All religious congregations have been suffering from a lack of new members since the mid-sixties. Since then, vocations to a spiritual way of life have decreased greatly. Due to this result, the Cellitinnen were also forced to close step by step numerous houses and to discontinue many of their activities.
At the beginning of the seventies, reforms in German hospital management - particularly affecting the financing of the hospitals - meant that the congregation had to face new problems. These reforms made it necessary to intensively restructure the activities . The goals of the congregation were not changed; these continued to be social welfare, caring for the elderly and the sick, and for all those in need.
The practical implications of this restructuring were a concentration on specific houses and core areas of work. For example, many homes for the elderly had other institutions attached, such as holiday -homes, home science schools, agricultural institutes etc. These additional institutions were closed down in favour of the core task: care of the elderly. Additionally, an increasing number of lay people took over the management, which until then had been performed by our sisters.
While the community in Germany was taking measures as a reaction to the fraught personnel situation, a future was opening up on another continent.
May 1964. Cologne-Bonn airport. Auxiliary bishop Cleven, Sr. Wilma and Mother Cleta receive the first Indian candidates.
In 1962, the Second Vatican Council declared missions and Christian aid to be the task of the entire church and appealed to all religious communities to help in this task. Following a recommendation by Matthew Kavukattu, the Archbishop of Changanacherry (Diocese in Kerala, a state in south-west India), the Cologne congregation began to take a closer look at India. The result: as early as 1964, 16 Indian candidates were received in the convent Heisterbach in Königswinter. The aim of the initiative was for the sisters to found something in their mother country, and this became reality within the next three years with the founding of a hospital in Kumuly/Kerala.
This development showed a huge dynamic. In 1981, the Mother Superior of the Cellites, Mother M. Nikodema Rützenhoff, elevated the Indian branch to a region with its seat in Bangalore.
The sisters in the Cellite community in India are generally called "Augustinian Sisters". The reason for this: in India the name Cellite elicits no associations whilst the rules of Saint Augustine, thanks to their current relevance, are highly thought of in India.
Patients' rooms in St. Augustine's Hospital, Kumily
The main activity of the Augustinian sisters is nursing in communal hospitals, in rural clinics and in leprosy villages, as well as teaching in schools.
Together with all Augustinian communities we are part of a federation which has been part of the globally operating Augustinian order since 1951. This has meant that since 1987 our name now has the addendum OSA (Ordo Sancti Augustini).
1967: St. Augustine Hospital, Kumily
1972: Nirmala Boarding, Sendhwa
1977: St. Augustine Nivas, Bangalore
Elisabeth Sadan, Sendhwa
1979: St. Josepf Convent,
Anavilasam, Pushpa Nivas
1980: Karuna Hospital, Sendhwa
1982: Augustine Bhavan, Amaravathi
1983: St. Augustine Convent, Adackathode
1989: Augustine Sadan, Pedapadu
1992: Keerthi Nilaya, Pansemal
Mahila Vidyashram Vihar, Khandwa
St. Augustine Convent, Punasa
1993: Mahila Vidyashram Vihar, Khandwa
St. Augustine Convent, Punasa
1838
Foundation of the Bürger Hospital. On 19th November, the Feast of St. Elisabeth, the Mother Superiors of the Cellinnen convent in Antonsgasse and Kupfergasse, Cologne, received a letter from the church authority asking them to send nurses to the Cologne Bürger Hospital. As a result, 4 sisters started working in the Cologne Bürger Hospital for the poor.
1864
St. Josefs Convent in Zündorf, renamed in 1974 to St. Martin Home for the Elderly
1869
Purchase of the house Severinstrasse 53 and foundation of mother house in Cologne.
1874
St. Augustine Hospital, known as Severinsklösterchen, Cologne
1882
St. Josef-Convent St. Vith, Belgium1882-1968
Many new social activities like nursing and welfare homes etc. are taken over in more than 40 houses in Cologne and the surrounding areas. There are as many as 1,300 sisters in the congregation.
1882–1968
Numerous new nursing and welfare task were taken on in more than 40 houses in Cologne and the area. There are as many as 1,200 sisters in the order.
1883
Convent Maria Hilf Bornheim, since 1988 Home for the Aged 'Maria Hilf'.
1888
Psychiatric Clinic, Marienborn, Convent Hoven
1891
Diocesan Seminary, Colgone
1894
Herz-Jesu Convent Königsdorf, since 1982 St. Augustine Home for the Aged
1905
St. Agatha Hospital Cologne-Niehl
1909
St. Antonius Hospital Cologne-Bayenthal
1917
Herz-Jesu Convent Nettersheim, since 1978 Haus Tannenblick
1918
Convent Heisterbach, Königswinter
1964
Spreading to India
1967
St. Augustine Hospital, Kumily / Kerala
1972
Nirmala Boarding, Sendhwa / M.P.
1977
St. Augustine Nivas, Bangalore/Karnataka
Elisabeth Sadan, Sendhwa / M.P.
1979
St. Josepf Convent,
Anavilasam, Kerala
Pushpa Nivas, Pendarnia / M.P.
1980
Karuna Hospital, Sendhwa / M.P.
1981
India becomes a region
1982
Augustine Bhavan, Amaravathi / A.P.
1983
St. Augustine Convent, Adackathode / Kerala
1988
150th anniversary,
Our Motto: "Just Be There"
1989
Augustine Sadan, Pedapadu / A.P.
1992
Keerthi Nilaya, Pansemal / M.P.
Mahila Vidyashram Vihar, Khandwa / M.P.
St. Augustine Convent, Punasa / M.P.
1993
Mahila Vidyashram Vihar, Khandwa / M.P.
St. Augustine Convent, Punasa / M.P.
1993-2001
Missionary activities in the Philippines
1994
Foundation of the German and Indian provinces
1997
St. Augustine Convent, Gurubasha / Assam
Haus Monika, Germany
1999
St. Augustine Hospital, Chapaguri / Assam
St. Augustine Convent, Kuttimoola / Kerala
2000
Handing over the administration to the 'Stiftung der Cellitinnen e.V.'
2002
The General administration is shifted to the convent in Heisterbach
2016
Transformation of the Germany Province into a region.
© Genossenschaft der Cellitinnen
