hello. on behalf of the archdiocese welcome to "mosiac". the rcc of san francisco had a long and deep relationship with st. francis and his followers for the various congregations religious people that follow the way of st. francis have many names but we call them the franciscans. their relationship to our city of san francisco is long but it is not really that long in the franciscans scale update our our species is one of his younger daughter's for are still in our adolescence.

she is named after the stated father of course st. francis of assisi. the rcc was created about 160 years ago. the mission church at the heart of the city was spotted by francis his followers less than 150 years ago and all of that is recent history in the franciscan online presence himself was born 160 years ago. for more than eight centuries and always have been among the spiritual, pastoral and even intellectual leaders of the catholic faith and catholic church. while form has his leadership taken? in the way of st. francis one of service, of humility, of self-sacrifice to others and a love of all creatures and all things. today we will talk to sister ellen to learn more t franciscan mission and way of life. so, please rejoin us after this brief break to meet sister ellen and delve into the

special word world of the franciscans.

hello. thank you for joining us on "mosiac". our guest today is a franciscan and we are going to fall all about the vast universe of franciscans from her special corner of it this assist e ellen mckay. thank you for joining us.

telling the full name. one of the sisters of st. francis of penance and christian charity. penance and christian charity. we'll talk about the vast universe of franciscan things that tell us about yourself. >> i am redwood city, california. that is the offices for st. francis province here in california. our congregation is an international congregation. we had provinces in 10 countries around the world and each province has mission in other countries. 10 countries around the world and provinces and sisters who populate them. we used to have probably in the heyday probably around 5000 sisters worldwide and now we are about 1200. is pretty good numbers for the deg popu ocathol >>most weand

brazil. the european provinces and the american provinces are slowly aging we unde. when worried was your convocation founded? we were founded in 1835 and it village in southeastern hologram along the german border. it was right after the napoleonic wars and catherine damon was a young woman in the village and did not have much education. but was touched by god in her own space and in her own heart and wanted to serve. so she became, there were no religious. the friars and the confidence, everything had been closed during the napoleonic wars. wog in a vie

r. a section, a third order group that she belonged to pick >> but did find that, a third order is associated laypeople or no? >> yes, the franciscans had three orders. the first order is friars, the second orders are the poor clares and then francis realized toward the end of his life that there were people who were called to be franciscans were not free to be, either a religious because they had a family. they still have that franciscan heart pick >> they could be part of the community because they had other obligations. >> ole group was for so these people can come together, share their faith, they could promote works together but they still have their first commitment was to their families.

>> n, thefounding of the first order was just after 1200, am i wrong? >> yes, right, 1222 i believe. megan seems confusing to the layman who looks into it, many different congregation. the original friars, then the poor clares, did they have an official name? >> i think it was just poor clares. i think they finally do but i am not aware of what the official title is pick >> if i was in the third order when i have official titles we will have osf after our name, or of st. francis. how did you find this order is your vocation and how long have you been in it i hate to say this but i have been in it for 51 year >>es i was very a al in

nebraska and our sisters, the un there and had been since the late 18 hundreds. 18 hundreds. i was attracted to their life and knew that i was called to and so i entered the community the year after i graduated from high school. >> it was your vision that you would live in a community of sisters or you would carry out a certain work as your vocation? what did you see is your vocation and what did you learn? >> what i saw then is a little different than what i see now. when i stop and was a group of educated women who were educating the young people in my town, in my area. and also the hospital. they were powerful women. they were like i said well educated and they had traveled. there was something about them in the way that they cared for us and i knew i wanted to join them. >> when you did what was your

training? what became your expertise? >> i went to college and major in english and became an english teacher. got my masters from holy names oabt 1980 and was teaching arschool 1982 until 2002 . then i did other various works for the community through the years. the committee asked me at one point to go to germany to learn the culture and the language . then i went as missionary to tanzania for different times for several months. >> par of the international order? >> yes and teaching english. english is the language they

need for higher education. >> you did not become a translator? >> know if you want to be a translator you need to learn from the ground up not when you are in your late forties. >> you are not a teacher anymore but you are working in the rcc of san francisco. >> i live in redwood city and i work in our internal government in the province. i am an administrative assistant to the provincial. >> let's take a break. we will come back and learn more with sister ellen about the franciscans.

