SCHERVIER, FRANZISKA. – Foundress of the Poor Sisters of St Francis, born at Aix-la-Chapelle on 3 January 1819, died there on 14 December 1876.
Of a very distinguished family, she had as her godfather at baptism the Emperor of Austria, Francis I. Having lost her mother at the age of fourteen, she took charge of the household and at the same time devoted herself to helping the poor, serving the sick, rescuing fallen women, assisting the parish priest in catechism classes and in the care of the church. After her father’s death in 1845, once the family’s affairs were settled, she founded on 3 October of the same year, together with five companions, the new congregation, which soon gave proof of its dedication to alleviating every form of human misery during the cholera epidemic that broke out shortly afterwards. To define clearly the goal to be attained and the path to follow, she promptly drew up the rules, dividing the foundation into two branches: one, less numerous, devoted to the contemplative life, and the other to the active life, under the patronage of St Francis of Assisi. She obtained approval of the rules from the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne in 1851, confirmed by Pius IX in 1870. The foundress, with her community, distinguished herself greatly in the care of soldiers during the wars of 1864, 1866 and 1870; and she devoted herself with all her affection to the unemployed, the homeless and the sick of every kind, who came to venerate her as their Mother. The cause of beatification was introduced in Rome on 9 May 1934.