Paul Joseph Nardini

In Pirmasens, a city marked by social misery, Father Nardini deployed intense charitable activity. In 1853, he appealed to the Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer of Niederbronn, but they were recalled in 1855. To continue the aid to the destitute, he founded on March 2, 1855, the congregation of the Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family (Nardini Sisters or Mallersdorf Sisters) by giving the habit to four young women of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Despite local opposition, the congregation developed rapidly to care for the sick and educate poor children. At his death in 1862, the institute already counted 220 religious sisters in 35 houses. The motherhouse would be transferred to Mallersdorf in 1869.

Nicknamed the "Father of the poor" for his self-denial and love of the Eucharist, Father Nardini contracted pulmonary typhus (pneumonia) during a freezing night in January 1862 while going to administer the Viaticum to a dying parishioner. He passed away on January 27, 1862, in Pirmasens at the age of 40. Buried in the chapel of the motherhouse in Pirmasens, his grave became a place of veneration. His cause for beatification opened in June 1997 in the Diocese of Speyer, and Pope Benedict XVI declared him Venerable on December 19, 2005, recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues.

The beatification of Paul Joseph Nardini was made possible by the recognition of a miracle: the scientifically inexplicable healing in 1953 of Sister M. Stephania Beyer from a very advanced stomach cancer. After prayers addressed to the intercession of Father Nardini, she was completely healed. The decree of the miracle was signed by Pope Benedict XVI on June 26, 2006. The beatification ceremony was celebrated on October 22, 2006, in the Cathedral of Speyer by Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. His liturgical feast is set for January 27.

The spirituality of Blessed Paul Joseph Nardini is Eucharistic, Christocentric, and centered on the imitation of the humble and charitable life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. His legacy is perpetuated through the Sisters of Mallersdorf, who continue his work of charity in hospitals, schools, orphanages, and retirement homes in Germany and South Africa, remaining faithful to the spirit of the social apostle of the Rhineland-Palatinate.