The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ is a female congregation of the Catholic Church. It originated organizationally in Dernbach, where their supreme administrative body, the so-called generalate is still situated. Their organization for associates is also open to men. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ American Province has its motherhouse in Donaldson, Indiana.
Ministries
The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ is an international congregation of apostolic women religious within the Roman Catholic Church. They minister with the poor, the sick and children in the United States, Mexico, Germany, England, the Netherlands, India, Brazil, Kenya and Nigeria. With prayer and community living as their foundation, they minister in rural, urban and inner city settings in the Midwest. Focused on partnering in the work of the Spirit, they invite others to join them in various facets of educational, pastoral and social work, neighbourhood-based health ministries, spiritual guidance and care for the environment. They are recognized more by the love and simplicity with which they serve than by any particular ministry.
The official foundation date of the congregation is 15 August 1851. On this date Katharina Kasper and four other women ; Sr. Agnes ; Sr. Elisabeth ; Sr. Klara ) took the vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty in front of the Bishop of Limburg, Peter Joseph Blum. Owed to the fact, that Dernbach did not have a church yet, it took place in the nearby village of Wirges.
The beginnings in the United States
On 8 August 1868 the first eight sisters left Dernbach to sail for the US from Le Havre de Grace. Their names were: Sister Rosa, Sr. Eudoxia, Sr. Hyazintha, Sr. Matrona, Sr. Facunda, Sr. Bella, Sr. Henrica and Sr. Corona. They were chosen out of 200 sisters which had volunteered to serve in the US. They boarded ship on the 13th and reached New York on 24 August 1868. From there, they took the train to Fort Wayne. From here, they left on the back of a horse-drawn cart on to Hessen Kassel. Here they established their first mission on the 'Feast of St. Rose', 30 August 1868. Their tasks were nursing and schooling and they were introduced to the local community by Father Edward Koenig. He acted on behalf of Bishop John Henry Luers of the Fort Wayne Diocese who had issued an invitation for them. St. Joseph Hospital became the first American hospital founded by Kaspar and the Society on May 4, 1869. It was located in the former Rockhill Hotel near Fort Wayne, which also served as the motherhouse of the order. They operated a school of nursing from 1918 to 1968, and operated the hospital until 1998, when it was sold. Saint Joseph, who was married to the mother of Jesus, is the patron saint of death. Luers himself was of German descent, being born in Muenster/Germany. He had left Germany with his parents when he was a child. He became the first Bishop of Fort Wayne. His diocese extended at the time to the Illinois border including Donaldson, Indiana. The Poor Handmaids established a college to train candidates and novices in Donaldson, Indiana in 1937.
The sisters established three main stations in England. They were intended as a refuge, in case Bismarckian church policy would make such steps necessary. All were located in the diocese of Westminster: London ; Hendon, St. Joseph monastery and Walthamstow. Nowadays there is only one station left.
