Discover our womans community

Click the panels to read the content inside.

The Strength: Young Women with Each Other

The Schoenstatt Movement of Girls and Young Women offers girls and young women their own space in which to find and develop their identity. It was founded upon the ardent desire of young women for a place of their own in the growing Schoenstatt Movement on August 15, 1931, in Vallendar, Schoenstatt. From the beginning, this community has been characterized by a high degree of idealism and energy: “We start today, not tomorrow”.

Currently, in the 21st century, the Schoenstatt Movement for girls and young women works in an age-specific way; its various activities are planned accordingly.

For girls starting at age nine, it’s particularly important to help them express inner strength. For teenagers, our movement is concerned with personality development and learning to know and to love their own originality. Girls and young women experience a community in which there is ample scope for questioning regarding personal life plans, for the challenges of study and work, for relationships and partnerships. With respect to options for younger girls and young women, everyone has the opportunity to be engaged with her talents, to grow beyond themselves, and to share responsibility. “Youth committed to youth” applies to the movement for girls and young women. In includes engagement in Church, politics, and society. The members also cooperate with the Schoenstatt Boys’ Movement in projects and missionary activities. Many events take place as weekend meetings, on holidays, or in the form of regular group meetings. Anyone who wants to participate is welcome – it’s not necessary to complete a formal membership application.

The objective of the movement is to help the individual member in the development of her personal faith, a faith that is geared towards life and helps the member to cherish and value her own life and life’s mission. This objective is achieved in the covenant of love with Mary, the Mother of God.

Girls’ Power – “That Certain Something”

There is one symbol that has become important to the Schoenstatt Girls’ Youth Movement: the crown! Every girl wears an invisible crown: These are the words of Schoenstatt’s founder, Father Joseph Kentenich. It’s a matter of developing a sense of one’s dignity. In the life of every individual member, something of a woman’s true beauty and the power to form life and culture should be revealed. For us this means: Be Mary today.


Contact Information

Schoenstatt movement girls / young women
Hillscheider Strasse 7
Sonnenau House
56179 Vallendar

Telephone: +49 (0) 261 / 96 31 5 12
Email: kontakt@schoenstattmjf.de

Women Committed to Following Christ in the World

The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary are the oldest secular institute of the Roman Catholic Church. As early as 1926, the community was founded by Father Kentenich, the founder of the Schoenstatt Movement. Women had already joined the Schoenstatt Movement during the First World War. At that time there was no legal basis for this new type of community of women, who later banded together to become the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. One of the first Sisters of Mary and co-founder of the community was Sister Maria Emilie Engel, whose beatification process was initiated in 1999.

The community follows in the footsteps of Christ according to the example of Mary. The Sisters of Mary aspire to work in the midst of the world where people rejoice and have hope, where they live in grief and fear, where they shape their lives and their world and are confronted with the great questions of life.

They work in their own community, but also in ecclesial and civil institutions, as well as in various fields of civic life. They hope to imitate and share Mary’s maternal love in selfless service to life and to people in every situation.

The Sisters of Mary do not take vows. Their consecration to God in the spirit of the evangelical counsels is connected with a civil contract which they formalize within their secular institute.

They work in twenty-nine countries worldwide

There are house communities on all continents, e.g. in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Spain and Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia and Belarus; in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the United States and Burundi, India, South Africa, Australia and the Philippines.


Contact Information

Schönstätter Marienschwestern
Berg Schönstatt 1
56179 Vallendar

Telephone: +49 (0) 261 64041
Link: s-ms.org
Email: info@s-ms.org

These women live in a covenant with one another

The Schoenstatt Federation of Women is a community based upon the spirituality of Schoenstatt. Their example and companion on the way is Mary who, as the mother of Jesus, is the woman in a covenant with God.

The origin of the Federation of Woman is the founding of the “Apostolic Union” in 1919. Onthe 8th of December 1920, Gertraud of Bullion and Maria Christmann, in a private consecration to the Mother Thrice Admirable, presented themselves as the first women members of Schoenstatt for this foundation.