hello and welcome back. i'm here with sister ellen mccabe pick sister, do you have ancis.>> u li and work locally, you are part of a global, international sisterhood with

provinces. did you derive your mission, your style of religion from st. francis originally i was a long, long time ago? i have forgotten some of my grade catholic school learning so can you remind me about the original history >> francis was the son of a wealthy merchant and when he was growing up it was just the time the merchant class was becoming part of the wealthy class. there was the nobility and the clergy in the present. some of the peasants were moving up in that area. francis came from a wealthy family and he had everything he wanted and he was kind of a playboy. he had a reputation in the town and was not always a good one i don't think. his dream was to go to riverside. he was on his way to join them and he was in some battles i

got knocked off his horse and he was held prisoner for a year . he had some dreams and some visions then but it was a very dark time for him. when he went home his father was not happy with him and francis had somehow heard back call from the lord deep inside himself. he realized that he was repelled by some things in society and for him it was the lepers. >> yes, okay. b mac so as he went on with his life and realized he still wanted to go up to the crusades but francis had a dream in which the lord said to him francis, do you want to serve, you want to serve? the lord or the master? of course, he wanted to serve the master and so he began to think and gradually his conversion was a slow one.

sometimes we laugh at ourselves and sometimes we say we are franciscans before francis was converted and sometimes it is after. we all have to go through our own conversions. he was praying in this little church that he rebuilt. he heard across say to him, francis rebuilt my church. he took that very literally and rebuilt a little church . and he began to realize that it was more than that. that god was calling into something more than just putting bricks and mortar together pick some of the other young men who had been associated with before had been laughing at him because he had become this kind of outcast ina join him. they began to form of brotherhood. >> interesting and the brotherhood was not about teaching, what's it about hospital work?

>> know it was about serving bowls on the edges. the poverty-stricken, the lepers were a huge population, i should not say huge but there was a large population of lepers in the rcc valley. they had to ring a bell, just like they did in the time of jesus. one day francis was riding his horse and he saw a leper. usually when he saw lepers he would turn a go in the other direction. this got off his horse anywhere and embrace the lever. franciscans we vote look at that as the pinnacle of his conversion when he was able to recognize jesus in the lever pick >> i think very quickly he was called the former order. he said men came around to brotherhood. claire is aware that phrases do personally, right? her lywas of e nobilitysi.

so claire had very fine education. she spoke several different languages, she had ladies in waiting and she saw francis as she saw his work with the poor. claire herself had done this since she was a little child, she would always set some of her aside and the service would take it out that night when her father was t ing. clairhad at s imibthe country during their preaching. francis made arrangements for her to stay w nights with the benedictines and she became like a dean for a while. like a hermit until they can find a place for her and finally they put the poor clearance down in cc. >> we only have about another minute in this segment but what

is the magnetic attraction of these people who were doing good? why did so many people so quickly joined? >> the church was in a bad day very much like the contemporary church. there was a lot of skill, a lot of wealth in the church and there were a lot of poor people. francis on that discrepancy and he and others wanted to change that. monks and monasteries could not , should not be acquiring all this wealth when there was people who did not have enough to eat and children who are starting. so his desire was to be among the people and to serve the people as best he could. >> in this it seems like francis and claire and their cohort of people did not leave the church but they recognize a responsibility too. >> challenged the church. in union th the church, t ofthe

are of our responsibility as being part of the churches to challenge those things that are not right. >> it sounds very good. we do have on the domestic level. my wife says i am committed to you, i am part of the community but i chose you as well. it's all part of my job. that is right is take a break and we will come back and talk about the franciscans.

