IFTTT Autopost 
Today, we look at one woman who lived her life following the servant-leader model of leadership, the model taught by Jesus for his disciples. Her name was Maria Katharina Kasper.
Maria Katharina Kasper was born on May 26, 1820 in central Germany. She had four half-siblings from her father’s first marriage as well as other siblings. Maria Katharina was a happy child but dogged with health problems that kept her from school much of the time. She used this time to read and learn to weave. She especially loved to read the Bible and The Imitation of Christby Thomas a Kempis. She even earned extra money by breaking up stones for road construction.
When her father died, he left the entire family fortune to the half-siblings of Maria Katharina. This left Maria, her mother, and siblings very poor.
Maria Katharina felt called to the Religious life, but because of the poverty of her family, she felt she needed to say with them and help support them.
When her mother died, Maria Katharina decided it was time to follow her call to the Religious life. With the approval of the Bishop of Limburg, Germany, she started a community with three friends. They became a formal association in 1845, and on August 15, 1851, they established themselves as the Poor Handmaids of Jesus, dedicating themselves to serving the poor. Maria, known as Mother Maria Katharina, served five consecutive terms as superior of the Order.
Mother Maria and the other Sisters served the poor through education and nursing. Pope Leo XIII formally approved the Order on May 21, 1890.
As their number increased, the Order expanded into other areas of Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, and India.
Following the Civil War in the United States, the bishop of Fort Wayne, Indiana requested that Mother Maria send Sisters to his diocese to serve the German immigrants there. So, on August 14, 1868, eight Poor Handmaids of Jesus left Europe, and ten days later, arrived in the New York City and headed to Fort Wayne.
Soon, the Sisters were serving the local church by running the local school and nursing the sick. A year later, they established their first hospital in the United States – St. Joseph Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Mother Maria Katharina died on February 2, 1898, and Pope Francis canonized her on October 14, 2018. St. Maria Katharina’s feast day is February 2.
