The Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary, ( pl, Zgromadzenie Sióstr Franciszkanek Rodziny Maryi; la, Congregatio Sororum Franciscalium Familiae Mariae), also known as ''Siostry Rodziny Maryi, RM'', is a Polish female

religious institute A religious institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in the Catholic Church whose members take religious vows and lead a life in community with fellow members. Religious institutes are one of the two types of institutes of consecrat ...

.webpage
attached to the

Franciscan Order The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

The

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...

was established in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

during the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

with the mission to help Polish children stricken by hunger in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

, and to save the impoverished

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parishes persecuted by the Tsarist authorities.

Liudmila Gatagova Liudmila Sultanovna Gatagova (russian: Людмила Султановна Гатагова) is a Russian historian, essayist, and the Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences of Lezgin descent, specializing in ...

"THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF ETHNIC IDENTITY IN THE PROCESS OF MASS ETHNOPHOBIAS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. (The Second Half of the 19th Century)."
The CRN E-book
Matthew F. Jacobson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-BoND7xOy5wC&pg=PA34&dq=%22anti-Polish+assaults+in+the+arenas+of+education,+religion,+and+language%22 Special Sorrows: The Diasporic Imagination of Irish, Polish, and Jewish ...]'' Page 34, Social Science, Publisher: University of California Press, 2002; 340 pages. The congregation was founded in 1857 by the Warsaw archbishop, Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, who was beatified by

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

during his last pilgrimage to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

in 2002, and

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

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 sovereig ...

in 2009. The

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

base their life on the Franciscan ideals of service to God and to the common people, especially the poorest. The spirit of scarcity is evident in their own standard of life. Dwellings and rooms of the Sisters are furnished in such way as to make the poor and the rich feel humbled. The young postulants don't contribute dowries. The nuns wear black habits with a purple rope. In Poland the Sisters of the Family of Mary conduct educational activities in nursery schools and rehabilitation centres, help at children's homes as well as hospitals and care homes. They help disadvantaged and the homeless by running shelters. They also work in parishes as religion teachers, organists and assistants, as well as in seminaries.

Notes and references

{{Authority control Congregations of Franciscan sisters Religious organizations established in 1857 Catholic female orders and societies Catholic religious institutes established in the 19th century 1857 establishments in the Russian Empire