Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

The Felician Sisters were the first Polish sisters to cross the ocean as missionaries to the United States. They responded to the heartfelt pleas of Fr. Joseph Dabrowski in Polonia, Wisconsin, who expressed his distress over the difficulties of the Polish immigrants: “Here they are, coming overseas, to a country that is foreign to them both in language and customs.” The sisters in Poland sent five women to serve the immigrant community in Wisconsin.

These sisters left Cracow on October 24, 1874, and arrived in Wisconsin on the night of November 20, 1874. On November 21, the feast of the Presentation of Our Lady, they entered their new home in Polonia. Mother Mary Monica Sybilska wrote, “Nineteen years after our first consecration in 1855, we find ourselves in another hemisphere. Again we consecrated ourselves to the Lord Jesus and to His Mother. May she take care of this tender young shoot and give it strength and growth!” And they grew right away! Maria Winowska wrote in her biography of Blessed Angela Truskowska, the Foundress of the Felician Sisters, “as joy is contagious, the example of the sisters began to attract vocations.” Soon they went from one province to six, spread throughout the northern US, then even to Canada and Brazil. Winowska explained this joyful work of the sisters: “The Felicians threw themselves eagerly into every enterprise that gave them an opportunity to carry on the apostolate most dear to them: helping and instructing the poorest and the lowliest.” This predilection for the humblest services among the most deprived classes of society is inherent in the Franciscan spirit of their formation as religious.”

The Felician Sisters are starting their celebrations in Polonia with a Mass and a luncheon this week. Sister Bernadette and Sister Bernetta will attend, along with Luke Schubert, CEO and Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission. At Felician Village, we will be celebrating the Sesquicentennial of the Felician Sisters arriving in North America throughout this year, from November 21, 2024, to the Feast of Blessed Angela on October 10, 2025. Please keep these sisters in your prayers, just as they keep you in theirs.

Blessed Angela: “All beginnings are difficult, especially in America. I bless you with all my heart and immerse you in the hearts of Jesus and Mary.”