Franciscan Missionaries of Mary

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are a Roman Catholic religious institute founded by Mother Mary of the Passion (born Hélène de Chappotin de Neuville, 1839–1904) at Ootacamund, then British India, in 1877. The Missionaries form an international religious congregation of women representing 78 nationalities spread over 77 countries on five continents.

Foundation

Mother Mary of the Passion, a novice of the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix, a congregation dedicated to the training of women in the spirit of St. Ignatius of Loyola, had been sent in 1865 from France to the Apostolic Vicariate of Madurai in British India, which was under the administration of the Society of Jesus. They had been requested to help train a native congregation of Religious Sisters. After her religious profession the following year, she was appointed the Provincial Superior of the houses of the congregation in that country.<ref name=FMM /^[2]

A dissension in the ecclesiastical Province which Mother Mary had previously worked to resolve arose again. As a result, 20 of the Sisters left the congregation, including Mother Mary. They gathered in a convent in Ootacamund, which Mother Mary had recently founded. They formed a new community there under the authority of the local Vicar Apostolic.^[3]

These women resolved to form a new congregation, and Mother Mary traveled to Rome that November to seek permission for this from the Holy See. She obtained this from Pope Pius X on 6 January 1877, under the name of Missionaries of Mary.^[3] Unlike the instruction focus of the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix, the Missionaries would carry out a ministry of providing medical care to the women of India who were unable to receive it from male doctors, due to the practice of purdah, which strictly segregated them from contact with men. Mother Mary had seen the consequences and felt called to deal with the situation. As women themselves, they would have access to the parts of the home restricted to females.

The Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda Fide, which supervised all Church activities in non-Catholic territories, suggested to her that she open a novitiate in her native France, to train recruits for the new congregation. In keeping with this, one was opened in Saint-Brieuc, and new vocations to the Missionaries came quickly.^[3]

Mother Mary had to return to Rome in 1880 to resolve issues about the new foundation. She had to make yet another voyage there in June 1882. This one was to be a turning point in the identity of the Missionaries. Firstly, they were granted permission to open a house in Rome itself. Secondly, Mother Mary came into contact with Bernardino of Portogruaro, the Minister General of the Franciscan friars. Under his guidance, on 4 October that year (the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi), she was admitted to the Third Order of St. Francis, which was a return to the Franciscan vocation to which she had felt called when she was briefly a candidate in a monastery of the Poor Clares early in her life. The new congregation formally adopted the Rule of the Franciscan Third Order Regular on 15 August 1885. At that time they took the name of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.^[3]

Expansion

The work of the Franciscan Missionaries quickly spread to other countries, including China. It was there, in 1900, that 7 Franciscan Missionaries of Mary were murdered during the Boxer Rebellion, in which missionaries throughout that country were killed. These Sisters were canonized in A.D. 2000 as among the Martyrs of China.^[3]

By the time of Mother Mary of the Passion's death in 1904, there were 88 communities serving in 24 countries around the globe, serving a variety of services for women and children.^[3] There was a mission at Fantome Island, near Palm Island, Queensland as well as a leprosarium.

Medical care centers have been opened worldwide. Within the United States, in New York City, in 1937 the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary assumed responsibility for the McMahon Memorial Temporary Shelter, where children forcibly removed from homes would be housed until more permanent situations could be found. This has now became McMahon Services for Children^[4] St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York, the only specialized cardiac care facility in New York, was founded by them in 1922.^[5] In Boston, Massachusetts, the Franciscan Missionaries accepted responsibility for the pediatric hospital founded in 1949 by Cardinal Richard Cushing, funded by Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and his wife Rose. It is now known as the Franciscan Hospital for Children.^[6]

Current status

As of 2011, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary formed the fifth largest religious institute for women in the Catholic Church, with 6,698 members.^[7]

Schools

Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Kindergarten School in Montreal in 1943

• Assunta Secondary School (SMK (P) Assunta), Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
• Ave Maria College, Melbourne, Australia
• Hai Sing Catholic School (formerly Hai Sing Girls' High School), Singapore
• Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Chennai, India
• Regina Pacis School, Jakarta/Bogor, Indonesia
• Rosary Convent High School, Hyderabad, India
• St Agnes Catholic High School, Sydney, Australia
• St. Francis Anglo-Indian Girls School, Coimbatore, India
• St. Lawrence's Girls' School, Karachi, Pakistan

Institutions

• Assunta Hospital, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
• St. Francis Hospital, New York, United States

References

External links

• Official Website