Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus

The Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus is a Catholic order, founded on the initiative of Clara Fey on February 2, 1844 in Aachen. It developed from a conference organized by her private charity school, who wanted both of that impoverishment and neglect of many children as well as the widespread child labor counteract. The Order had his first mother's house in the former Dominican monastery in Aachen Jakobstraße and relocated in 1878 as a result of the Kulturkampf is based in the Dutch Simpelveld where even today is the General Motherhouse.

The Order currently includes almost 900 sisters in 82 convents on three continents. It is run by the Superior General and her Council, and is divided into independent provinces with several subsidiary or dependent communities and regions that are either the provinces or directly to the parent company. The Order is committed to academic and extracurricular education, social work and nursing, as well as for spiritual guidance in all situations.

The leitmotif of the Order reads: " manete in me" - " abide in me ". ( Gospel of John 15:4)

Prehistory and early years

As in many other cities, the consequences of early industrialization were felt also in Aachen. The mechanization of both the prevailing in Aachen cloth and needle industry and the mining sector resulted in many of the poorly -paid working families to oppressive conditions: child labor to supplement the family income in the factories or mines of more than ten hours was common for the working conditions in unheated warehouses were inhumane and the dwellings of the workers had come down due to lack of own savings.

Early dealt Clara Fey, herself the daughter of a wealthy cloth manufacturer and shaped by their teacher and poet Luise Hensel with the fate of the orphans and children of poor parents, their number with the growth of industrial workers in their hometown constantly increased. Also supported by her brother Andreas Fey (1806-1887), since 1830 chaplain to the convent church of the Dominicans, St. Paul in Aachen, was discussed among friends and her family, along with fellow classmates through regular Sunday talks repeatedly about measures such as is to help neglected children. Specifically, were the considerations after Clara Fey had in 1830 completed her education at St. Leonhard. So she rented together with Leocadia Startz (1819-1890), Wilhelmine Followings (1814-1893) and Louise Vossen (1806-1889), first room on and set up a " Schülchen " one of which, with effect from February 3, 1837 the first Aachen charity school was established. , The work with the children, however, showed that the hard-won gains were zunichtegemacht when the children had in the evening return to the home environment. Therefore, a house rented to the four women, three years later, where the most vulnerable children live and could be supervised around the clock. Beginning in 1842, the rooms of the old Dominican monastery in Aachen could then be used with the permission of the incumbent Mayor Edmund Emundts. In addition to the charitable and social tasks, the women presented their project to a spiritual Christian- Catholic basis, through which they could define themselves.

Finally, Clara Fey founded together with their aforementioned friends on February 2, 1844 order of the " Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus." Additional support was provided, inter alia, Clara's brother Andrew, the priest William Sartorius, later chairman of the board of the Children's Missions " The Caroler " the displaced from his diocese in Luxembourg Bishop Johannes Theodor Laurent and the rector and founder of the Aachen priests circle, Leonhard Aloys Joseph Nellessen.

The Order set itself the task to stand in particular the needy children and young people through the possibility of school education and social support to the side. In 1845, the Statutes of the Order to the responsible Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Johannes submitted by scourge for approval, in 1848 the new congregation agreed. With effect from September 14, 1848 it sent then their first Generalate in Aachen's Jacob Street. Since then, the sisters wear religious clothing, consisting of a black habit as a sign of repentance and above the white scapular of the Dominicans, because Clara Fey had put their work under the protection of St. Dominic. In 1850 the first new sisters could take the vows and Clara Fey was elected Superior General. On May 12, 1869, the order of the " Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus " by Pope Pius IX. recognized as a " congregation of pontifical right " and his successor Leo XIII. confirmed in 1888, the style similar to the Augustine rule Constitutions of the Order.

The religious founders

Mother Theresa - Leocadia Startz

Mother Dominika - Wilhelmine Followings

Mother Aloysia - Louise Vossen

The clerical supporters

Pastor Sartorius

Kaplan Followings

Bishop Laurent

Time of the Kulturkampf

Until the beginning of the Kulturkampf in 1872, lived around 600 sisters in 27 branches of the Order in Prussia. There were also homes in Austria and Luxembourg. The work of the sisters, in the form of both start-ups as well as participation in existing institutions, expanded services in schools and boarding schools, to orphanages, kindergartens, trade schools, Mrs. technical schools and other institutions for the care, especially of the female youth. In addition, the sisters operated a world-renowned monastery workshop for vestments. They were briefed in detail by the Aachen Canon and art historian Franz Johann Joseph Bock in the design of patterns and the processing techniques of old vestments, which gave them through his many contacts, extensive work orders.

As part of intensified by Otto von Bismarck Kulturkampf spiritual school supervision has been replaced by the Prussian state school inspectors now due to statutory regulation and the ecclesiastical institutions were deprived of state subsidies to the breadbasket law. Finally had to after the adoption of the monastery Act 1875, which dissolved the monastery cooperatives in Prussia, except those that dealt with nursing, all branches of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus up to in Aachen- Burtscheid dedicated to the care of sick religious relatives devoted himself, be closed. In contrast, seven branches were newly established in England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others, with Clara Fey itself in 1878 as exiles in the Netherlands Simpelveld a new parent company called "House of Loreto " founded.

After the end of the Kulturkampf in 1887 a part of the nuns returned to Prussia, and they could re-open five religious houses in the coming years. Clara Fey himself remained in Simpelveld and in 1888 re-elected Superior General. There she died on May 8, 1894 and received in the house of Loreto their final resting place.

Development

The Congregation rated at Clara Fey's death in 1160 members and she began to expand within and outside Europe. Over the next few decades, branches have been developed also in Latvia (since 1927), in Indonesia, Colombia and Kazakhstan, and most recently Peru.

Despite existing recruitment problems the Order nor are currently almost 900 sisters in 83 convents in, the operations in Western Europe and the United States experienced a decline in numbers of religious vocations and an aging communities, while the Congregation in Colombia and Indonesia is growing steadily. In the German branches, which are run by Aachen- Burtscheid from, currently living a total of 200 " Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus."