FRANCES SCHERVIER
Our foundress, Frances Schervier (1819-1876), is born in Germany in a historic period of great social and economic turmoil. Though she grows up in a privileged family – her father is an industrialist and owns a needle factory— from a young age she is sensitive and sympathetic to the lives of the poorest people. The social status of her family does not prevent her from seeing the difficulties of the groups of people being socially marginalized by the burgeoning industrial society nor from breaking away from the conventions of her time.
After losing her mother and two older sisters, at only 14 years old Frances is responsible for the care of the house and the life of the family. But she already feels a strong desire to embrace religious life, to which her father, however, is opposed. Following the latter’s death in 1845, Frances welcomes God’s call to give herself completely to the service of the most vulnerable, trusting in a tangible and profound experience that she had: “I recognized my Divine Savior in the poor and suffering as if I had seen him in them with my own eyes.”
The community, which Frances founds on Pentecost in 1845 and which many young women quickly join, is especially influenced by the example of St. Francis. Like them, he had lived as a carefree youth in a well-off life, but his encounter with the poor awoke in him a deep desire for a more authentic existence.
With her companions, Frances dedicates herself to many different services of care: to the sick, the elderly, young women at risk of prostitution, the hungry, wounded soldiers, children, the incarcerated, and those condemned to death… There is no limit to her creative love and there is no preferential treatment: everyone is worthy of her attention and compassion.
The courage and determination of Frances render her free in the face of the political influences of the time. When the Congregation is at risk of being banned under new laws approved by the nascent German Empire, she is not afraid of beginning a move to Belgium and considering a potential transfer of the Congregation to the United States.
Mother Frances was an authentic and daring woman in her being a mother and sister of the poor. She is still today a source of inspiration for her radical trust in Providence and in the work of God in her life and in that of the Congregation.
Frances Schervier dies on December 14, 1876, and is beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1974. Her tomb is in the church of the convent of the Motherhouse in Aachen.