POOR CLARE FEDERATION OF MARY IMMACULATE - PCC AND OSC

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On November 21, 1950, Pope Pius XII promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi which recommended federations of monasteries.

Responding to this challenge, the Cleveland Poor Clares investigated the possibility of a federation being formed among the communities of the Colettine tradition in the United States.

Father Pius Barth, OFM, provincial of the Sacred Heart Province, appointed Father Leo Ohleyer to visit all the Colettine Poor Clare communities in the United States in order to explain the concept of federation to them and to assure them that such alliance would not constitute the loss of autonomy.  He carried out the visitation in the fall of 1957.

The Cleveland community played a vital role in fostering the idea of federation.  The Abbesses and sister-delegate from the communities of Chicago, Illinois; Rockford, Illinois; Aptos, California; Newport News, Virginia; and Roswell, New Mexico, assembled in the Cleveland Monastery in March of 1958.  Father Leo and Father Marcia Mathis, a canonist, drew up the statutes for the Colletine Poor Clare Federation of Mary Immaculate in the United States of America.  This was approved by Rome on June 8, 1959.  The Kokomo Monastery in Indiana founded that year was included as charter member.  The seven charter members were later joined by the communities of Los Altos Hills, California, and Santa Barbara, California.

The purpose of the federation is to preserve, protect, and increase the regular observance in accordance with the seraphic spirit, to promote mutual aid among the monasteries, and to obviate the difficulties that are apt to arise from a too complete separation of the independent monasteries.

The initial voting for the officers of the federation was done by mail, and on October 21, 1959, Mother Mary Francis King, who had been elected abbess of the Cleveland community in 1957, was elected first federal abbess by the other abbesses and delegates.  With her wise direction and untiring devotion, the newly formed federation secured a firm foundation.  She was re-elected for a second term in 1962 by the federal chapter held in the Cleveland monastery and was succeed in 1965 by Mother Mary Francis Aschmann of Roswell, New Mexico.

In October 1971, Mother Amata Rose Granata of the Cleveland community was elected federal abbess, after having served as first councilor of the federation.  She was elected to a second term in 1974.  Subsequently, Mother Amata Rose again held the office of first councilor, having been elected to the position in October 1977 when her term as federal abbess expired.

The vitality of the federation expressed itself instances of rendering personnel assistance, sending sisters to the Newport News monastery in 1959 and to the newly founded Maria Regina Mater Monastery in Kokomo, Indiana, in the sixties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Abbesses and Delegates at First Federation Chapter Meeting in 1961

Mother Abbesses:

Mother Mary Veronica Zelinksi - Rockford, Illinois

Mother Mary Agnes Major = Newport News, Virginia

Mother Mary Loretto Aceves = Aptos, California

Mother Mary Francis King = Cleveland, Ohio

Mother Mary Immaculata Beck = Roswell, New Mexico

Mother Mary Josephine Wagner = Kokomo, Indiana

Mother Mary Philomena Horkavi = Chicago, Illinois

 

Sister Delegates:

Sister Mary Francis Aschman = Roswell, New Mexico

Sister Mary Veronica Gilles = Newport News, Virginia

Sister Mary Amata Rose Granata = Cleveland, Ohio

Sister Mary Clare Trame = Aptos, California

Sister Mary Helen Kempf - Rockford, Illinois

Sister Mary Rose Wroblewski = Kokomo, Indiana

Sister Caritas Tepper = Chicago, Illinois