Sesquicentennial Corner—January

St. Francis Home, although in a new building in 1961, was a “home for the aged” rather than a “nursing” home just as it had been from its founding.  The original requirement for entrance into the Home, in fact, was being able to walk......

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Sesquicentennial Corner—December

Father Bihn, who with Elizabeth Schaefer, founded St. Francis Home, had specified that the aged who came to St. Francis Home were to pay a nominal sum to help defray the expenses of the house. Some paid for the year; some paid an......

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Sesquicentennial Corner—November

As pastor of St. Joseph Church inTiffin, Father Joseph Bihn saw the need after the Civil War not only to provide a home for poor children, but also a home “of retirement and prayer for aged persons to prepare for a happy death.” The......

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Sesquicentennial Corner—October

The orphanage at St. Francis closed in 1936. By 1935, the number of orphans being cared for in all orphanages was decreasing yearly, largely because of the provision in the Social Security Act for dependent children in the case of the “absence, incapacity,......

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Cemetery Celebration of Thanksgiving in Memory of the those who came before us

The celebration began with an opening song and prayer in the St. Francis Convent Chapel followed by a procession out to the cemetery. Following a trumpet call, there was a presentation of flowers in memory of our founders Father Joseph Bihn and Mother Francis......

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Sisters of St. Francis celebrate 150 years …

Since its beginnings in 1869 caring for displaced orphans and elderly people after the Civil War to the multi-dimensional campus and community it is today, the Sisters of St. Francis are celebrating 150 years of caring for people, the earth and one another. “Over these......

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Sesquicentennial Corner—September

Alongside the education of the children of St. Francis Orphanage in school subjects, the spiritual life of the children who came was not neglected. Father Bihn had directed that the orphan children be received and educated “in the Roman Catholic faith and in......

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