Franciscans of the Afflicted (Warsaw)

FRANCESCANE DEGLI AFFLITTI (VARSAVIA). - In a small building in Varsavia, some pious women began, in 1858, to give charitable shelter to poor unemployed persons discharged from hospitals or without a home. The work is still called Ricovero.

When the Capuchin Fr. Onorato, already the founder of other similar institutes, assumed its direction, it developed; its members took the name of Suore Francescane degli Afflitti, and the Institute was erected into a religious congregation in 1882. On 30 July 1909 it obtained the decree of praise, and in the same year it was affiliated with the Order of Capuchins. The Holy See approved its constitutions temporarily on 6 February 1924, and definitively on 2 March 1937.

The specific purpose of the Congregation is the care of the sick in hospitals or at home, and any charitable work aimed at alleviating the suffering of those who suffer.

In 1947 it had 17 houses with 243 sisters.

FRANCESCANS OF THE B.M.

V. HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Religious institute founded at Cartagena (Colombia) by Sister Bernarda Butler (1848-1924) with five companions who had come from Switzerland, where they had professed vows in the monastery of Maria Hilf at Altstätten. It soon spread widely in Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil, and today has 34 houses in which 312 sisters work, devoted to teaching and charitable assistance.