Today the Schoenstatt Movement has branched out with independent branches for all walks of life. The Federation of Women is one of those branches. It consists of unmarried women who form a community of life, but without living in community. The members of the Federation of Women usually live alone and work in various professions and countries. They are found in following countries: Germany, Argentine, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Paraguay, Poland, Puerto Rico, and Switzerland.

In the belief of God’s calling and by a mindful decision these women live “in the modern world, in a totally worldly world” (J. Kentenich). But they do not want to identify with this world: their lives, in the midst of the world, should become a sign of their covenant with God.


Contact Information

Schönstatt-Frauenbund
Am Marienberg 3
56179 Vallendar

Link: s-fb.org

Apostolic Movement Schoenstatt

The Schoenstatt Community of Working Women consists of single women whose main field of activity and apostolate is the world of work in the power of the Covenant of Love. Following the example of Mary, Virgin, and Mother, we want to be, as Father Kentenich put it: “the extended arm of Schoenstatt in the world”. In order to achieve this, we strive to educate ourselves in everyday life and with the pedagogical means that we have received from our Father and Founder, following the example of Mary.

When the coronation current in our family was becoming, a tabernacle for the Original Shrine was the coronation gift of the Women’s Apostolic League. This event was so profound for the life of our community that the tabernacle became our symbol and ideal. Following the example of Mary, the first living tabernacle, each member of our state strives to become a living tabernacle that preserves Christ within and brings him to his brothers and sisters. The ideals of our community in different countries of the world are proof of this.

The Community strives to put into practice the following words which our Father and Founder addressed to it in 1945:

“What do we want as the Schoenstatt Women’s League? … We want to become small MTA pictures in our own way and help to form and shape small MTA pictures everywhere… So what do we want? To represent a living tabernacle and to make sure that as many living tabernacles as possible arise around us. All those who in any way give their name, their strength and their love to the League should not only help to donate the tabernacles with us but represent a single large tabernacle.” (J.K. lecture, 6.10.1945)

We can achieve this if we are anchored in the Covenant of Love and thus in God, our Father, and if we strive every day to become a living tabernacle open to God, and also a living tabernacle open to our fellow human beings, worshipping Jesus present in the hearts of our brothers and sisters and worshipping Him even where no one else does.

Life in the Covenant – Right in the Center

“We belong on the street… We go right to the center” this is how the founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, characterized what he expected of the Secular Institute “Ladies of Schoenstatt”, consecrated life according to the evangelical counsels among people who often think differently and with values that differ. They remain in their professions and want to actively contribute to the Christian formation of their environment.

Founded in 1946, the international community is part of the Schoenstatt Movement and is formed by this spirituality. Their model is Mary. In the covenant of love with her, the members walk the path of following Christ in the midst of the world and their professions. Spiritual life and apostolic commitment are mutually dependent and complementary.

The symbol of the vocation and mission of every member of the Ladies of Schoenstatt is the Unity Cross, symbol of the living bond with Jesus and the Blessed Mother. This cross recalls and visualizes the deepest source of community.

Since the members generally live alone, personal contacts, regular meetings, and continuous spiritual accompaniment are indispensable aids. The shrine at the Central House in Schoenstatt is a spiritual home and a place of strengthening. A deep inner bond with the community, which sees itself as a family, and the identification with the mission of the Institute give strength to the necessary commitment.

The Institute of the Ladies of Schoenstatt is present in

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Congo, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the USA.


Contact Information

Link: frauen-von-schoenstatt.de
Email: sekretariat@frauen-von-schoenstatt.de

Switzerland: schoenstatt.ch/gemeinschaften/verbaende/frauen-von-schoenstatt/

Women with Responsibilities for Society and Church

The Schoenstatt Academics are a circle of women, who are active in a variety of academic professions. They work in large industrial enterprises and in small firms, in medical institutions, in schools, but also in administration or in the ecclesiastical area. They represent various spheres of life, married or single, widowed or divorced. They are united to each other by their task as Christians, in professions and society, to act in a responsible and independent way and to make decisions based on Christian values.

Basing their lives on Christian values and the educational principles of the Schoenstatt spirituality, they seek to master and influence professional everyday life today with its constraints of specialization and the challenges of a society that endangers the holistic existence of a person by its constantly increasing complexity motivated by acceleration and optimization of performance. The academics are convinced that God still offers his covenant to our time. They find an answer by their endeavour to live this covenant with Mary, which has become their supporting foundation and an everyday reality.

