Located within Madonna University’s Welcome Center, the Felician Sisters of North America Heritage Center and Felician Archives in Livonia, MI will encourage visitors to interact with both the past and the present. The three-level, 28,000 square foot building, inspired by the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy, shares three purposes: celebrating the history of the Felician Sisters with exhibition space, welcoming visitors to a thriving university and preserving the sisters’ precious history with dedicated archival storage.
Photos of Madonna Welcome Center courtesy of Laszlo Regos.
Heritage Center
Commemorating the Work of Our Sisters
Within the Welcome Center, this jewel-box structure with a lightweight ceiling gently illuminates the main floor. Expected to open at the end of the sesquicentennial celebration in 2025, the Heritage Center will include display cases with artifacts from the early days of the Felician Sisters’ ministry in North America. At the dedication in 2019, then-Provincial Minister Sr. Mary Christopher Moore shared her excitement about the building.
“The Center provides an exploration of the countless ways that the Felician Sisters are continuing to make a difference today among the marginalized and those in need across the continent.”
Sr. Mary Christopher Moore
Archives
Preserving Our History for Future Generations
On the lower level of the building, the Felician Sisters of North America archives give museum-quality storage conditions for preservation of Felician history for generations to come. A dedicated congregational archivist works full time to preserve and catalog the artifacts and documents that tell the story of the visionary founders of the Felician Sisters of North America. Open to researchers by appointment, the space includes a director’s office and reading room. To inquire about the archives, contact fsnaarchives@feliciansisters.org.
