Blessed Maria Theresia Scherer

Anna Maria Katherina Scherer (31 October 1825 – 16 June 1888) was a Swiss religious sister and the co-founder of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross. She founded that congregation alongside the Capuchin priest Theodosius Florentini. She was given the name Maria Theresia upon her investiture. She was beatified on 29 October 1995. Anna Maria Katherina Scherer was born as the fourth of seven children to poor farmers on 31 October 1825. She was aged seven when her father died on 5 February 1855. At the time three children could remain with their mother while the others had to be taken in the care of relatives and she was among those that had to leave their mother. Catherine was brought up with her cousins the Sigrists family. On a pilgrimage to Einsiedeln in July 1844, she realized her vocation and true purpose in life was to the religious life. At the age of seventeen she became a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. On 1 March 1845 she entered the new "Teaching Sisters of Holy Cross" that the Capuchin priest Theodosius Florentini founded – the two met on 5 October 1844. On 27 June 1845, she left with a friend for the novitiate in Menzingen and around that time received the habit from Florentini while on 27 October 1845 she pronounced her first vows and was given the religious name of "Maria Theresia". From that point until 1846, she worked in Galgenen and was then sent to teach at Baar until being sent to Oberägeri where she was made the superior of small communities clustered there. In 1850, Theodosius put her in charge of a home for the poor and orphaned at Nagels and became known there as the "Mother of the poor". Around that time in 1850 she was asked to take administration of a hospital that the priest had just opened. In 1852 she was sent to Chur. In 1857 she was appointed as the superior general of the Sisters of Mercy and with Theodosius co-founded a new religious institute dedicated to the healing ministry.