on March 5, 1604 during sermons of fasting in Dijon . She had become a widow due to her husband's tragic hunting accident and was contemplating becoming a religious. Francis de Sales took over the spiritual accompaniment of the deeply devout baroness, and it soon turned out that Johanna Franziska felt the call to a religious life in which active activity and contemplative life are deeply connected. However, such a community did not exist, which is why Franz von Sales and Johanna von Chantal decided to found their own order.
Emergence
On June 6, 1610, the first monastery of the Visitation Sisters was founded in Annecy, the city where Francis de Sales lived as bishop. The first sisters were, besides Johanna Franziska von Chantal, Charlotte de Bréchard, Jacqueline Favre and Jacqueline Coste. The name Order of the Visitation of Mary comes from the visit of the Mother of God, who is pregnant with Jesus Christ, to her cousin Elisabeth, described in the Gospel of Luke, the Bible story of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary . Johanna von Chantal and Franz von Sales wanted to use this name to express the active activity of the New Order: The Visitation Sisters should go to the poor, the sick and the needy at home to support them. The source for this charitable activity should be prayer - the love of God should be visible through and in the love of one's neighbor. However, when a second monastery of the Visitation was to be founded in Lyon in 1615 , this concept was rejected by the responsible archbishop because he could not come to terms with a charitable women's order - at that time a complete novelty. The Visitation Sisters and their founders bowed to the bishop's decision, and so the Congregation was transformed into a contemplative order, which in 1618 received papal recognition from Pope Paul V.
Spread
When Francis de Sales died around four years after the papal recognition of the order in 1622, there were 13 Visitation Monasteries. When the founder Johanna Franziska von Chantal died in 1640, there were already 87 religious houses. Today there are 153 monasteries on four continents (as of 2009): In Asia the visitation is in Lebanon and South Korea, in Africa in Burundi, Rwanda and Congo, in North America in the USA, Canada and Mexico, in Central America in Guatemala, Panama and in the Dominican Republic, in South America in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, in Europe in Germany, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, England, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Belgium.
In Germany, the first Visitation Monastery was founded in 1667 in Indersdorf . The following Visitation Monasteries still exist in Germany today: Monastery Zangberg near Mühldorf am Inn, Monastery Dietramszell and Uedem on the Lower Rhine , in Austria in Monastery Thurnfeld in Hall in Tyrol and in Monastery on Rennweg in Vienna and in Switzerland in Solothurn and Freiburg in Üechtland .
Other monasteries in Germany have been closed in recent years: Salesian convent Koblenz in 1986, Pielenhofen monastery ( Regensburg district ) in 2010, Beuerberg monastery ( Wolfratshausen dean's office ) in 2014 and Oberroning monastery near Landshut in 2015.
Saints and Blessed of the Order
Among the best-known nuns of the Visitation are St. Margareta Maria Alacoque (1647–1690), who lived in the monastery of Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy and who was commissioned in a vision to promote the devotion of the Sacred Heart , and Mother Maria Salesia Chappuis (1793–1875) from the religious house in Troyes (France), who together with Fr. Louis Brisson the Oblates of St. Francis of Sales founded.
In 1998 Sr. Gabriela de Hinojosa and her companions, the seven martyrs of Madrid , were beatified. The dissemination of a devotion to the five wounds of Christ goes back to the visions of Sr. Marie-Marthe Chambon . The venerable servant of God and mystic Louise-Marguerite Claret de la Touche founded the religious institute of the Sisters of Bethany of the Sacred Heart . Because of their visions, the Priestly Association of Friends of the Heart of Jesus was founded.
In 2015 the beatification process was initiated by Sr. Françoise-Thérèse (Léonie Martin) in Caen (France). She was the "difficult" sister of St. Therese von Lisieux and daughter of St. Zélie and Louis Martin , who, after many difficulties and struggles, was only able to enter the haunted monastery at the age of 35.
activities
The Order of the Visitation is a contemplative order with a cloister. In this respect, personal prayer and choral prayer are among the most important tasks of the Salesians. There are also various services for the monastery community (gate, administration, house and garden). Some sisters are active in adult education (retreats, spiritual accompaniment) or in the educational field.
Motto
The motto of the Salesians is:
“We Sisters of the Visitation of Mary live a spirituality of encounter that is rooted in the biblical encounter between Mary and Elizabeth ( Lk 1.39–56 EU ). We would like to give an answer to the lack of relationships, speechlessness and loneliness of our time. We live this primarily from the encounter with God, our center and source. We live this in encounters with fellow sisters, employees, fellow human beings, the church and the world, following the example of our founders Franz von Sales and Johanna Franziska von Chantal. "
