RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY FACTS
DID YOU KNOW?
For over 25 years, the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart held their annual garage sale with
proceeds to their mission activity in Brazil, moving reusable trash to renewable treasures.
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in Belgium in 1609 by a young
Englishwoman named Mary Ward, was suppressed in 1631, yet continued to quietly grow
through its educational endeavors throughout Europe, finally receiving full approval in 1877.
The Mantellate Sisters Servants of Mary were founded in 1891 in Treppio, Italy (near Pistoia).
This Year of Consecrated Life, 2015, is the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of St.
Francis of Mary Immaculate in Joliet, also referred to as the Joliet Franciscans. They were the
first group of Franciscan sisters incorporated in the State of Illinois, which was in 1874.
125 years ago, the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary came to Bourbonnais from Paris, to
minister in the infirmary at St. Viator’s College and within ten years founded a hospital and
boarding school.
During the years of 1885 to 1900, Chicago became an important Czech Center for the
Benedictine Sisters.
The founders of St. Procopius Abbey and Sacred Heart Monastery, following the model of
Saints Benedict and Scholastica, were brother and Sister. Both Abbot Nepomuk Jaeger and
Mother Nepomuk Jaeger had a famous Czech saint, John Nepomucene, as their patron.
The masterpiece poem by Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins titled “The Wreck of Deutschland” was
dedicated to five Franciscan Sisters, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who
left their Motherhouse in Salzkotten, Germany to join 19 of their Sisters (later known as
Wheaton Franciscans). They lost their lives in a shipwreck off the coast of England.
The ministries of the Christian Brothers of the Midwest cover eight states and include three
universities, fifteen high schools, five middle schools (the San Miguel Schools), four retreat
centers, two publishing houses, and the Provincialate Office in Burr Ridge.
The charism of the Society of Christ consists in serving the Polish Diaspora throughout the
world.
For over 75 years, the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart have assisted pregnant and
parenting teens in Los Angeles County through St. Anne’s (begun by Sister Winifred and Miss
Loretta Young).
In 1847, IBVMs from Ireland established themselves in Toronto, Canada, and from there Sisters
were sent to Joliet in 1880 to build their first foundation in the United States, St. Mary’s
Academy on Ottawa Street which eventually became Providence Catholic High School in New
Lenox.
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The Mantellate Sisters have served in the Diocese of Joliet as teachers, catechists, spiritual
advisors, Directors of Faith Formation, Pastoral Associates and parish Business Managers for
almost 40 years.
The Joliet Franciscan foundress, Mother Alfred Moes, who also founded the Rochester
Franciscans had a hand in what eventually became the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary in Kankakee, is an international congregation serving in
the USA, France, Canada, Argentina/Chile, Cameroon, Cuba, and soon to open missions in
Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sacred Heart Monastery was founded in Chicago in 1895.
adjacent to St. Vitus Parish Church in Chicago.
The Sisters’ home/school was
Saint Procopius Abbey had its beginnings in the City of Chicago. The monks first settled in
what was then the largest Czech parish in the nation, St. Procopius in the Pilsen neighborhood.
In 1896, land was purchased in rural Lisle so that the monks could grow their schools, which
made the move in 1901. The abbey officially transferred its address to Lisle in 1914.
St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing in Milwaukee (later evolving into Marquette University
College of Nursing in 1936) was established by the Wheaton Franciscans in 1902. These
Sisters served as Dean of the College until 1988.
The De La Salle Brothers are present in 78 countries.
The Society of Christ ministers in particular to those of the faithful who, being products of Polish
religious culture, have decided to build their lives overseas.
In the early 1880’s, the grateful citizens of Joliet gave $600.00 to the Franciscan Sisters of the
Sacred Heart so they would establish a hospital in the city.
In the 1880’s, Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary taught in four Joliet parish
schools: St. Patrick, St. Mary, St. Bernard, and Sacred Heart along with St. Mary Academy (a
high school with boarders).
The Mantellate Sisters belong to the Servite Order which is one of the Mendicant Orders.
The Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate taught in 11 parishes in the Joliet Diocese over
the last 150 years, starting with St. John the Baptist, Joliet, in 1863 where over time, 296 sisters
taught.
At one time, the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary in Kankakee, had boarding schools in
Beaverville, Momence, Manteno and parochial schools in L’Erable, Irwin, and St. St. Anne.
After 17 years (1912) of successful work in Chicago, the Benedictine Sisters numbered 60
members, were staffing 9 schools, had paid for their convent/school and purchased 200 acres
of property in Lisle.
The Benedictine order, the first in Western Christianity, is close to fifteen hundred years old. St.
Benedict of Nursia founded monasteries at Subiaco and Monte Cassino in Italy, probably during
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the 520s. Benedictines are represented in the Diocese of Joliet by St. Procopius Abbey and
Sacred Heart Monastery in Lisle.
The Wheaton Franciscans sponsor a spirituality ministry called the Tau Center at the
motherhouse in Wheaton with the purpose of sharing a passion for transformative spiritual
growth and healing through workshops, programs, spiritual counseling and holistic services.
The Christian Brothers and their lay partners educate 54,454 students in the United States and
936,663 in the world.
The Society of Christ has a filial reverence toward Our Lady, Queen of Poland.
Only ten years after their founding, the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart were forced to
leave Germany and arrived in the United States on May 31, 1876.
In 1946, the IBVM Sisters purchased property in Wheaton, which became Loretto Convent –
home to many Sisters, the US Province Offices, the Office of Development, Loretto Center,
Loretto Extension Service, Loretto House, and the Loretto Early Childhood Center which closed
in June of 2014.
The Mantellate Sisters have missions in Swaziland and Uganda, Africa.
The Joliet Franciscan Sisters served at Stateville prison ministry from as early as 1877, and a
Sister of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate began the Center for Correctional Concerns in the Will
County jail in 1979 and continues to serve there.
There are many ways to share in the charism of the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary…as
vowed members, SSCM consecrated laity, affiliates, servant companions, and the Delaplace
prayer ministry.
Sister Nepomucene Jaeger, foundress of Sacred Heart Monastery, was 34 years old when she
came to Chicago at her brother’s behest.
The founder of the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day, whose cause for beatification is
under way, was an oblate of St. Procopius Abbey. She visited the campus in Lisle in 1940 and
again in 1954.
The Wheaton Franciscans have been intimately involved in the People’s Resource Center in
Wheaton since its inception in 1975 as board members, volunteers, and as teachers for English
as a Second Language.
The De La Salle Christian Brothers are the second largest university network in the world and
the largest high school network in the United States.
Members of the Society of Christ serve at Holy Cross Parish, Joliet and at Divine Mercy Parish,
Lombard.
The Franciscan Sister of the Sacred Heart keep Brazilian kids off the street through the Street
Kids Ministry, a program in which children learn computer skills, music, woodworking, etc.
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From 1957-2014, twenty-eight Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary have taught at St. Francis
High School in Wheaton.
The Mantellate Sisters make rosaries and jewelry out of rose petals.
Sister Veronica Haarth, a Joliet Franciscan, was best known for her untiring and lifelong work on
behalf of blind adults. In 1920, she began studying Braille and eventually transcribed Catholic
books into Braille for adults. These books can be found in public libraries across the country.
In 1949, Sacred Heart Mission in Hopkins Park was founded by Fr. Demarais and Sr. Adelaide
Gagnon, SSCM, who with two other Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary, went door to door in
Pembroke Township laden with food, clothing and medications asking residents if they were
Catholic, and, if not, would they like to become Catholic.
During the last half of the 1920s, the Benedictine Sisters built an addition to their Monastery in
Lisle and founded Sacred Heart Academy, a boarding school for girls.
During the first two decades of the Diocese of Joliet, many of its seminarians had their training
at St. Procopius Seminary, before the institution closed its doors in 1968.
The Wheaton Franciscans have been involved in low-income housing and housing for the
elderly since the late 1960s, and this ministry continues today through Franciscan Ministries,
Inc.
St. John the Baptist De La Salle founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Christian
Brothers) in 1680.
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