Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – On August 14, 1983, the Franciscan Order accepted three young women as third degree members of the Militia of the Immaculata. Just months beforehand, Mother Elizabeth Patrizi had been called to follow Maximilian Kolbe, who had founded the Militia in 1917 “for the glory of God through the Immaculata.” The three first young women who had decided to follow her example were welcomed by the Directors of the Militia and the then Minister General of the Conventual Franciscans, Fr. Vitale Bommarco, OFM in the Kolbe House, the College where Saint Maximilian had lived, studied, and founded the Militia. The aspirants were from France and Lebanon, thus expressing the internationality of the new religious institute.
Today, the Sisters Minor of Mary Immaculate are nearly 80, present in 6 countries (Italy, France, Slovenia, Poland, Turkey, and Burkina Faso) with an apostolate of prayer, evangelization, and works of charity. In Turkey, they have a community in Ephesus (Maryem-Ana-Evi), in the place where an ancient tradition says that Mary lived during the last years of her earthly life. In Burkina Faso, in sub-Saharan Africa, the religious sisters work in health care, to meet the needs of the country, which suffers from a lack of health facilities. With the help of other sisters and Franciscan Fathers in Warsaw and Italy, Sister Maria Groleau, a medical doctor, has founded a health care center in Sabor which is now under construction. The sisters have begun offering assistance to pregnant women, with the help of nurses from Burkina Faso, locally trained. In Italy, the lay members of the Family of Mary Immaculate collect medicines, equipment, and funding for the cause. (AM) (Agenzia Fides 20/02/2009)
