Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence

The Congregation of Divine Providence (Latin: Congregatio Divinae Providentiae; German: Schwestern von der Göttlichen Vorsehung) is a Catholic religious institute of women that was founded in 1851 in the Grand Duchy of Hesse by Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, Bishop of Mainz, together with Stephanie Fredericke Amalie de la Roche von Starkenfels (1812–1857), a French noblewoman. The congregation was formally recognized by the Holy See on 16 July 1935.

The Sisters of Divine Providence began to serve in the Americas in 1876, now present in the United States, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo and Peru. They also serve in Korea.

Kettler was a leading figure in the religious response to the social upheavals of the period in Germany, becoming known for his stands in social justice. He was a strong supporter of organized labor and a decent wage for workers. As part of his efforts to serve the struggling people of his diocese, he founded the Sisters of Divine Providence in the Mainz borough of on 29 October 1851. The Sisters provided both educational and nursing care to the towns in which they served. He appointed De la Roche, who had been given the religious name of Mother Marie, as the first Mother Superior of the new community.

When the Sisters of Divine Providence began to operate again in the late 19th century, after the loss of their institutions under the German policy of Kulturkampf, they opened the following nursing facilities: Josefsstift (1890–1973) (now the Ketteler Nursing Home), and the Gastell'sches Hospital (later the De la Roche Nursing Home) in Mombach (1892–1984), St. Elizabeth Women's Clinic (1893–1906), Mary Nursing Home (1898–1912), the municipal nursing home of Heinsberg (1958–1969), St. Hildegarde Nursing Home, now the Catholic Clinic of Mainz (1912) and the Wilhelm-Emmanuel-von-Ketteler School (1973).

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