The circle of Schoenstatt Academics regards it as their special task to cooperate in the spirit of the founder, Father Kentenich, for the building up of a new Christian culture and order of society:

  1. By a constructive dialogue with the trends of the time
  2. By an open reflection on what is happening in world and church
  3. By their engagement in various projects, particularly in Burundi

Contact Information

Inge Wilhelm, Petersbergstraße 12a, 66119 Saarbrücken
Email: inge.wilhelm@t-online.de

Gisela Koczura, Auf der Gathe 3, 45259 Essen
Email: g.koczura@t-online.de

Ulrike Shanel, Spittelbergweg 21, 97082 Würzburg
Email: ulrike.shanel@bistum-wuerzburg.de

For and with one another

A way in community, a way in the Covenant with Mary, a way to a “life in fullness” (cf. Jn 10:10). This is what makes the Schoenstatt Mothers’ Federation.

The INTERNATIONAL APOSTOLIC SCHOENSTATT MOTHERS’ FEDERATION is one of the core communities of the international Schoenstatt Family. It includes married women – with children or childless – as well as widows.

The community was founded in September 1950 by Father Joseph Kentenich. On September 8, 2022, the international constitution brought the founding process to a close.

The women receive life impulses

– from the spiritual-religious spirituality of Schoenstatt, through the dynamics of our Christian faith, through life with God in everyday life,

– through the attraction of real natural and religious goals,

– through the experience of family-like community

They strengthen each other through a responsible in, with and for one another in family-like community.

The members are united

– by the Covenant of Love with Mary, which helps them to live from the Baptismal Covenant and the Sacrament of Matrimony.

– through the attachment to the spiritual center of the Schoenstatt Family,

the Shrine of the Blessed Mother.

The wives and mothers see their first field of activity in their own family, in which they want to exemplify and transmit a living Christian faith. In addition, they commit themselves according to their possibilities in their profession as well as in the social and ecclesial spheres.

The community is spread in 10 countries.

Starting from the original Federation in Germany, the Schoenstatt Mothers’ Federation exists in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa and the USA. The diversity in ways of life and culture represents a mutual enrichment.


Contact Information

Germany: Schoenstatt Mütterbund
Bildungsstätte Marienland
Berg Schönstatt 8
56179 Vallendar-Schönstatt

Telephone: +49 (0)261 6506 6000
Email: schoenstatt.muetterbund@t-online.de

Be Mary Today on the Way to the People with Christ in Our Hearts

Words of Father Kentenich

“It is necessary to ensure that the heart of woman is not lost, that the whole culture is mentally and emotionally penetrated by woman.”
“We want to make Christ, who dwells and reigns in our hearts, present everywhere. Then hidden blessings emanate from us.”
“A woman is most likely to reach her ideal in communion with other women.”

Moving More from Within

Schoenstatt Movement–Women and Mothers

  • Women who know: The renewal of the world and the Church begins with me.
  • Women who value the development of their unique personality.
  • Women who seek to shape marriage and family, profession, and society in the spirit of the Gospel.
  • Women who make a positive difference wherever they are.
  • Women who, through the power of the covenant of love, want to be Mary today and carry Christ into the world where they stand.

Being Mary concretely today

  • Find the signs of God’s personal love ion her life
  • Meet HIM in the middst of everyday life
  • Develop a lifestyle of dignity
  • Be a real woman
  • Invest in marriage and family
  • Promote and cultivate relationships
  • Support all phases of life
  • Live from the reality of the heart shrine
  • Be an authentic message of faith

We offer women

Magazines, written and digital incentives, personality workshops, oasis days for mothers with children or just for mothers, day conferences for women or for married couples, life-phase-specific workshops, thematically oriented reflection days or discussion circles, breakfast and evening meetings, seminars for women after separation or divorce and much more.


Contact Information

Schoenstatt Movement Women and Mothers
Mount Schoenstatt 8
56179 Vallendar

Telephone: 0261/6506-2202
Email: info@s-fm.de