Maria Katharina Kasper

Maria Katharina Kasper was born on 26 May 1820 in Dernbach, a village in the Westerwald in the Duchy of Nassau (now in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). She came from a devout Catholic peasant family of modest means. Her father, Heinrich Kasper, was a small farmer, and her mother was also named Katharina. Formal schooling for rural girls of her class was limited, and from childhood she shared in the labor of the farm and household. After her father’s death in 1842 the family’s circumstances became more difficult, and she supported herself by agricultural work and by sewing.

Already in her youth she felt a vocation to prayer and to service of the poor and the sick. In the 1840s she began, with a few companions, to visit and nurse the needy in Dernbach and neighboring villages. With the support of the local clergy and of Peter Joseph Blum, Bishop of Limburg, she founded a religious congregation on 15 August 1851. The community received the name Arme Dienstmägde Jesu Christi (Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ). The sisters took simple vows and devoted themselves to nursing, the care of children and orphans, and assistance to the poor, without regard to confession. Kasper served as the first superior general and remained the spiritual and practical guide of the congregation for the rest of her life.

Under her direction the Poor Handmaids spread from Dernbach to other German dioceses and, from the 1860s, to the Netherlands, England, and the United States, where they established hospitals, schools, and orphanages, particularly among immigrant and working-class communities. She insisted on a simple, humble style of life, availability for the most neglected, and trust in divine providence. She continued to reside at the motherhouse in Dernbach, from which she governed the expanding international community.

Maria Katharina Kasper died at Dernbach on 2 February 1898. The cause for her beatification was taken up in the twentieth century. Pope Paul VI beatified her on 16 April 1978 in Saint Peter’s Square. Pope Francis canonized her on 14 October 2018, also in Saint Peter’s Square. Her liturgical feast is observed on 1 February. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ remain active in several countries and regard her as their foundress.