Oldenburg Franciscans have passed on the spirit of St. Francis for nearly 165 years
Franciscan Sisters Janice Scheidler, left, and Ruthann Boyle sing during a Mass celebrated on June 18 in the motherhouse chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Oldenburg. Sister Janice ministered for many years at Marian University in Indianapolis, which the Oldenburg Franciscans founded in 1937. Sister Ruthann previously served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
(Editor’s note: The Church’s Year of Consecrated Life began in late November, and will conclude on Feb. 2, 2016. During that time, The Criterion will publish a series of articles featuring the life and history of each of the religious communities based in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. This is the third article in that series.)
By Sean Gallagher
OLDENBURG—In the 1840s, the face of the Catholic Church in Indiana was changing. Earlier, the small presence of Catholics in the state came largely from France or French-speaking Quebec.
The first bishop of Vincennes, Ind., the Servant of God Simon Bruté, was French, as were his first three successors and several priests who ministered in the state in the first half of the 19th century.
The oldest religious order based in the archdiocese, the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, has French origins.
But in the 1840s, German Catholic immigrants started to settle in the state, and priests and religious who spoke German were needed to minister to them.
Born in Germany, Father Franz Joseph Rudolf helped found several parishes in southeastern Indiana. He was also instrumental in the 1851 founding of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Oldenburg.
Father Rudolf invited Franciscan Mother Theresa Hackelmeier to the frontier of America from civilized Vienna to begin an order of sisters that would focus on educating the children of the German Catholic immigrants to the area.
Franciscan Sister Maureen Irvin, the current leader of the Oldenburg Franciscans as their congregational minister, said that after Mother Theresa arrived in Oldenburg she chose to cut herself and her fledgling order off from Europe “and be an American foundation with the sisters here” instead of traveling back to Europe to raise funds and recruit new members.
Nonetheless, the German roots of the order remained strong for more than half a century after its founding.
“I think we know that we are and were a German community,” said Sister Maureen. “Our early sisters almost all spoke German. They prayed in German for years until probably World War I when it wasn’t really great to be too German.”
Within a decade of the founding of the Oldenburg Franciscans, the sisters had started to minister across the state and had spread as far west as St. Louis.
Subsequently, they also ministered to Native Americans in Montana and in the southwest and continue to do so. Oldenburg Franciscans also served as missionaries in Mexico, China and Papua New Guinea.
Sister Maureen said that when the call was made to send sisters half way around the world to the island nation north of Australia, many volunteered.
Four were eventually sent there in the early 1960s, and at the height of the mission in Papua New Guinea about 20 sisters were serving there in conditions whose primitiveness rivaled the early days of the order in the 1850s.
“They did not know if they would ever get back,” Sister Maureen said. “To get word from them, they’d use shortwave radios. That was a big risk. There were lots and lots of sisters who wanted to go.”
One of the reasons that the order pulled out of its ministry in Papua New Guinea in 2011 is that they helped found an order of Franciscan sisters made up of natives of the island nation.
No matter how far afield the sisters have gone in their ministry, Oldenburg has always remained home.
That is the perspective of Franciscan Sister Agnes Wilhelm, who has served as a chaplain at Mercy Diversicare, a nursing home in New Albany, for 23 years after ministering at the nearby Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish and its school.
“It’s like going back home again. It’s a beautiful place to be, peaceful and serene. To me, it’s Franciscan because you can get out into nature,” said Sister Agnes, 74, of the rural setting of Oldenburg. “It’s a good place to go back to. It’s a good place to call home.”
Franciscan Sister Patti Zureick experienced the motherhouse in Oldenburg as home as she grew up because she had two aunts and a cousin—her godmother—who were members of the community.
But when she discerned her vocation in the early 1980s as a college student at Marian University in Indianapolis, she learned that her love for the community was deeper than blood.
“As I experienced the different community’s retreats, I continued to search for where I felt at home. Every time my answer was the same—I felt most at home while with the Sisters of St. Francis at Oldenburg,” said Sister Patti. “At the end of my first two years in college, I entered the Sisters of St. Francis. I know now that ‘at home’ feeling I was experiencing was simply Franciscan hospitality. I felt drawn to live a life shared with others who embody the spirit of St. Francis.”
Members of the Oldenburg Franciscans have sought to embody that spirit in a broad variety of ways since 1851. Early on, it was primarily through education, although early members of the order also cared for orphans in Oldenburg and in Vincennes.
Ministry opportunities began to broaden following the Second Vatican Council.
Sister Patti sees this expanded ministry horizon helping to bring her community closer to the spirit of St. Francis, whose love for creation was highlighted in Pope Francis’ recently released encyclical letter, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
“In this time of the world and the Church, I see our community members being more involved in educational endeavors for care of creation and in peace and justice issues,” Sister Patti said. “Our community farm, Michaela Farm [in Oldenburg] is a great example of spreading knowledge and providing experiences for others to learn more about sustainable relationships among land, plants, animals and humans.
“We look at the needs of the world and see how we can be of help and bring our unique touch of Franciscanism to the particular situation.”
The move of the Oldenburg Franciscans into diverse ministry fields led Sister Agnes into parish pastoral ministry and later service to the aged.
“I think the Lord was calling us in that direction,” she said. “We tried to keep our minds open to the Spirit, you know. I think that’s what we’re constantly about—growing, changing. It always brings us and the people of the Lord closer to him.”
In bringing people closer to Christ, Sister Maureen said the Oldenburg Franciscans have often “been very good at working ourselves out of a job.”
Lay teachers have taken the place of Franciscan sisters in many Catholic schools in central and southern Indiana. Many of those lay teachers were trained at Marian University, which was founded by the Oldenburg Franciscans in 1937.
Sister Maureen also pointed to the way in which Marian over the past decade or so has helped form future priests with its cooperative relationship with the nearby Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary, future lay ministers in its San Damiano Scholars program, and future doctors in its medical school.
“I think for all of these years we’ve been trying to prepare others to kind of step in and take over,” said Sister Agnes. “I think that’s what the Lord wanted, you know. We’re all in this together. We pass on the spirit of Francis, of Jesus, on to those who come after us.”
(To learn more about the Congregation of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, go to www.oldenburgfranciscans.org.) †
