Schoenstatt is a church movement, a spiritual family serving the church. Women and men, laity and priests, families, children and young people have their place in it. There are more than twenty independent groups with different forms and degrees of community life and corresponding duties.
The Schönstatt movement was founded in 1914 in Schönstatt, Germany. Our father and founder, P. Josef Kentenich, here in a small chapel, together with his theologian students, concluded a covenant of love with the Virgin Mary.
The center of the movement are secular institutes - their members live according to the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience), but they live in the world, often only in small communities or individually. Fr. Kentenich founded six such institutes: the Institute of Mary's Sisters, Mary's Brothers, Diocesan Priests, Our Lady of Schönstatt, Schönstatt Patres and the Institute of Families.
The Community of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary was founded to revive and serve the Schoenstatt Movement. They are involved in education, social services, health care, in the service of the church and society.