| 1241 |
(Just 15 years after the death of Saint Francis of Assisi) Count Hartmann IV of Dillingen and his son, Hartmann V, Bishop of Augsburg
(1248-1286), donated to the Community of Ladies in Dillingen a house near the parish church and with it one lot of land, a cabbage patch and a
meadow. The Community received a Deed of Foundation for all of this. According to the intention of the founders, the Ladies should serve God,
their Creator, peacefully, devoutly, and zealously for the benefit of all the faithful, giving praise and honor to the Blessed Trinity. |
| 1303 -
1307 |
This free community of Sisters affiliate with the Friars Minor of the Province of Strasburg. The Sisters receive the Third Order Rule of Saint
Francis of Assisi, which had been approved in 1289. |
| 1438 |
Fire destroyed the convent building completely. The Deed of Foundation and other documents were lost in the fire. |
| 1550 |
On the day of her election, Mother General Margaretha Rothin asked the Bishop of Augsburg if the Sisters might keep the Blessed Sacrament in
their private chapel. This privilege was granted. |
| 1607 |
Sister Maria Penkerin made the vow of unconditional poverty. She was the first one in this Community to make this vow. |
| 1615 |
Mother General Anna Steffesin, born in Holland, gave the Sisters a white veil. In the chronicle we read: "We did not wear a veil before." |
| 1629 |
Bishop Henry wanted to put into practice in our Congregation the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). On an experimental basis, they
tried to live for a year sharing everything in common. A vow of strict enclosure had to be included in the profession. After a thorough inspection of
the house, however, the Bishop could not insist on strict enclosure. The statutes prescribed an ash-gray habit, a scapular, and a cincture, as the
religious garb.
The Sisters received a bolt of gray cloth from the Archduke Leopold of Austria, through the office of the Royal Treasury of Innsbruck. The Bishop
blessed the habits and the Sisters wore them for the first time on Laetare Sunday.
In 1770 they changed back again from gray to black habits. Since 1969 they wear modified habits and a veil that leaves the forehead free. |
| 1635 |
Thirty Years War: 25 Sisters flee in 1632 from the approaching Swedish Army. Five remained in the convent in Dillingen. By 1635 four of the
five Sisters who remained die of the plague. The fifth one was spared because, as a leper, she lived isolated from those with the plague. |
| 1648 |
The French Army plundered the town and convent in Dillingen. |
| 1774 |
After being semi-cloistered for 200 years, Prince Bishop Clemens Wenceslaus commanded the Sisters to take over the elementary school for girls.
Four Sisters volunteered to teach. |
| 1800 |
The Dillingen Convent was saved from destruction by the French. The Sisters were able to provide the only two lemons available in the city of
Dillingen to relieve the sore throat of French General Morreau. In gratitude the French General protected the convent with an extra regiment of
soldiers. |
| 1803 |
The government of Bavaria confiscated all the land and property belonging to the Sisters. In 1805 the Sisters were given permission to leave the
convent and return to their families as lay persons; but not one of the 14 Choir and 6 Lay Sisters wished to do this. As a special favor, the
government allowed them to remain in the convent building as long as they lived, but they were forbidden to accept any new members.
Over the next 23 years, the little community carried one after the other of the Sisters, 15 in all, to their final resting place in the vault beneath the
Convent church. By 1828 only 5 Sisters were left. |
| 1829 |
The Sisters received new statutes from Bishop Ignaz Albert. On June 22 , the Restoration of convent and school was celebrated in the parish
church. Three Choir Sisters and two lay Sisters were the only ones still living. These renewed their vows and two young ladies were received into
the novitiate. |
| 1837 -
1839 |
A boarding school is opened in 1837. This same year, an opportunity was offered to working mothers to leave their infants in the care of the
Sisters during working hours.
Fr. Vogel, pastor of Dillingen Parish, proposed that the Sisters take over the care of the sick. Discussions among the Sisters and with the city
council were held for almost two years. The Sisters were willing to accept the proposal, providing that the school would not suffer thereby.
January 6, 1839, the Sisters gave the city council a negative answer in writing. However, in 1894, the care of the sick was begun in the hospital
and the next year home nursing also began. |
| 1843 |
The first school mission was opened in Hochstadt on the Danube.
The government counselor requested the school inspector to suggest to the Mother General that she send one or two candidates to Munich to
prepare tem for teaching the deaf and mute.
The purchase of the Dominican convent in Maria Medingen was registered. With great solemnity, the Franciscan Sisters moved there on October
24. At that time, nine Dominican Sisters were still living there. |
| 1845 |
Two candidates started their training in the Central Institute for the Deaf. |
| 1847 |
The School for the Deaf and Mute was opened in the Dillingen Motherhouse. |
| 1854 |
Oggelsbeuren (later moved to Siessen) and also Au on the Inn River became independent convents. |
| 1855 |
The School for the Deaf and Mute is transferred from the Motherhouse to the former teachers' college in Dillingen. Lohr is opened as a mission,
also Neustadt/ Main. |
| 1856 |
The hall with the Stations of the Cross was built above the sacristy of the convent church.
