In 1875, as a result of the German religious wars initiated by Bismark, a group of Franciscan Sisters came to America and took refuge in Iowa City, Iowa. On October 28, 1876, six Sisters were sent to Peoria by Mother M. Xavier, at the request of Reverend Bernard Baak, pastor of St. Joseph Church. Reverend Baak rented an old two-story frame house on South Adams Street to be used as the hospital where the Sisters could take care of the sick and poor.

In May, 1877, Bishop John Lancaster Spalding, the first Bishop of the Peoria Diocese, arrived in Peoria. Shortly after his arrival, he visited the Sisters at the hospital and saw the poverty and hardships they were enduring in carrying out their work. He contacted Mother M. Xavier and offered to help the Sisters, asking that she allow  them to be established as an independent religious community in Peoria. With Mother M. Xavier’s consent, this was done.

On July 16, 1877 nine Sisters gathered with Bishop Spalding and elected Mother M. Frances Krasse as their first Mother General. This was the beginning of a new Franciscan Community, The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, Peoria, Illinois. This Religious Congregation would follow the Rule of St. Francis of Assisi, and would express its deep spiritual life through Christ-like care of the sick and the poor.