History of Our Federation
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Our Poor Clare history began on March 18, 1212, when our Mother St. Clare courageously left her parental home to follow the radical Gospel way of life preached by St. Francis of Assisi. From her first little monastery of San Damiano in Assisi, many new shoots quickly sprang up throughout Italy and Europe, and today the vigorous, thriving vine of Poor Clare life extends to nearly every corner of the world.
1950
Federations became a new chapter in our Poor Clare history when Pope Pius XII issued his Apostolic Constitution, Sponsa Christi, which first proposed the federation of autonomous monasteries.
June 8, 1959
Pope John XXIII granted the petition of the Poor Clare Nuns of St. Colette in the United States of America to form a federation among themselves. The charter member monasteries of the Federation are: Blessed Sacrament Monastery, Cleveland, Ohio (founded from Dusseldorf, Germany, 1877); Monastery of the Immaculate Conception, Chicago, Illinois (founded from Cleveland, 1893); Maria Regina Mater Monastery, Kokomo, Indiana (founded from Chicago, 1959); St. Joseph's Monastery, Aptos, California (founded from Cleveland, 1921); Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Roswell, New Mexico (founded from Chicago, 1948); Bethlehem Monastery, Newport News, Virginia (founded from Cleveland, 1956), relocated to Barhamsville, Virginia in 2004.July 6, 1959
The Sacred Congregation for Religious approves the Federation Statutes ad experimentum, for a period of seven years. The decree was signed on July 6, 1959.
September, 1960
Mother Mary Francis of Cleveland, who had been elected the first federal abbess, began her first visitations of the monasteries of the federation. Mother Francis later had this to say about the communities she visited: "I found the respect and fidelity with which our communities are preserving the spirit of our holy Order and its traditions most impressive and gratifying."1967
The request of the Los Altos Hills community to become a member monastery is approved.
1972
We welcome the Santa Barbara monastery into our federation.
1977
The Monastery of Mary, Mother of the Church, Alexandria, Virginia (founded from Roswell), became a member monastery of our federation.
1981
From the beginning of the federation, the need for the revision of our Constitutions had been evident to our communities. On March 5, 1981, Archbishop Augustine Mayer, O.S.B., Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Religious, signed the decree approving the new and definitive text of our Constitutions, which had been written by Mother Mary Francis, abbess of the Roswell monastery, who had been chosen by common consent of the federated monasteries at the chapter of 1970 to undertake the monumental task. The revised Constitutions had been painstakingly discussed and edited over the course of several federation chapters, with capitulars from each member monastery carefully reviewing each article of the proposed text. These Constitutions are still in use today throughout our federation, having also been adopted by many foreign monasteries who have petitioned the Holy See and were granted the permission to do so.
1985
Mother Mary Francis, abbess of the Roswell monastery, completed her translation of the Rule of our Holy Mother Clare and the Testament of our Holy Mother Colette. These were gratefully received by all the sisters of our federation, which numbered 190 members at that time. Most Rev. Augustine Mayer, O.S.B., was made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in May of that same year, and appointed Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments. Cardinal Mayer examined very carefully the newly translated Rule of Saint Clare and the Testament of Saint Colette, and commented that it was his desire that the newly translated texts along with our Constitutions "will be a source of spiritual encouragement and ever deeper commitment for an always greater number of monasteries of Poor Clares." Copies of the new translations were shared with the two other federations of Poor Clares in our country and with communities abroad as well.
1986
The Monastery of Our Lady of Mercy, Belleville, Illinois (founded from Roswell), became a member monastery of our federation.
1987
We welcomed the St. Louis monastery into our federation.
1989
We welcomed the Sauk Rapids monastery into our federation.
1990
The Monastery of Maria, Moeder van de Kerk, was founded in Elshout, The Netherlands, by the Roswell monastery. In 1993, the Elshout monastery relocated to Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and became a member monastery of our federation in 2009. Due to lack of vocations, the monastery closed in 2015 and the community returned to the United States.
2000
The Monastery of the Immaculate Conception, Chicago, Illinois (founded from Roswell), became a member monastery of our federation.
Today, the Poor Clare Federation of Mary Immaculate in the United States of America continues to grow and flourish. Our desire is that the genuine spirit of St. Clare and St. Colette be both preserved and promoted in each of our monasteries, and our bond of federation has always been and will continue to be a valuable help in that direction.