Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are Sisters who live in international communities throughout the world especially in areas where Christ is least known and the Church least present.
Like Mary, our lives are centred on Christ in daily Eucharist, Adoration, personal and community prayer. Christ sends us out to our brothers and sisters where we discover his hidden presence.
In the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi we journey with our brothers and sisters in the simplicity and joy of Gospel living, a sign of peace, hope and reconcilliation.
Blessed Mary of the Passion
a Woman for our Time
Helen de Chappotin, later to become Mary of the Passion and Foundress of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, was born in Nantes, France in 1839. She was a bright, intelligent and self-willed child and young woman, brought up in a close knit traditional Catholic family. As a child and young woman, Helen had a great love for the Church and for the Pope, which remained with her throughout her life.
She saw the missionary action of the Institute as typefied in the Virgin Mary, model of a life where activity is not separate from union with God.
She realised it was essential to train the Sisters well in order to prepare them for the many diverse works of the missions. Seeing the need for education of women, she opened schools, particularly for the very poor: domestic science and workrooms where women could gain a humane and profitable education while earning a wage at the same time. For Mary of the Passionm missionary work was an extension of the evangelical work of Christ. The love and compassion of Christ was mirrored in the love and care given to the poor, the sick and the infirm. Dispesaries and hospitals multiplied and the care of the lepers was seen as a privilege for many Sisters who willingly volunteered to nurse them.
Her vision reached beyond her own day...
Vocations increased rapidly and soon Mary of the Passion was able to send her Sisters to the remotest corners of the earth, even to the most distant and perilous. In China they were the first European women to venture so far into the interior, and even when seven of the Sisters were martyred in Tai-Yuen-Foo in 1900, antoehr group went out to repace them.
Faithful to her spirit, the Institute she founded continues to dra together unity and inculturation, contemplation and dialogue among the peoples of our own day. For Mary of teh Passion, the witness of Sisters from different cultures and nations living together in community was an expression of the universality of the Church. Her vision reached beyond her own days and looked ahead to that time when all people would be reconciled and gathered into the People of God. This vision still inspires others to live and share her missionary ideal today.
