Bl. Maria Theresia Bonzel

Aline Bonzel was born in 1830 at Olpe, Germany, into a well-off merchant family. At twenty, against her parents' wishes, she joined the Franciscan Third Order and took the name Maria Theresia.

In 1863 the bishop allowed her to found a religious congregation, the Poor Sisters of St Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Their first "convent" was a rented room. Many women joined her, and they took in orphans and cared for the sick, drawing strength from prayer before the Eucharist.

She was superior general until her death in 1905. By then the order had 870 sisters in 71 houses in Germany and 700 in 42 houses in America. She was beatified in 2013.

Maria Theresia Bonzel was beatified in 2013.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.