Founding

In 1866, Sister Coletta Himmelsbach and three other women in Seelbach, what was then the Grand Duchy of Baden, (now part of Germany), accepted the challenge to serve the poor, the sick, and the aging of their village. From this small group developed the Congregation now known as the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart. In 1868 they opened a chapel at their first Motherhouse at Trettenhoff, near Seelbach, which they had purchased to accommodate their growing program and number of members.^[2] The Sisters cared for the sick in their homes, and nursed victims of smallpox and typhoid fever, which increased in the social disruption during and after the Franco-Prussian War. They also taught the young, and opened their convent doors to care for the orphans and elderly. They worked on the battlefield during the war to nurse and treat the wounded.

During the period of the Kulturkampf in the 1870s, anti-Catholic feeling rose in Germany, as Bismarck worked to establish a more secular government. The Sisters were under pressure to disband or migrate. While they were discerning their course of action, the Rev. Dominic Duehmig, who had established himself in the United States, invited the Sisters to that country, and they began to migrate in 1876.^[2]

United States of America

On May 17, 1876, four Sisters set sail for the United States, settling in Avilla, Indiana, in the Diocese of Fort Wayne. Within a short time, 23 other Sisters from Baden joined them. They elected Mother Anastasia Bischler was elected as their first General Superior. Archbishop Patrick Feehan of Chicago approved their Constitutions on March 10, 1888. The Religious Institute was granted Pontifical status on July 16, 1898.

Because of expanding ministries, the Motherhouse was transferred to Joliet, Illinois, in 1883. In 1893, they established Mercy Hospital in Burlington, Iowa.^[3]

They worked in education, ministries to the poor, and in healthcare. In the late 1920s, for instance, some Franciscan Sisters moved to Chamberlain, South Dakota, where they assisted Priests of the Sacred Heart in running St. Joseph's Indian School, founded in 1927 primarily to serve Lakota students and families from nearby reservations.^[4] As of 2021, the school continues to serve Native Americans in the region, with about 220 students annually in grades K-8.^[5] The Sisters also established missions in South America.

In 1964 the Motherhouse moved to Frankfort, Illinois, where it is still located.^[6] The sisters have run many healthcare facilities, such as the Queen of Angels Hospital (1926-1989) in Los Angeles, California, which partnered with another institution in a new facility.^[7]

Today

As Franciscan women religious, the Sisters are faithful to God’s continuous creative action in their lives. They joyfully embrace their vowed life and the Franciscan values of poverty, humility, contemplation, and continual conversion. Their deep trust in Divine Providence continually supports their readiness to respond in a prophetic way to the needs of others through their varied ministries of education, healing and service. They live communally in convents located in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and California, as well as in the Amazon basin area of Brazil, South America.^[8]