Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ

The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (Ancillae Domini Jesu Christi : ADJC; vulgo: Dernbacher Schwestern) is a female congregation of the Catholic Church. It originated organizationally in Dernbach (Westerwald), where their supreme administrative body, the so-called generalate is still situated. Their organization for associates (like Fiat Spiritus) is also open to men. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ American Province has its motherhouse in Donaldson, Indiana.

The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ is an international congregation of apostolic women religious within the Roman Catholic Church. They minister with the poor, the sick and children in the United States, Mexico, Germany, England, the Netherlands, India, Brazil, Kenya and Nigeria. With prayer and community living as their foundation, they minister in rural, urban and inner city settings in the Midwest (USA). Focused on partnering in the work of the Spirit, they invite others to join them in various facets of educational, pastoral and social work, neighbourhood-based health ministries, spiritual guidance and care for the environment. They are recognized more by the love and simplicity with which they serve than by any particular ministry.

The foundress of the Poor Handmaids is Blessed Maria Katharina Kasper (also known in English as Catherine Kasper) of Dernbach, Germany, who was beatified by Pope Paul VI on 16 April 1978.Pope Francis confirmed her canonization which is to be celebrated on 14 October 2018 in the Vatican / Rome.

The official foundation date of the congregation is 15 August 1851. On this date Katharina Kasper and four other women (Sr. Theresia (Katharina Schoenberger); Sr. Agnes (Elisabeth Haas); Sr. Elisabeth (Anna Maria Mueller); Sr. Klara (Elisabeth Meuser)) took the vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty in front of the Bishop of Limburg, Peter Joseph Blum. Owed to the fact, that Dernbach did not have a church yet, it took place in the nearby village of Wirges. (The exact location, if church or vicarage, is a matter of debate between historians.)

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