Mission and History

Five Franciscan Sisters from Mill Hill, England, stepped onto a dock in Baltimore harbor and began making their way north through the crowded industrial city. They were answering the call to open an orphanage for African-American children whose parents had died or could no longer care for them. Before long, they purchased a large brick home at Maryland Avenue and 23rd Street where they housed, taught, and prepared generations of children to live independently.

In the 1950s, with foster care favored over institutions, the Sisters adapted the home to a new purpose: educating students with special needs. The school grew quickly and, within a decade, began moving to a larger, leafier campus a few miles away.

Riots in Baltimore in the spring of 1968 gave a special urgency to the question: how best to serve the community now? Sister Irene Marshiano asked neighbors, who responded with a plea for the essentials of life—for some, a daily meal and for others, help with filling empty pantries. That September, the Franciscan Center of Baltimore was born.

Transfer of the Franciscan Center of Baltimore from the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi to the province. The province will become the sponsor of the center which offers a continuum of care that includes food, clothing, emergency services, counseling, culinary and technology training to help clients become as self-sufficient as possible. Food grown at Little Portion Farm in Ellicott City, another ministry of the friars, is sent to the Franciscan Center to feed the poorest of the poor in Baltimore.