The founding of two congregations of women religious in Wisconsin began in the late 1840s with a leap of faith — onto a steamship and across the sea from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria, to America. A group of 12 tertiaries left behind a tenuous society in what is now part of Germany, the women among them on a mission to provide Christian education to immigrants, like themselves, in a new world. They served together as vowed Franciscan women in Jefferson and Milwaukee for more than 20 years until parting ways. Those who stayed in Milwaukee became the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, and the others followed Mother Antonia Herb to La Crosse, where they established themselves as the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
Today both congregations are celebrating the 175th anniversary of ministry — prayer, witness and service — in Milwaukee and La Crosse.
A two-day pilgrimage to sites common to sites in Jefferson and Milwaukee common to their histories, forged by 25 FSPA sisters and affiliates and hosted by the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, took place on April 20 to 21, 2024. In Jefferson they visited St. Coletta of Wisconsin, the site where the first sisters of the two congregations served, now the home of an organization missioned to provide programs and services for persons with developmental disabilities and other challenges. The building is imbued with not only the rich history of the congregations but also a visual exhibit featuring images of Assisi in Italy — the birthplace of both St. Francis and St. Clare, the ground set firmly by their common Franciscan roots. They also visited the Cemetery at St. Lawrence Church, where many of those sisters are buried.
In Milwaukee the group spent time at St. Francis Convent, the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi and Calvary Cemetery, where the original 1849 tertiaries from Bavaria are interred.
The leap of faith taken more than 175 years ago by the foundresses of these two organizations did not only span the volatile sea but great uncertainty about gender independence and ministerial freedom. When they found themselves dispatched to duties of cooking and cleaning, the women pushed further to forge missions of prayer, justice and peace, integral ecology and more, serving people around the world.
“The stories of the early sisters are filled with hardship and suffering, but also iron wills of determination, hearts of faithful purpose and bodies that endured only through courage,” shares pilgrim and Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Rose Elsbernd. In reflection of the experience, she says, “Today I ask myself if I am willing to move into the future with similar zeal and courage to take risks. I pray that I can.”
Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Sue Ernster, who serves as the congregation’s president and Leadership Conference of Women Religious as president-elect, was also among the pilgrims. She calls the shared anniversary and the pilgrimage experience “a confirmation of our beginnings and a time of renewal — the hope of living together the future” of women religious.
175th pilgrimage slide show by Jen Pick