Throughout our history, our values of diversity and collaboration in decision-making have guided our structure. Provinces formed over the years to assure autonomy for the diverse cultures to which we have been called. At its peak, our Congregation had ten provinces across the world with our Generalate headquartered in Rome, Italy.
The first division into the provinces occurred in 1901 of the Netherlands and Germany. At that time, Indonesia, Brazil and the United states were missions. Brazil and the United States became Provinces in 1928. Eventually, the United States was divided into three provinces, East, Midwest and West. Germany and Brazil came each have two provinces. Recently, one German province decided to transition to being a community. Poland was recognized as a province in 1948 after the Second World War. Indonesia became a province after it became an independent nation in 1970.
St. Clare Mission in Tanzania, overseen by the General Council in Rome, is an international mission of the Congregation and is in the process of becoming a province. The three United States provinces have a mission in Mexico, in the southernmost state of Chiapas. The two Brazilian provinces have collaborated in supporting a mission in the state of San Marcos, Guatemala. The Indonesian province has Sisters working in missions in Mindanao and East Timor. The Polish province has a mission in Belarus.