Maria Theresia Bonzel (17 September 1830 – 6 February 1905), born ''Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel'', was a German

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pr ...

. She was the founder of the

Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration is a papal congregation of the Roman Catholic Church, founded on July 20, 1863, by Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel in Olpe, Germany (sometimes known from the place of their foundation as the Olpe Siste ...

. By the time of her death, the congregation had sisters all over the world, and had established schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Bonzel was beatified in 2013 by Cardinal

Angelo Amato Angelo Amato, S.D.B. (born 8 June 1938) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints between 2008 and 2018. He served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of ...

on behalf of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

Biography

Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel was born on 17 September 1830, the elder of two daughters of Friedrich Edmund and Angela Maria Liese Bonzel. She was familiarly called "Aline". Her mother sent her to study at the

Ursulines The Ursulines, also known as the Order of Saint Ursula (post-nominals: OSU), is an enclosed religious order of consecrated women that branched off from the Angelines, also known as the Company of Saint Ursula, in 1572. Like the Angelines, they t ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and it was there that her vocation matured. Her parents were opposed to her desire to enter religious life but she nonetheless entered the

Third Order of Saint Francis The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi. The preaching of Francis and his disciples caused many ma ...

in 1850. Alongside eight other women she joined and took the name of "Maria Theresia". In 1859, Maria and two other women founded a monastic community to care for orphans and neglected children. Their work expanded to include the welfare of the poor and health care. On 20 July 1863 Konrad Martin, the Bishop of Paderborn, granted formal approval to the

. During the war years of 1870-71, eight hundred wounded soldiers were cared for by the Sisters from Olpe. During the

Kulturkampf (, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastic ...

, an anticlerical reaction against the growing strength of the Catholic Church, the Sisters were forbidden to receive new candidates. The orphanage was closed by order of the government and the children taken away.Nussbaum, Melissa Musick. "Don't stop praying, don't break the fast", National Catholic Reporter'', August 14, 2013
/ref> Bonzel decided to begin a new foundation in North America."The Life of Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel", Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, Mishawaka, Indiana
/ref> The first missionaries arrived in Lafayette, Indiana, in December 1875 and began their work of caring for the sick. The congregation grew and the Sisters were able to open many new hospitals and schools. Bonzel wrote to the American sisters often. She made three separate voyages across the ocean to visit her Sisters in the United States. On one occasio, while traveling to Columbus, Nebraska, the train was held up by robbers. By 1882 legal restrictions in Germany had eased, and new members were again admitted. Bonzel died on 6 February 1905 at Olpe. The congregation at the time of her death had 73 branches in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and 49 in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Beatification

The cause of beatification commenced under

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

on 18 September 1961 which bestowed on her the title of

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

. The

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

– which documented her life of heroic virtue – was submitted to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

which led to

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

's declaration of Bonzel to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

on 27 March 2010. An investigation into a presumed miracle took place in 2001 and

approved the miracle on 27 March 2013. Cardinal

– on behalf of Pope Francis – presided over the beatification on 10 November 2013. The miracle involved the cure of a 4-year-old boy in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

References

External links

Saints SQPNSisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonzel, Maria Theresia 1830 births 1905 deaths German beatified people Beatifications by Pope Francis 19th-century venerated Christians 20th-century venerated Christians Founders of Catholic religious communities 19th-century German Roman Catholic nuns People from Olpe, Germany Venerated Catholics by Pope Benedict XVI 20th-century German Roman Catholic nuns