How Did the CSA Associate Relationship Begin?

The Sisters of St. Agnes, since their establishment in 1858, have had invaluable help; the farmers in frontier Wisconsin, the people in Nicaragua, the nurses, physicians, and staff in hospitals and clinics, eduators, students and families, and benefactors in every geographic location have helped in the accomplishment of tasks not thought humanly possible. These partners in mission were the forerunners of associates.

During the decade after the second Vatican Council, a new sense of the universal call to holiness began to emerge. This call prompted a renewed sense of responsibility for the mission of Jesus. New challenges emerged for both laity and members of religious communities. The new collaboration that was called forth from Vatican Council II resulted in growth in the Church in several areas. Supportive relationships in ministry, faith-sharing, and mutually nourishing faith communities began to develop. Here was born what many religious congregations call the associate relationship.

Our beginning started in the early 1970s when  Melva Olson, then a medical technologist at St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, approached one of the members of the congregational leadership and asked if the congregation would be interested in and open to inviting people to become associates. Melva had heard that other congregations in the Milwaukee area had begun such an adventure. After a period of dialogue, discernment and persistence, Melva made her first commitment as an associate on the feast of St. Agnes, January 21, 1975. She invited her friend, Gertrude Specht, to consider becoming an associate. Gert then invited two of her friends, Marjorie and Dorothy Von Rotz. On October 4, 1975, those three women made their first commitment.

Nine women made their first commitment on March 3, 1993 in Belen, Nicaragua.

These women heard God's call and had the persistence and courage to initiate and walk a new path with the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes. From these first women, we have grown to over 200 women and men across the United States and Latin America.

For more information contact:

Ellen Swan
Director of Associates
Congregation of St. Agnes
320 County Road K
Fond du Lac, WI 54935
Phone: 920-907-2318
Email: eswan@csasisters.org