hello and welcome back pick we have a few more minutes to talk with sister ellen mccabe. she knows so much and has done so much but we will squeeze a lot in . sister ellen we wanted to ask you about projects that your congregation in order are doing. you mentioned hospital work to me. >> we were initially founded in holland by a peasant woman who just serve the people who were in her village. she was teaching the children, she was visiting the sick so we ended up at congregation that basically promoted teaching, education and hospital work. we have several hospitals in different parts of the world and we still do. haiguse down in

santa maria. that is what we did for the first 150 years of our life as a congregation. now, many of our sisters are older, many of them are retired. those who are still working are working in parishes and working of the budget so to speak. e of down to the border a couple of times in july and in august and is planning to go again to work with the immigrants at the border. 25 years ago we went down to chiapas, mexico to a small village . it is in the mounds, it is the southernmost state of mexico so there's a lot of indigenous peoples there really no healthcare available to them so, we are in lda clinic there so that the needs of the indigenous people will be taken

care of. that they will have someplace to go for broken to them to get treatment. >> you have been there 25 years? >> 25 years. >> to all the workers there come down from the north? we have four sisters now down there in shoppers who are natives there. two of our sisters from this promise go back and forth with r wo there. one of them is a nurse and they are training in administration so they can get this not really a hospital but more of a clinic that they can come to pick >> the clinic comes in a box? >> yes it is called a clinic in a can. it is a container pick

>> a container from a ship. >> yes they bill them in kansas camember but $2 milon you hem. expee to get everything and then to get the land prepared for it to sit on and all of that. two modules will become a surgical center and one module will become ob/gyn and the other module will be for emergency services pick >> wonderful. >> yeah, that is exciting . >> is there a way to contribute to this project? >> yes i am sure our sisters would be very happy to take contributions. i can give you our address. we are the sisters of st. francis, we are at po box 1028 in redwood city, california nine 406 four >> wonderful, good to know >> yeais wonderful. we need funds. as franciscans we are so so with begging . is not one of

the things we like to do but we do do it when we need to help the poor pick >> sure, that is wonderful. that's an interesting project. you mention your consecrated population is aging, some have retired, are you looking for vocations? >> the world is changing. when it women have many more opportunities. in some ways not placed into it and in other ways it has nothing to do with god is still calling people to follow him in whatever way god chooses to call them. it might not be to the kind of religious life that i lived for the last 50 years but there are people who are being called and we will walk with anyone who wants to walk that journey. it really would not be fair for ustag women into a gr anis is the way we live lifes twso guidance we are there to walk

with you. >> that sounds very attractive. there are lots of young people searching for some spiritual component to their lives which they don't know quite where to find. >> there's a group out there called nuns and nuns. the back of it is that and you and ask >> and no nus. >> it is the communication between them. it is forming that relationship. at the bottom of our franciscan terrorism is all about relationship. what is our relationship, what is my relationship to my sisters, two people i work with to the people that i serve to the world. who am i in this world and what am i called to do? is nothing big. it is relating on a one-to-one basis and doing what i can. francis rrorism or stylus mainso put ur forw kiof wit . mo peopl

say most people because i don't really know but a lot of people have heard of phrases at the birdbath and the blessing of the animals. is much more than that pickett is identifying the vulnerable. it is being in places like saint anthony's foundation in the dining room there on the streets with people being of service. the faithful fools. >> the favorables, that is a good one. n,anybodnts look anconds fti he sisbrinsisters post office box 1028, redwood city, california, nine 406 four >> wonderful. have a great happy to you.

thank you so much for joining us on "mosiac". if you want get in touch with st. francis is we all you need to do is pray and he will hear you. thank you for joining us on "mosiac" air .

c1 this is kpix5 news. fire crews prepped and ready tonight. the work going on behind the scenes in one east bay county. illegal fireworks lit up the sky. the constant headache for people living in east oakland. travel could hit record highs for this fourth of july holiday weekend and how the bay area is getting ready to celebrate today. >> it is sunday, july 4th, 2021. happy independence day. >> i'm going to go