Maria Katharina Kasper
Maria Katharina Kasper – born Katharina but in religion known as Maria – was a German Roman Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. Kasper entered the religious life later in her life despite having harbored a desire to become a religious sister for a great period of time. It had not materialized earlier due to aggravating circumstances such as the Kaspers' poor economic status and the deaths of both a brother and her father. Her dedication to the poor and the ill was noted during the course of her life and she dedicated herself to this work with great zeal.
Her canonization process launched in the 1940s and on 4 October 1974 she was named as Venerable; Pope Paul VI beatified her not long after on 16 April 1978. Pope Francis confirmed her canonization which was celebrated on 14 October 2018.
Life
Maria Katharina Kasper was born in mid-1820 in Dernbach as the third of four children to the devout peasants Heinrich Kasper and Katharina Fassel. Her father had four daughters from his first marriage. Her siblings were:- Peter
- Christian
- Joseph
Kasper also worked in the fields and one such job she was entrusted with was the splitting of stones for road construction in the areas around the field. Kasper often traveled to a Marian shrine and took fellow children there too. Her religious vocation was manifest from her childhood and she wrote that "I was just a little girl" when she felt "a great desire of religious vows" so as to consecrate herself to the Lord. Kasper worked in her adolescence in the fields so as to support her parents, while her vision of a vocation grew clearer as she worked; she later wrote that "when I went to work I felt the presence of God in me".
In 1841 her father died and in 1842 one of her brothers died whilst on his way back from trading in the Netherlands; their deaths splintered the household. Their poor economic condition aggravated the situation; she and her mother were forced to leave their home. They rented a room at the home of Matthias Müller and she weaved for a meager living to support herself and her mother. Her mother died sometime after this which left Kasper alone but free to pursue her call to the religious life. She wanted to become a professed religious but not in a pre-existing religious congregation which would make this a difficult thing for her to achieve. This would also have meant leaving her home region, as there were no female religious orders present due to the secularization. Yet there were still members of these orders living in her area, e.g., Franciscan and Cistercians in nearby Montabaur. Due to their presence and also their ongoing religious activities their spirit lived on. Kasper encountered this not only in Montabaur but also during her stay in Limburg. She built – with the help of other locals and family – her own little house in Dernbach. It was later to become the first house of the community. The first local girls, who helped her to nurse children and the sick in the village, lived at their respective family homes.
The activities of her group did not go unseen, particularly as their activities grew. The local mayor made a public announcement about the group, gave them some guidelines, and asked the villagers to make donations to them. Also the priests from neighbouring Wirges and Montabaur were informed. They probably passed the information onto Peter Joseph Blum the Bishop of Limburg, who Kasper also visited. In time, some of the girls from the village moved into Kasper's house, and also women from other villages. What began in 1845/46 as a dedicated but loose circle, was now in need for larger premises. It also became an association dedicated to entering organized religious life and would form the basis for the religious congregation that Kasper would create..
On 15 August 1851 Bishop Blum received the first vows of the group in Wirges church. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ were established and Kasper were professed as religious. Kasper took the religious name "Maria". The congregation spread at a rapid pace and Kasper visited the various homes that spread to see how each functioned and how each was performing its mission; the congregation soon crossed to the Netherlands in 1859. Kasper served five consecutive terms as the order's Superior General. In 1854 the order opened its first school. Pope Pius IX granted a decree of praise for the order on 9 March 1860 but it first received formal papal approval from Pope Leo XIII on 21 May 1890. In 1868 the order spread to the United States of America in cities such as Chicago.
Kasper suffered a heart attack on 27 January 1898 and died in Dernbach motherhouse at dawn of the Feast of the Presentation. She was buried at the sisters' private cemetery near to the motherhouse. Her remains were transferred to the order's motherhouse chapel in 1950. From their first placing in a vault they were due to the beatification transferred into a shrine-casket placed underneath the altar.
Her order now operates in countries across the world such as Mexico and India. At her death in 1898 there were 1725 religious in 193 houses, but in 2008 they numbered 690 religious in 104 houses.
The United States Motherhouse for the PHJC’s is in Donaldson, Indiana.
Canonization
The beatification process began in Limburg in an informative process that opened in 1928 and was closed less than a decade later in 1935; theologians assessed and approved her spiritual writings on 27 November 1937 as being in line with official doctrine. The formal introduction to the cause came on 3 February 1946 under Pope Pius XII and Kasper became titled as a Servant of God. The apostolic process was conducted throughout 1951 and its closure ended the series of diocesan investigations for the cause. This allowed the Congregation for Rites to take over and validate these processes in Rome on 18 April 1953. The first step forward was a committee approving the cause on 3 May 1966, while the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and their consultants likewise confirmed their approval for the cause on 9 April 1974. The C.C.S. granted additional approval to the cause on 4 June 1974.Kasper became titled as Venerable on 4 October 1974 after Pope Paul VI – in an audience with the C.C.S. prefect Cardinal Luigi Raimondi – confirmed that Kasper had lived a life of heroic virtue and authorized the promulgation of a decree confirming this move.
Her beatification then depended upon the papal confirmation of a miracle that science and medicine fail to explain. This often takes the form of a healing. The miracle leading to her beatification was the healing of the sister Maria Herluka – of Kasper's order – from severe tuberculosis in September 1945. The miracle was investigated on 3 December 1968 until its closure on 29 May 1970, and the C.C.S. validated the process on 24 October 1974. Medical experts confirmed the healing had no possible explanation at their meeting held on 16 July 1975 while the C.C.S. and their theological consultants on 30 November 1976 determined the healing came as a direct result of Kasper's intercession. The C.C.S. alone – also on 30 November – provided additional confirmation. This later culminated on 20 January 1977 when Paul VI confirmed the healing as a miracle which would allow for Kasper to be beatified.
Paul VI beatified Kasper on 19 April 1978 in Saint Peter's Square. The pope praised Kasper as a woman of "faith and fortitude" in his address at the beatification.
Pope Francis confirmed her canonization which was celebrated in Saint Peter's Square on 14 October 2018. The miracle that allowed for her canonization took place in India in 2012.
On 20 October 2019 the Bishop of Limburg Georg Bätzing blessed a bell which was donated from Limburgian family dedicated to the new saint. This bell will complete the bells of Limburger Dom.