“Living heritage full of the future”: Hospital Sisters of St Francis and St Francis Foundation celebrate anniversaries in Telgte

On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the Hospital Sisters of St Francis celebrated two anniversaries in Telgte: the 180th anniversary of the international Congregation and the establishment of St Francis Foundation, twenty years ago, as the operator of their facilities.

At the invitation of Sister M. Diethilde, German Provincial Superior, and Nils Brüggemann PhD, Chairman of the Board of St Francis Foundation, around 260 guests gathered at St Rochus Hospital in Telgte, including more than one hundred Hospital Sisters from all over Germany, the international Sisters of the Generalate based in Münster, the directors of the first clinics founded by the Sisters and transferred into St Francis Foundation in 2004, as well as representatives from the diocese of Münster, from the city of Telgte, from other religious orders, and from the hospital’s neighborhood.

The ceremony in the hall of St. Rochus Hospital was characterized by gratitude for 180 years of service of the Congration, but also by a certain melancholy with regard to the age-related closure of the founding convent in Telgte. It was clear from all the speeches that the bond between the Franciscan Sisters and Telgte remains strong and that the work of the sisters will continue to be felt in the future. This was also confirmed by the Managing Director of St. Rochus Hospital and host of the anniversary celebration, Daniel Freese, who emphasized the economic courage and wisdom of the nuns. “St. Rochus Hospital was founded by the Franciscan Sisters in 1848 – so without the sisters, we wouldn’t even be here,” he explained. “Today, our hospital has 1400 employees who carry the sisters’ living legacy into the future.”

“History full of New Beginnings”: Moving Thanksgiving Service in the Hospital Chapel

For the Hospital Sisters, the day of the jubilee began with a prayer of thanksgiving at the grave of Father Christoph Bernsmeyer, who founded the “Hospital Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis” in Telgte on July 2, 1844. Sisters from around twenty convents of the German Province as well as from the Provinces in Poland, Japan and India were present. The Sisters then bid farewell to the convent building at St. Rochus Hospital in Telgte and closed the Congregation’s first convent before celebrating a solemn thanksgiving service with the entire Congregation in the hospital chapel at 10.30 am.

The Eucharist was celebrated by the Spiritual Director of the Hospital Sisters, Father Michael Plattig O.Carm. In his sermon, Father Michael gave a brief overview of the 180-year history of the Congregation, which has always been characterized by new beginnings: As early as 1848, four sisters from Telgte went to what was then Silesia to help people in need, thus laying the foundation for today’s Polish Province. Further missions took them to the Netherlands, the USA, China, Japan, India, Korea, Haiti, Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. “These missions were ‘necessary’ in the truest sense of the word, because they addressed the needs of the people in the respective time and place,” explained Father Michael. “From the very beginning, the Sisters went where they were needed – always with plenty of trust in God, but often without any security and without knowing how long their mission would last.” With this attitude, as Father Michael elaborated, the Congregation stands in a great tradition of faith, with biblical role models from Abraham to Jesus: “The attitude of setting out instead of settling down and standing still.” Father Michael gave thanks for the worldwide service of the international Congregation and emphasized that in this sense, the farewell from Telgte was also just another courageous departure: “The departure into a future that we do not know, but which God has already prepared!” During the festive service, the history, present and future of the order were also symbolized by the use of a chalice that had belonged to the Congregation’s founder, Father Christoph Bernsmeyer. Since the order was founded, around ten thousand Hospital Sisters have dedicated their lives to the service of God and the people.

“On our way together”: Solidarity and gratitude

After the service, Sister Diethilde and Dr. Brüggemann greeted the Jubilee guests in the festively decorated hall of St. Rochus Hospital. “Even more than the 180-year history of the order, the reason for today’s celebration is the official closure of the founding convent ‘Maria Hilf – St. Rochus’”, emphasized Sister Diethilde: “Thus, we have invited all of you, who have gone part of the way with us, to be together once again today and share our memories.” The Provincial Superior also recalled July 2, 2004, when the congregation gave its facilities in the hands of St. Francis Foundation, thus entrusting it with the Sisters’ legacy. On behalf of all the Sisters, Sister Diethilde thanked the foundation board and all the foundation’s employees for having honored this trust since then. The Provincial Superior also thanked the management and all employees of St. Rochus Hospital for the successful anniversary celebration.

Mayor Wolfgang Pieper conveyed the greetings of the town of Telgte. In his address, he thanked the Sisters for their service and emphasized: “What you have achieved here will be preserved!” As a sign of the historical and future connection between the town of Telgte and the Hospital Sisters, he presented Sister Diethilde with a piece of the Telgte Marienlinde tree, which has been turned into a piece of art by Simone Thieringer.

