Hundreds of young women have been and are Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Holy Spirit has inspired these women to dedicate their entire lives to God and the Church. God has strengthened them to hurdle many obstacles in their lives of service to others. Only God has a record of the thousands of souls touched by these sisters. Although the Millvale Franciscans were the first, they are only one of four Franciscan Motherhouses in Pittsburgh. Little did St. Francis ever dream that his way of life would be so vibrant more then eight hundred years after his presence on this earth.

For the Millvale Franciscans who now work in twenty-seven dioceses across the nation and in Africa and Puerto Rico, the more than one hundred twenty-five years of their existence has been full of joys, sorrows, fears and jubilations. But most of all, they have been filled with gratitude to God for the countless blessings which God has continually showed on the Community.

Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical on St. Francis, said that "imitation is better than admiration". For more than one hundred and twenty-five years the Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have been "imitating" St. Francis.

In his Testament, Francis related, "I worked with my hands and I still desire to work....Let those who do not know how to work, learn...." And in the fifth chapter of his Rule, "Those...whom the Lord has fitted for work shall work faithfully and devotedly...yet do not extinguish the spirit of holy prayer and devotion to which all temporal things ought to be subservient."

In this spirit of "PRAYER AND WORK", the Sisters of St. Francis have prayed and labored daily. May God continue to bless this community by granting vocations, energy and wisdom to do God's work here on earth.