Our community, the Franciscan Sisters of St. Paul, MN, was founded in Germany by Mother Rose Flesch in 1863; it was a post war era with many homeless children, unemployed families living in poverty, and sick and frail elderly uncared for. To these Mother Rose reached out, teaching the young women to be homemakers, picking herbs for healing medicines, finding homes for orphaned and unwanted children. Other women observing her wanted to do likewise and so our community was born.

 

In 1924, at the request of Archbishop Dowling, twelve sisters accepted the invitation to come to America and assume the domestic work at Nazareth Hall. Here they cared for the students and priests going quietly and prayerfully about their duties and making a difference in their lives.

 

In 1936, concerned citizens asked our Sisters to do health care ministries in their communities and after preparations and learning a new language, they built St. Mary's Home in St. Paul, MN, St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee, MN, and St. Joseph's Hospital and Home in Arcadia, WI.

 

In 1944, the sisters received permission to open our American Novitiate and as women joined our community, we prepared them to minister with us.

 

In the late 1970's we bid farewell to Nazareth Hall ministry. In the 1980's we discerned together our future role in health care. Many changes were occurring and we knew it was time to divest ourselves of our institutions.

 

Each sister was given the opportunity to choose a ministry she felt called to. And what a diverse variety of choices- from pastoral care, cosmetology to the home bound, child care development and social work of various kinds. Some of the sisters, having experienced being new Americans themselves, were drawn to serve the needs of newer immigrants. Thus Francis Basket and Clare's Closet were opened to help those in need until they could learn our language and become self-sufficient.

 

We also have a special ministry composed of lay and religious persons who meet three times a week at the Regional Center to pray with people for healing, they are known as the "Jesus Heals Prayer Ministry." What a beautiful example they give. They begin their day praying together and then minister the rest of the day praying with those in need.

 

Like other communities, our Sisters are as involved as they can be in volunteering. Someone that is very special is our ninety year old Sister who goes each month with St. Therese parishioners to serve the homeless at the Dorothy Day Center.

 

Our humble beginnings gave way to our ministry of caring which is well and alive and fulfilling our mission statement: "We are called to live the Gospel, plain and simple among the people" in accord with the mission of Mother Rose, serving each other in community and open to God's challenge whatever the time and place actively relieving human suffering.

The need to have our central location separated from our ministries resulted in our building the Franciscan Regional Center on our property, which had been the garden for many years. Ground was broken on August 2, 1975 and on Good Friday of 1976, April 16th Father Jerome Strei blessed the Chapel and Center and on Easter Sunday we celebrated our first Mass in the Chapel with Father Strei as presider.

The number of sisters grew considerably in the following years and then with Vatican II changes came in religious life also. The number of sisters declined and it became increasingly more difficult to retain the health facilities that they had established.

On June 6, 1984 the ownership of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Home in Arcadia, Wisconsin was transferred to the La Crosse, Wisconsin Franciscan Health System.

In October of 1987 the ownership of St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee, Minnesota was transferred to the Benedictine Health System of Duluth, Minnesota.

It was on January 6, 1988 that the ownership of St. Mary’s Home was transferred to the Franciscan Health Community sponsored by the Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity of Denver, Colorado. After several years, because of diminishment of the number of sisters, these Franciscan sisters transferred the ownership of St. Mary’s Home to the Board of Directors who are under the guardianship of Archbishop Harry Flynn, the Archbishop of the Minneapolis / St. Paul diocese.

Our Sisters are now involved in a variety of ministries and continuing education. Only one German born Sister is still with us. We pray that God bless us with a revival of vocations very soon.