The Courage to Venture: Oldenburg Franciscans
BEGINNINGS:
Demonstrating her courage to venture, 24-year-old Sister Theresa (Genevieve) Hackelmeier made the “arduous journey” by sea, canal, river, and overland to a log cabin in the small Indiana village of Oldenburg, arriving alone on January 6, 1851, the Feast of the Epiphany. By the time of her arrival, three women from the Oldenburg area had volunteered to join her in establishing the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, IN. This new congregation of Sisters would assist in the education of German immigrant children residing in Southeastern Indiana.
Late in the fall of 1851, due to inclement weather and difficulty of travel, students began staying with the Sisters and became the first boarders. By 1852, the number of teen boarders increased. Thus began the Academy of the Immaculate Conception which was incorporated in 1994. The Academy is recognized by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis as an independent, private co-educational high school. The Sisters continue their service on the board of the Academy, ensuring it retains its Catholic and Franciscan identity.
Marian College, founded in Oldenburg in 1936 as a four-year liberal arts and teacher education college, moved to Indianapolis in 1937. This venture was undertaken to provide a college education for lay women, as well as for the Sisters themselves. Marian became the state’s first Catholic co-educational college in 1954 and continues today as Marian University with strong professional programs.
The Sisters of St. Francis maintained a responsive engagement with the social conditions of the time throughout its mission of education. In 1892, the Sisters opened St. Ann’s, the only school for African American children in the segregated city of Indianapolis, Indiana. This was the first of many African American schools the Sisters staffed in other cities-notably Kansas City, MO, and Cincinnati, OH. In 1935, the Sisters responded to missionary work among Native Americans, beginning with the Crow Indians in Montana. In the 1970s this ministry with Native Americans extended to the Northern Cheyenne, and in the 1990s with the Navajo in New Mexico and Arizona. Most prominent among the Congregation’s foreign missions were China, from 1939 to 1945, and Papua New Guinea (PNG), from 1960-2011. This later mission included the founding of an independent religious congregation, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.
In 1981 the Sisters welcomed lay women and men to join with them as Associates, sharing Franciscan spirituality, prayer, and ministry. Over 40 years later, there are over two hundred Associates.
The Sisters continue to venture courageously in the vital mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through prayer and service to others.
P.O. Box 100 Oldenburg, Indiana 47036-0100 812-934-2475
www.oldenburgfranciscans.org
www.facebook.com/oldenburgsisters
