School Sisters of St. Francis
The School Sisters of St. Francis (SSSF) are an international Catholic religious group for women. They belong to the Third Order of Saint Francis and were founded in 1874 in New Cassel, Wisconsin. Their work now reaches the United States, Europe, Latin America, and India.
In 1874 Emma Franziska Höll, who became Sister Mary Alexia, and two other sisters arrived in New Cassel from Schwarzach in the German Empire to start a new community. They opened a boarding school in New Cassel and later built more schools and a mission in Wisconsin, including the SSSF motherhouse in Milwaukee. By 1887, sisters were teaching in schools in five states. That year they started St. Joseph’s Normal School at the motherhouse, which later became Alverno Teachers College in 1936 and Alverno College in 1946.
Their German roots helped them minister to German immigrants, and sisters with Polish backgrounds left to form a separate group, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis.
The St. Joseph Center Chapel was dedicated on March 19, 1917. It was designed in Italian Romanesque Revival style by Milwaukee architects Brust and Philipp. The chapel has three altars made of Carrara marble from Italy, shipped during World War I with special permission from the president. Murals in the sacristy show the seven sacraments and include portraits of local Milwaukee people.
Today SSSF serve in 21 states in the United States and in 10 countries. In the U.S., they founded Alvernia High School in Chicago and Madonna High School in Aurora, Illinois, and they support Marian Hall Home, a care community in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. In 1929 they opened Pius XI High School in Milwaukee with the Pallottines.
Mother Alexia returned to Europe in 1895 to focus on sanitariums, kindergartens, homes for orphans and troubled youth, and housing for young women seeking higher education. The first European mission opened in Erlenbad, Germany, in 1895, and the European Province was established in 1907. More than 140 sisters serve in Switzerland and Germany. In 1936 they began missionary work in India, and two Indian provinces are now staffed by about 175 sisters.
Service to Latin America began in 1932 when sisters from the European Province went to Honduras. Today about 60 sisters from Latin America serve in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:06 (CET).