Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

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Father Josef Kentenich founder of the Schoenstatt Movement

The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary (ISSM) are a secular institute , also an institute of consecrated life under canon law , which was founded in 1926 by Josef Kentenich . This makes the community the oldest secular institute of the Roman Catholic Church .

history

Before the First World War, Father Kentenich founded the Schoenstatt Movement with young men. During the war women also joined the movement. In 1920 the first women were accepted and the “Schoenstatt Women's Union” was founded, which expanded rapidly. Father Kentenich intended to “create a new type of woman” and tried to found a new kind of women's community. There was still no model for this and no legal basis in the church of that time. In 1920 Gertraud von Bullion and Marie Christmann were accepted into the community. The community of the Sisters of Mary was founded on October 1st, 1926 by Father Kentenich. The first sisters moved into the vacant Old House , the former study seminary of the Pallottines , right next to the Original Shrine . Anna Pries and Emilie Engel were among the first sisters .

From 1928 onwards, the Sisters of Mary acquired further properties around the place where it was founded: The Schönfels house is now the bookstore of Patris Verlag. In 1929 the Sonneck House followed , which served as the mother house until 1967 and was then given to the Schoenstatt Fathers . The Wildburg house was acquired in 1930 and has housed the Marienschule since 1946.

The first sisters were sent to South Africa in 1933, to Brazil and Argentina in 1935 , to North America in 1949 and to Australia in 1951 . The first Indian sisters were sent to Kerala in 1984 . The Adoration Sisters branch was established in 1934.

The former Weidtmansche Schlösschen in Koblenz-Metternich, today the "Haus Providentia" of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

In Uruguay , the Sisters of Mary built the first subsidiary shrine in 1945 as a true-to-original replica of the original shrine in Schoenstatt , and from 1950 further replicas followed in Europe.

It was not until 1947 that the framework law for secular institutes made it possible to recognize the community under canonical law, and in 1948 it was established as a secular institute under diocesan law . The statutes of the institute were finally approved in 1994. From 1946 to 1950, provinces were constituted as regional structures. In 1950, the Provincialate of the Western Province was established in the Weidtmanschen Schlösschen in Koblenz-Metternich and a true-to-original replica of the original shrine was built in the garden.

After an episcopal visitation of the Sisters of Mary by the Trier auxiliary bishop Bernhard Stein in February 1949, Kentenich criticized the visitation report in a very direct way in a letter dated May 31, 1949 (“Epistola perlonga”) and thus provoked a conflict with the official church . As a result, the movement experienced a long ecclesiastical examination, the climax of which was the papal visitation by the Holy Office from 1951 to 1953. After the Second Vatican Council , the Schoenstatt work was confirmed papally in 1965.

Since 1952, the Sisters of Mary shifted their focus more and more to Mount Schoenstatt , since there were greater opportunities for expansion. A training home, a novitiate house, a mission center and a mother house were built there. A parament workshop was opened in the Marienfried House , which was acquired in 1960 .

In gratitude for the sparing of the Schoenstatt Movement from the destruction by National Socialism, which Mary asked for, the Sisters of Mary vowed on October 18, 1945 the construction of the Adoration Church , which was completed in 1968. The church is looked after by the Adoration Sisters, whose house is directly connected to the church.

After the reunification and the opening of the Eastern Bloc , the Sisters of Mary were able to do more work in Eastern Europe again. The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary have been active in the Königsberg area and in the former East Prussia since 1991 to offer pastoral care, sacraments and church services to the few Catholics who remained at the time - after decades of communist rule. In the meantime they are building social stations, children's homes and churches there with Western help.

The first beatification process for a Sister of Mary was opened in 1999 for the former superior Emilie Engel , who died in 1955 .

Community

The Sisters of Mary are not women religious in the strict sense of the word. They do not take vows for life , but renew their promise annually in the context of a liturgical celebration, and are only bound to the community by a civil law contract. Nevertheless, according to the classical evangelical counsels, the Sisters of Mary live celibate and are thus free to do their work within the Schoenstatt Work. Together they form a roof and table community in the Schoenstatt Houses . They commit themselves to obedience to their superiors and to a simple lifestyle. Most of the sisters wear a religious dress with a veil, but occasionally also civilian clothes.

The path into the community of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary corresponds to the sequence that is usual for religious sisters with candidacy, postulate and novitiate . After the time commitment over two three years has expired, the sister can examine herself in the tertiary for six months. Then she can make a promise to God for the time of her life. However, she does not take a vow that is more strongly binding under canonical law and is therefore free to leave the community at any time.

distribution

The center of the Sisters of Mary is on Mount Schoenstatt in Vallendar at the place where the Schoenstatt Movement was founded. There are also five provinces in Germany. The Sisters of Mary work in 29 countries worldwide. In Europe there are branches in France , Austria , Poland , Portugal , Russia , Scotland , Switzerland , Spain , Czech Republic , Hungary , Belarus . They are also widespread in the Latin American countries Argentina , Brazil , Chile , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , Mexico , Paraguay , Puerto Rico , Uruguay and the United States . They are also represented in Burundi , India , South Africa , Australia and the Philippines .

The general director is Pastor Bernd Biberger , a member of the Schoenstatt Institute for Diocesan Priests .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Timeline. In: Secular Institute Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. Retrieved October 17, 2012 .
  2. ^ Biography of Gertraud von Bullion
  3. ↑ a b Joachim Schmiedl : Schoenstatt, place . In: Hubertus Brantzen (Ed.): Schoenstatt Lexicon: Facts - Ideas - Life . 2nd unchanged edition. Patris-Verlag, Vallendar 2002, ISBN 3-87620-195-0 ( moriah.de ).
  4. ^ The working basis and the canonical rights for the secular institutes were established by Pope Pius XII with the Apostolic Constitution Provida mater ecclesia . on February 2, 1947.
  5. ^ Joachim Schmiedl: Stein, Bernhard . In: Hubertus Brantzen (Ed.): Schoenstatt Lexicon: Facts - Ideas - Life . 2nd unchanged edition. Patris-Verlag, Vallendar 2002, ISBN 3-87620-195-0 , p. 384 ( moriah.de [accessed October 17, 2012]).
  6. ^ Joachim Schmiedl: Schoenstatt, history . In: Hubertus Brantzen (Ed.): Schoenstatt Lexicon: Facts - Ideas - Life . 2nd unchanged edition. Patris-Verlag, Vallendar 2002, ISBN 3-87620-195-0 ( moriah.de [accessed on October 17, 2012]).
  7. ↑ Hinrich E. Bues: God brought into the atheistic desert . In: Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 11-11 , March 19, 2011 ( suche.ostpreussenarchiv.de [accessed October 17, 2012]).

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