In 1867, a year before Mother Frances' arrival in Nördlingen, the local school inspector Michael Wildegger, who was also parish priest of St. Saviour's and a member of the Reichstag, the highest legislative body of the German Confederation, had planned a “Filialinstitut für Klosterfrauen” to give girls an educational and cultural opportunity.
This girls' school was also to be a center of Catholic education to counterbalance Protestant proselytism. In order to found this educational institution, having obtained the approval of Bishop Pankratius von Dinkel, Michael Wildegger contacted the Superior General of the Franciscan Sisters of Maria Stern, Mother Salesia Ellersdorfer, who immediately made herself available to run the work. 
The project took off in 1868, the year Mother Frances was sent to Nördlingen.