Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert

:"for the order of the same name founded in Le Puy in 1650 see Sisters of St. Joseph also known as Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille"

The Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert are a Roman Catholic women's order, now based in St. Trudpert's Abbey in Münstertal, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

History

The origins of the order lie in the foundation in 1845 by Abbé Pierre Paul Blanck in the remaining buildings of St. Marx Abbey (or St. Marc's Abbey) in Gueberschwihr (Geberschweier) in the canton of Rouffach, Alsace, of a women's community under the Benedictine Rule combining the veneration of the Holy Sacrament with manual labour and the care of orphans. The buildings burnt down in 1852 and the difficulties facing the new community were so great that it seemed impossible for it to survive. Against all odds it did continue and was constituted as a formal order on 9 October 1868 with the election and appointment of Sister Maria Xavier as superior.

The German sisters were obliged to leave Alsace after the end of World War I and to seek new premises in Germany, which they found in the former St. Trudpert's monastery in Münstertal. The first sisters moved here in 1919.

In 1920 was created the Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert, the first superior of which was Father Willibald Strohmeyer, appointed in 1924. In 1925 the community began an ambitious programme of construction works not only on the monastic buildings but also on hospitals and other medical facilities. In 1926 the first sisters left for Cleveland, Ohio, in America; the American province was established in 1937.

But in 1929 during the economic collapse of Germany the fraudulence and bankruptcy of the Freiburger Bank brought the community to the brink of ruin. All building works were suspended and the sisters were reduced for years to a life of great poverty.

The sisters were permitted during World War II to remain in their premises, where they offered shelter to refugees and the homeless. Many sisters worked in military hospitals. In 1945 Willibald Strohmeyer, head of the order, was murdered by the Nazis.

After the end of the war the community at last found itself able to resume the interrupted building works. The church was dedicated in 1965. In 1970, according to the Sisters' own website, the province was elevated to the status of a fully independent Congregation. [The formal status of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert is not totally clear. [http://www.kloster-st-trudpert.de/seite5.php The Sisters' own website] indeed states that the province became an independent Congregation in 1970, and this is confirmed by the entry at the German monastic website [http://www.orden.de/index.php?rubrik=22&seite=ordgem_liste_orden&verweis=Schwestern%20vom%20heiligen%20Josef&action=done# Orden.de] . However, [http://www.josefsschwestern-zu-saint-marc.org the website of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Marc] , a French order descended from the original foundation in Saint Marc, now administered from Colmar in Alsace, claims as their provinces both the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert and also the houses of the Indore region.]

India

In 1960 the first Indian women were admitted as postulants. In 1974 the first five sisters returned to India and began mission work in Madhya Pradesh. In the next year a house of the order was opened in Sanawad and the novitiate begun. By the end of the 1970s four other houses had been opened in India, at Palakkad in Kerala, Bhikkangaon and Nalvat, both in Madhya Pradesh and at Haresmara in Orissa. The regional house of St. Joseph at Indore was opened in 1989.

Notes

ources

* [http://www.kloster-st-trudpert.de/seite5.php St. Trudpert's Abbey website]
* [http://www.josefsschwestern-zu-saint-marc.org/ Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Marc]