Auxiliary Bishop emeritus Dieter Geerlings also thanked the Congregation for their service. He used the psychological technique of “reframing” to place the Sisters’ from the founding convent in Telgte in the wider context of being “contemporary witnesses”, and focused on the Sistsers’ impressive achievements over the past 180 years. “The more complex the times, the more leadership qualities are needed to deal with diversity and find solutions for the issues at hand,” he explained. “You demonstrated these leadership qualities twenty years ago with the establishment of St Francis Foundation, for example, and you are demonstrating them again now.” As one of the grateful neighbors of St Rochus Hospital, Johannes Peperhove spoke up and intonated the traditional German song “So ein Tag, so wunderschön wie heute” (“What a great day – as beautiful as this”).

The Hospital Sisters’ multi-faceted commitment, and their life’s work, was honored during the ceremony by two video contributions. Sister M. Martinild Krümpelmann, who worked at St. Rochus Hospital for thirty years, and Dutch Sister M. Jacintha Altenburg, who was instrumental in setting up the laboratory at St. Bernhard Hospital in Kamp-Lintfort in the 1960s and Esterwegen Memorial from 2007, were introduced. Musical accompaniment on the piano was provided by the Congregation’s organist, Markus Schröder.

The gifts presented at the end of the ceremony bear witness to the enduring mutual bond between the Hospital Sisters and the town of Telgte with all the facilities within St. Francis Foundation, which were founded by the Sisters. Sister Diethilde received a sandstone column from the management of St. Rochus Hospital, which was carved from the remains of the first convent buildings by sculptor Stefan Lutterbeck. In return, on behalf of all the Sisters, the Provincial Superior donated a tree to Rochus Hospital for the garden of the specialist clinic. Dr. Brüggemann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of St Francis Foundation, and Dr. Ludger Hellenthal, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, presented six bronze plaques by Ennigerloh-born sculptor Hilde Schürk-Frisch as well as team photos from the founding institutions of St Francis Foundation. In addition to St. Rochus-Hospital, these included St. Franziskus-Hospital in Münster, St. Bernhard-Hospital in Kamp-Lintfort, St. Elisabeth-Hospital in Meerbusch-Lank, St. Barbara-Klinik in Hamm-Heesen and Fachklinik Maria Frieden in Telgte. There are now 26 institutions under the umbrella of St Francis Foundation.

Sisters remember development work and times of change at St. Rochus Hospital

Many of the Sisters who took part in the Jubilee celebrations in Telgte have a particularly close personal connection to St. Rochus Hospital because they worked there themselves and played an active role in the building and expansion of the specialist clinic. “When I started at Rochus Hospital in 1976, I was the first trained occupational therapist and built up this department step by step,” recalls Sister M. Manuela, for example, who worked in Telgte for 20 years. “In the meantime, it has become a specialist department with 23 employees.” Prior to this employment, Sister Manuela, who already held diplomas in child care and nursing and had worked in these fields for years, completed three years of training as an occupational therapist in Hanover and Münster. “Excellent professional qualifications have always been very important in our Congregation,” she reports. This is also confirmed by Sister M. Caecilia, who worked as Head of the Nursing Department and as Hospital Matron at St. Rochus Hospital from 1992 to 2004: She prepared herself for the responsibilities of this position by a specialist 18 months training course in Regensburg in the south of Germany.

Both report on eventful and moving working years at a time when the treatment of mentally ill people changed fundamentally. In the context of occupational therapy, occupational and creative programs opened up completely new opportunities to strengthen patients’ practical life skills, while the introduction of psychotropic drugs revolutionized medical therapy. Equally revolutionary at the time was the introduction of mixed wards at St. Rochus Hospital, where originally only women were treated. “The first male patient was welcomed with a bouquet of flowers,” the Sisters remember with a laugh.

Increasingly, civilian staff were hired, whereas previously only Franciscan Sisters had been employed to manage the wards and care for the patients. At the same time, St. Rochus Hospital underwent rapid structural development, which Sister Caecilia steered and supported as a member of the Board of Directors. This included the establishment of day clinics in the towns of Warendorf and Ahlen, the construction of new housing for the residents, and the establishment of residential groups on the hospital grounds and in town centre. But what she enjoyed much more than the many meetings with the construction team was the wonderful task of always having an open ear for all staff concerns.

Sister M. Christfriede, who worked in the Hospital Sisters’ retirement homes from 2008 to 2022 and lived in Telgte until the founding convent closed, was committed to the needs of the elderly Sisters. “When I made my first profession together with 30 sisters in 1963, there were almost 100 houses in our Province and around 3,000 Hospital Sisters around the world” she recalls. The Sisters all agree that there has always been a special spirit at St. Rochus Hospital, based on the Franciscan image of mankind. Not only has this always been evident in direct contact with patients, of course, but it has also always characterized the language used, which has always been full of respect. “St. Rochus Hospital has always been a specialist clinic and never a “mental institution”,” the Sisters explain. “All wards have been given names, not numbers, and we worked on “protected wards”, not closed ones.” The fact that even today, the hospital staff is guided by this Franciscan spirit, and carries it into the future, gives the Sisters comforts fills them with gratitude.

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