The Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus of had its beginnings in the early 1990's. At that
time several women in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, moved by the Holy Spirit, were drawn together
as a group to live a deeper life of prayer and service to the Church. These women also felt called to discern
whether or not they were being called to form a new community of women religious for the diocese. In time,
one of these women, Kathleen O'Leary of Des Moines, did in fact, discern a call to religious life in the
Franciscan tradition and centered in the Holy Eucharist.
In 1994, on the Solemnity of Saint Francis of Assisi, Sister M. Ellen Clare Clark, a professed Sister from the
Diocese of Peoria, IL, joined Miss O’Leary in Des Moines. On November 20th of that year, on the Solemnity of
Christ the King, these two women donned the religious garb of this new Community-in-Formation and professed
private vows of evangelical Poverty, Chastity, Holy Obedience. They also took a fourth vow of Fidelity to the
Holy Father and to the Magisterium of the Church. They professed their vows at a Mass celebrated at St.
Augustin Catholic Church in Des Moines, IA, during the pastorate of Msgr. Frank Bognanno. It was at this time
that our foundress became known in religious life as Sister Kathleen Francis of Christ the Good Shepherd while
Sister Clare added to her religious name the title, "of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament."
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