[1] Following the Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi and as members of the Third Order Regular, they are women dedicated to sharing their lives in prayer, community and ministry.
[2] The Sisters cared for the sick in their homes and nursed victims of smallpox and typhoid fever, which increased in the social disruption during and after the Franco-Prussian War.
In the late 1920s, for instance, some Franciscan Sisters moved to Chamberlain, South Dakota, where they assisted Priests of the Sacred Heart in running St. Joseph's Indian School, founded in 1927 primarily to serve Lakota students and families from nearby reservations.
They joyfully embrace their vowed life and the Franciscan values of poverty, humility, contemplation, and continual conversion.
Their deep trust in Divine Providence continually supports their readiness to respond in a prophetic way to the needs of others through their varied ministries of education, healing and service.
They live communally in convents located in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and California, as well as in the Amazon basin area of Brazil, South America.