The Felician Sisters will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in the former Lodi Province in New Jersey Sept. 21 to commemorate their sesquicentennial anniversary of ministry in America.
The jubilee began last year with a celebration in each of the eight original provinces that merged into one American Province in 2009 named Our Lady of Hope Province.
The Felician Sisters were founded in 1855 by Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska, in a nationally suppressed Poland. At the request of Father Joseph Dabrowski, who founded the Polish Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, Blessed Mary Angela missioned five Felician sisters to Polonia Wisconsin in 1874.
From there, this Franciscan community grew notably in Polish communities to minister to the immigration needs of the early 20th century. Being the first Polish community to staff schools in the United States, the sisters prepared textbooks and drew up a standard syllabus for studies in the parishes they staffed from the Midwest to the Northeast.
1896 marked the beginning of the Felician apostolate in the Diocese of Wilmington. The sisters took over the elementary education of St. Hedwig School in West Wilmington where the Benedictine Sisters, from Sacred Heart Convent in Wilmington, established the school in 1891.
In 1914, the Felicians began classes at St. Stanislaus School in East Wilmington. They staffed Holy Cross Elementary and High Schools in Dover beginning in 1952. For a time in that decade, they were on the teaching staff of St. Elizabeth High School. At their peak in 1961 with 630 sisters in the Lodi Province alone, the Felicians were able to open St. Hedwig High School in Wilmington and graduated their first class that year; also permitting the staffing of Holy Spirit School in New Castle.
The sisters purchased 225-acres of farmland in Ogletown in 1931 and built a residence for children called Our Lady of Grace Home. Orphaned and children in need were housed. A kindergarten program was later added until the complex was closed in 2009. Holy Family Parish was built on a parcel of this site. Today, there is affordable and regular housing on that property where Sister Barbara Ann Kemmerer remains as the Felician presence at Our Lady of Grace Village.
For a number of years, the sisters also were a part of the Ministry of Caring.
The Felician sisters presence in the Diocese of Wilmington, initially enabled immigrant children to receive a Catholic education and adapt to American culture. Promoting higher education, the sisters established stable lives for many generations that followed.
Their Franciscan Spirit continues to elevate the dignity of life for countless numbers.
Their mission carries on.
