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Page 19 text:
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HTHE Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, founded at Le Puy in France in 1650, had - • as its earliest purpose the education of Catholic girls and the care of the sick and orphaned. Its houses were scattered through France not long after its foundation, but a central Mother House and novitiate were not established until after the French Revolution. Mother Saint John Fontbonne, Superior of tire convent in Monistrol in 1791, was forced to disperse her community during the Reign of Terror. Sisters, under the guidance of Mother Saint John, continued to teach in the province until they were apprehended by the soldiers of the Revolution and imprisoned. News of the martyrdom of other Sisters of the Congregation kept Mother Saint John in daily hope of receiving the martyr’s crown. During this tragic period, a cave in the adjacent woods became the frame of the Blessed Sacrament, and a few Sisters watched constantly before the exposed Host. The fall of Robespierre precipitated the release of Mother Saint John and her companions, and, with the return of the clergy, rope of regaining the convent in Monistrol was renewed. Church property had been seized, Itowever, and the convent was not obtainable. For the twelve years following, the Sisters were compelled to teach and minister to the sick and dying without benefit of convent or religious habit. In 1807, the spiritual Father of a group of holy women in Saint Etienne requested Mother Saint John to unite the group under the rules of the disbanded Congregation of Saint Joseph. The young women, accustomed to the life of severe penance and fasting which they had observed since the restoration of the Church in France, were organized under the less rigorous rules of the Congregation. These twelve postidants formed the nucleus of the Mother House in Saint Etienne, and, following their example, other lay orders applied for admission to the community. As it grew in numbers and advanced its field of teaching, Bishops in neighboring provinces sent requests to Mother Saint John to establish institutions in nearby towns; to meet these requests, she found it necessary to shorten the postulate. In 1816, the Mother House was transferred to Lyons, to the Chateau Yon, adjacent to the monastery of Saint Bruno. The Sisters lived in extreme poverty for a time and were even compelled to weave silk and sell it to supply themselves with the daily necessities. Mother Saint John was an inspiration through all the years of establishing new convents, and Irer deeply spiritual character attracted many of the girls who had reached young womanhood, under the guidance of the Daughters of Saint Joseph, to remain at the novitiate. Hospitals, orphanages, boarding and day schools, and institutions for the care of the aged and poor were undertaken by the followers of Mother Saint John, and the work of two novices, who had visited prisoners and their families with news of each other, was carried on under the direction of the Sisters. The Congregation prospered for many years, and, in 1836, twenty-nine years after its restoration in France, a band of Sisters left the Mother House at Lyons for America.
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