Our History

Our community - the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary - was founded on October 1, 1926. How was our community really ‘born’ as a family and work of God?

First, let’s start at the beginning with some facts that you might already know. The prehistory of our community begins with the founding of Schoenstatt on October 18, 1914. (Yes, Schoenstatt as a movement was founded before our sisters’ community!). At that time our founder, Fr. Joseph Kentenich (1885-1968) worked in the Pallottine seminary in Schoenstatt as a teacher and spiritual director for the young men and boys who were studying for the priesthood. Their meeting place was the little chapel of St. Michael on the seminary grounds.

The careful interpretation of the guidance and providence of God instilled in Fr. Kentenich the conviction: God wants to make himself especially tangible through Mary at this specific place. She should work from the shrine to educate people for a movement of renewal, which reaches into today’s world.

Therefore Fr. Kentenich and the young men sealed a “Covenant of Love” with Mary. This occurred on October 18, 1914, as world history entered into a state of imminent catastrophic change. The 29-year-old founder took this step completely alone. His own deep relationship with Mary gave him the necessary security.

Father Kentenich had observed that Europe and all of human society were quickly approaching a time of spiritual and moral crisis, and needed a completely new type of person. (Imagine, if he saw this already in 1914, how much more would he say the same of our modern world!) Therefore he inspired the young men in the seminary with this goal: Through our striving for holiness, we want to persuade Mary to effectively work from here for the renewal of society through a return to the very fundamental teachings of Christ.

The First World War broke out just at this time. The students were sent to the front and the young Schoenstatt Movement thus spread beyond the walls of the seminary. Women, too, became acquainted with the new movement and wanted to join and work within it. On December 8, 1920, the first women were accepted in the “Apostolic Federation of Schoenstatt.” The Schoenstatt women’s federation grew quickly.

It soon became clear to Father Kentenich, that Schoenstatt needed a women’s community whose main objective was to “create the new type of woman in a women’s movement,” as he himself said in looking back at the founding history. These women should form a strong community of life, and as images of Mary serve as the ‘soul’ of the entire work. Just as the soul brings life and vitality to the human body, so should this new community secure the life and vitality of Schoenstatt!
For this reason, Father Kentenich founded the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary on October 1, 1926. Anna Pries and Emilie Engel offered themselves as first members of the foundation. God himself blessed our founding with tremendous fruitfulness. Within 7 years, our first sisters could be sent to work overseas in South Africa and South America, and by the early 1940's, just 15 years after our founding, the community already exceeded 500 members! A historian numbered our founding history “among the most blessed, and certainly also the most exciting new foundations in the Church” of the twentieth century. (Monnerjahn)

For the kind of community that Father Kentenich wanted to form, there existed no model. In fact, Church law would provide no judicial place for this type of community in the foreseeable future. Our founder was in many ways a ‘prophet,’ a man ahead of his time! Therefore our community existed for twenty years without the security of a place in Church until 1947 when through the judicial creation of secular institutes, the community could be placed within this framework.

Father Kentenich himself later explained that he was fully aware “that we were something very daring in our whole structure and history.” And he added: “We are convinced that the Church needs our type of person in times to come.” In very simple terms, Father Kentenich as a founder inspired by God, founded our community in order to bring the life and features of Mary into the world. Mary was the one chosen by God to bring, bear, and serve Christ. And we have been called to do the same: to bring the gospel message of Christ to countless people and serve him in his Church and its members on all continents of the world.

 

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