Volkach is opened as a mission. |
| 1857 |
The school for the candidates, the secondary school for girls of Dillingen and surrounding areas, and the kindergfarten were transferred to what is
today "St. Joseph's," on August 1.
The building had belonged to the Dominican Sisters, who had used it since the Secularization as a storage room for grain. The Franciscan Sisters
bought the farm buildings from the Dominicans. |
| 1858 |
Dettelbach was opened as a mission. It was planned that this mission, together with Lohr and Volkach would eventually become independent. In
1864 these three missions did receive that status, together with the right to have their own novitiates and to establish their own missions. But in
1874, the government of Unterfranken demanded that the three convents return again to their original status as missions of the Motherhouse in
Dillingen.
From now on, the number of missions steadily increased. The number of Sisters increased from 51 in 1847 to 2,306 in 1968. |
| 1883 |
Bishop Pankratius Dinkel approved the Statutes compiled from the Statutes of 1628 and 1829, including the regulations made after the Visitation
of 1839, to meet the needs of the time. |
| 1891 |
The choir loft of the church was enlarged. |
| 1894 |
The Little Convent was made two stories higher, blessed and from now on called St. Joseph (now four stories high). |
| 1913 |
Under Mother General M. Innocentia Mussek, the twenty-four Sisters who had volunteered to work in the culinary department of the Benedictine
Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, said farewell, and left the Motherhouse on August 4. In spite of many obstacles, the urgent request of the
Abbot for Sisters to work in Collegeville was granted, langley because of the threatening political situation in Europe. |
| 1926 |
Mother General M. Laurentia appointed two Sisters to help her in guiding the Congregation: Sister M. Leokadia as local superior of the
Motherhouse and Sister M. Honoria as General Assistant. |
| 1927 |
Pope Pius XI rewrote the Rule for the Third Order, adapting it to contemporary Canon Law, the new Statutes went into effect in 1938. |
| 1928 |
The Sisters started their first American community-owned mission in Hankinson, North Dakota. |
| 1935 |
Perpetual Adoration was started in the choir of the convent church at the Motherhouse in Dillingen. |
| 1937 |
When the Sisters were forbidden to teach in the schools of Nazi Germany, some of the Franciscan Sisters from Dillingen emigrated to Brazil. |
| 1943 |
The Holy See declared our Community as a Papal Congregation. It had to be divided into Provinces. New Statutes had to be submitted to the
Sacred Congregation for Religious for approval. |
| 1947
|
A Province in Germany, with its Motherhouse in Dillingen, and a North American Province, with its Motherhouse in Hankinson, were established.
The missions in North and South Brazil were a "Commissariat," with its center in Areia, North Brazil. |
| 1948 |
South Brazil became a separate Commissariat with its center in Duque de Caxias. |
| 1950 |
The new Constitutions were approved. |
| 1951 |
The German Province was divided into three provinces:
- The Swabian Province with its Motherhouse in Dillingen;
- The Old Bavarian Province with its Motherhouse in Straubing;
- The Franconia Province with its Motherhouse in Lohr.
|
| 1953 |
The Swabian and Old Bavarian Provinces were united again into one province. Having the Wagner Institutes in two province caused some serious
problems. |
| 1956 |
North and South Brazil established as a province with the Motherhouse at Duque de Caxias. |
| 1957 |
The Franconian Province, too, united again with those from Swabia and Old Bavaria. |
| 1960 |
The Comboni Missionaries invited our Sisters to Saldana, Spain, to do the domestic work in their Seminary. In 1963, the Colegio Regina Mundi
was started in Saldana. |
| 1967 |
The Sisters moved into San Antonio (a residence connected with the farm buildings) in Rome-La-Storta.
The first Sisters from India to enter our Congregation made their Profession in Dillingen. From 1976 to 1980, 14 of these Indian Sisters returned
to India to begin mission work in North India. On August 4, 1979, they established their first mission in Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh; and on
October 29, 1981, they could move into their newly built convent, which was blessed and dedicated in the presence of Mother General Irma
Staudinger. |
| 1968 |
The General Administration moved into our Generalate building in Roma-La-Storta. |
| 1969 |
A special General Chapter was held, together with an election Chapter, in La Storta. |
| 1960-
1971 |
During the second session of the General Chapter, which was held in Volkach, Germany, the text of constitutions, which was obligatory for an
experimental period, was completed. |
| 1973 |
The final decision about the establishment of the German provinces was made in three "Foundation Chapters":
- April 26, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting in Volkach, to establish the Bamberg Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron:
St. Elizabeth
- June 12, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting at Maria Medingen to establish the Medingen Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their
patron: St. Francis
- July 26, 1973: Provincial Chapter meeting in Dillingen, to establish the Wagner Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen; their patron: St.
John the Evangelist
The term of office for the newly elected provincial Administrations began on September 1, 1973 |
| 1982 |
Our Constitutions, which had been revised by the General Chapter of 1981, were approved by the Sacred Congregation for Religious on January
18, 1982. On that same day, the community of Sisters from the Generalate in Rome-La-Storta was received in a private audience by Pope John
Paul II, who gave his special blessing for the Constitutions. |
