A short summary of FMHM´s history
The Foundation Madre Herlinda Moises was founded in 1965 by the Austrian Sister Maria Herlinda Moises, who came to Colombia in the year 1952 as a missionary of the Franciscan order, along with a team of priests, sisters and laymen. The service for the good of the poor and those in need in the community started in Pasacaballo, a small suburb of Cartagena de Indias and is continued here to this day.
Today we work in the areas of culture, education and environment, health, social development and projects, as well as pastoring in villages along the Dique-canal and the bay around Cartagena de Indias: Pasacaballos, Ararca, Leticia, Puerto Badel, Recreo, Rocha, Turbana, Chorro la Legua and Cañaveral.
For more information please refer to this document (PDF format; you may need to download the free Acrobat Reader to open it).
The life of Sister Herlinda
Maria Herlinde Moises was born into a large family of farmers on the 3. of July 1928 in Bad Hofgastein (Austria). Her parents brought her up a Christian. During the Second World War she visited the local primary and secondary school and to finish off graduated with the view of becoming a teacher in Salzburg. However in the year of her graduation she already decided to dedicate her life to missionary work and joined the Franciscan Sisterhood in Gaissau, Vorarlberg, aged 21.
Three years after graduating, in the year 1952, she first travelled to Colombia where she worked as a missionary. In 1965 she founded the social-Christian foundation FUNSCRI (now: FMHM) in Pasacaballos, a small village close to Cartagena de las Indias.
Sister Herlinda was well known for her strong character and her incessant struggle for the well-being of the poor. Her fearless determination and advocacy for their rights landed her in prison in 1976, where she was subjected to psychological torture.
In 1982 she was awarded the Archbishop-Romero award of the catholic men of Salzburg, for her holistic evangelization. Following this the Colombian authorities would, for the time being, not allow her to enter the country. Only after several interventions and protests, especially from Austria, was her exile from Colombia revoked and Sister Herlinda could return. In 1998 the archdiocese in Salzburg awarded her the Silvesterorden. Besides numerous Colombian decorations, she also received the Archbishop-Biffi award.
Through her life and proceedings she is known, just like her personal Idol Maria Bernarda Bütler, as the “Woman of Evangelisms”. On her path through life the following quotation from the bible accompanied her: “If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord” (Rom 14:8).
According to her wish, Sister Madre Herlinda died on the 20th of November 2006 on site in Pasacaballos, in her life´s work, the Fundación Social Christiana. Even today it is noticeable, that her spirit survives in the hearts of the people she touched.