Poor Child Jesus, Sisters of the
POOR CHILD JESUS, SISTERS OF THE
(PCJ, Official Catholic Directory #3220); founded, 1844 at Aachen, Germany, by Mother Clara fey for the care and education of children and young people. The constitutions were based on the Augustinian Rule and were approved definitively by Rome in 1888. Assisting in the foundation and early spread of the congregation were Bishop Laurent; André Fey, brother of the foundress; and Wilhelm Sartorius, her spiritual director and composer of the first rule. The congregation, expanded
from the Rhineland throughout Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg. The sisters who were expelled from Germany during the kulturkampf went to Holland, Belgium, France, and England. Upon their return, they reoccupied their former houses. During the 20th century new foundations were made in Italy, Spain, Latvia, Java, and the Americas. The sisters established their first American house at Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1924. The generalate is at Simpelveld, Holland; the U.S. headquarters is in Columbus, Ohio.
Bibliography: i. watterot, The Life of Mother Clare Fey (St. Louis 1923).
[j. solzbacher/eds.]