Pilgrims of Hope (11): Respect

The series “Pilgrims of Hope” is a monthly spiritual contribution to the Holy Year – a collaboration between the international Generalate of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis and the Muenster-based German church publication “Kirche und Leben” (“Church+Life”). Our topic in November: Hope for Respect

Another year is drawing to a close. Beginning with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, November is traditionally a month in which we look back on our own lives and on the lives of those who came before us. It is often a reflective time. Many people think about what has become of their plans of the year’s beginning, and what they have already achieved in their lives overall. And when we light candles on the graves of our deceased loved ones, this gesture is also an expression of respect for their lives, and their achievements. This is also the case with us Hospital Sisters of St Francis.

Our international Congregation’s 180-year history is marked by strong female leadership, pioneering spirit, and courage. In terms of their careers and their position in society, our Sisters were often ahead of their time. Women have always held leadership positions in the institutions founded by our Congregation. In their hospitals, not only was the care of patients entirely in the hands of the Sisters, but so was the overall management. For a long time, women in religious orders were able to realize their professional potential much more freely than women outside a convent: in Germany, for example, married women were not considered legally competent until 1969, and until 1977, if they wanted to get a job, they had to ask their husbands for permission. At that time, Sister M. Ambrosina Bettmer was in charge of St. Francis Hospital in Münster with a team of several hundred Sisters and civilian employees.

Traditionally, all the young women who joined our Congregation studied nursing – but depending on the positions and tasks that needed to be filled in the congregation, this training was often not the only one. This was the case for Sister M. Dietmara Ahlmann, born in 1937: when the order’s leadership decided in the early 1960s to provide dental care for the many Sisters in Münster “in-house,” Sister Dietmara was chosen for this task.

The trained nurse completed her high school diploma through adult education and, as the only woman in her year, studied dentistry at Münster University from 1968 onwards. As a dentist, she then cared for her fellow sisters for 35 years in a fully equipped practice in the basement of St. Francis Hospital. At the same time, she was active in the Provincial and General Administration from 1983 onwards and traveled to the Provinces and projects of our Congregation in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India, the USA, Haiti, Arizona, Poland, and Czechia.

Our Sisters were also characterized by a pioneering spirit, setting out into the world for missionary projects, combined with courage drawn from the strength of their faith. One example is the young women who, 100 years ago, in September 1925, left the American Province of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis for Tsinan (now Jinan) in China to build a hospital there. Beforehand, there was an application process among the American Sisters for this mission, searching for volunteers “in good health and younger than 40”. It went without saying that they had to be trained nurses. Sixty-seven Sisters applied; five were ultimately selected. The youngest of them, 29-year-old Sister Evangelista Sanders, paid for her courage with her life: she died after only a year and a half of her service. However, the presence of the Hospital Sisters in China continued until the Sisters were expropriated and expelled by the Communist regime after World War II. Two of the Sisters fled to Shanghai, from where they were called to Japan in 1948 to take over a hospital in Nagasaki – the nucleus of today’s Japan Province.

We remember all these Sisters with great respect. But our respect also extends to those of our fellow Sisters who had less eventful lives, and who served and continue to serve quietly and faithfully, whether in a hospital, a school, or a parish, whether in housekeeping or in contemplation and prayer. In keeping with the spirit of our patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi, we actually look upon the life of every human being with the greatest respect: each and every one of us is placed in this world with individual abilities and hopes, with goals and challenges. On our journey through life, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. That, too, is deeply human. So as we look back now in November, we should always appreciate our efforts – with respect, and with the eyes of love.

By Schwester M. Rita Edakkoottathil and Claudia Berghorn

This article was published in German, online and in print, in the Diocese of Muenster’s magazine, “Kirche+Leben” (Church+Life), in November 2025.