FRANCESCANE DELLA S. FAMIGLIA. — They were founded in Dubuque, Iowa (U.S.A.) in 1875 by Mother Saveria Termehr and other sisters of the Congregation of Bethlehem of Herford in Germany, who were forced by the persecution of the Kulturkampf to take refuge in
(G. P. Anwar Sarnato, Kathalische Frauenprozeßinitiative Deutschlands, Düsseldorf 1931)
FRANCESCANE DELLA S. FAMIGLIA DI TREVINI - Portrait of the foundress M. Elisabetta Koch.
Stati Uniti. Approved by the Holy See in 1913, they had already been affiliated with the Order of Friars Minor since 1903. They currently possess 69 houses, where 719 religious women devote themselves to various works of apostolate and charity.
BIBL.: Acta O. F. M., 36 (1917), pp. 81-82; [G. Pou y Marti], Conspectus trium Ordinum religiosorum S. P. N. Francisci, Roma 1929, p. 439. Cesario van Hulst