Laying the F USF HISTORY PART 1
By 1920, when the University of St. Francis began, the legacy of the Franciscan Sisters’ commitment to Catholic education and progressing their community was already deeply embedded in Joliet. They created and supported multiple institutions that complemented the development of the region, and without their strength and vision, the University of St. Francis would not exist today. The story of their path, and the values they imparted, provides insight into the character 2
Engaging Mind & Spirit Magazine
and values of a now 100-year-old institution of higher learning, often referred to as “Joliet’s University.” The story begins in 1851 when a spirited young woman named Maria Catherine emigrated from Remich, Luxembourg to the United States with her sister, Catherine. The youngest daughter of a prosperous ironsmith, Maria was well-educated. She and her sister had attended boarding school, studying French and German, mathematics and architecture,
and such skills as sewing and painting— significant accomplishments at the time. Hoping to teach Native Americans, they traveled first to Milwaukee—a bustling but “plague-ridden” town like most frontier settlements, and desperately in need of schools, orphanages, and hospitals—before moving to South Bend, Indiana. There, the two sisters taught in parochial schools for the next seven years, eventually taking religious vows and receiving new names: Maria became Sister
