In 1926, Father Joseph Kentenich founded the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary in Germany. In 1949, German members of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary arrived in Madison, Wisconsin. Since then, the Community has expanded from Wisconsin to Minnesota, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. The Sisters have staffed a Catholic grade school, built and staffed six retreat centers, and staffed a hospital/nursing home complex. Currently the Sisters work in connection with nine Schoenstatt Shrines in the continental USA and three in the islands of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. In February of 1993, the Sisters began working in the Lincoln Diocese. Today, over several hundred people belong to the Schoenstatt Movement in the Lincoln Diocese.