Every year on October 15, the Sisters of St. Joseph mark the founding of the congregation in Le Puy, France, back in 1650. This year’s Founders Day is extra special as the Sisters of St. Joseph mark the 375th anniversary of this founding. The congregation was founded under the guidance of Fr. Jean-Pierre Medaille and consisted of six women who formed a contemplative group known as the Little Design. They dedicated their lives to serving the “dear neighbor” without distinction, made and sold lace to support themselves, and also taught other women to make lace and ribbon as a source of income.
The first Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States came in 1836 from Lyon, France. Their trip was financed by Félicité de Duras, the Countess de la Rochejacquelein, who knew of the Sisters and had a desire to send missionaries to America. Joseph Rosati, Bishop of the then Diocese of St. Louis, reportedly wanted sisters to teach the deaf, so the mission was mutually advantageous for the countess and the bishop. Six sisters were initially sent to the U.S. to set up living quarters in 1836, while two others stayed in France to learn methods for teaching the deaf before arriving in 1837. The French sisters’ first missions were in Carondelet (now part of St. Louis City) and Cahokia, Illinois.
The first sisters
Here’s a brief summary of the first sisters who came from France to establish the American foundation.
The original six sisters who arrived in 1836
Marguerite-Felicité Bouté, CSJ
1804-1881 | Sister Felicité worked with children around the St. Louis area and also served as the general councilor. She retired to Nazareth Convent in St. Louis in 1871 and died there in 1881. She is buried at Resurrection Cemetery in St. Louis.
Febronie Chapellon, CSJ
1810-1880 | Sister Febronie served at St. Joseph’s School and Holy Family Parish in Cahokia before returning to France in 1844. She died and was buried in Changy, France.
St. Protais Deboille, CSJ
1814-1892 | Sister St. Protais served in many cities, including St. Louis, Cahokia, Wheeling, St. Paul, and Chicago. For her last ministry, she worked with the Native American community near L’Anse, Michigan. She is buried at Assinins Cemetery in Baraga, Michigan.
Febronie Fontbonne, CSJ
1806-1881 | Sister Febronie served in St. Louis and Cahokia, and then returned to France in 1844 with Sister Febronie Chapellon. She died from a stroke and is buried in Changy, France.
Marie Delphine Fontbonne, CSJ
1813-1856 | Sister Delphine served in St. Louis and Cahokia before leaving to establish foundations in Philadelphia and Toronto. She died of cholera as a Sister of St. Joseph of Toronto and is buried in Toronto, Ontario.
Philomene Vilaine, CSJ
1811-1861 | Sister Philomene served as a teacher in St. Louis, Cahokia, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. She died at the Motherhouse in Carondelet and is buried at Resurrection Cemetery in St. Louis.
The deaf educators who arrived in 1837
Celestine Pommerel, CSJ
1813-1857 | Sister Celestine started a program for teaching the deaf shortly after her arrival in 1837. She became the superior of the congregation in 1839 and established St. Joseph Academy in 1840. Both the deaf institute and the academy are still in operation today. She died in 1857 (cause of death not recorded) and is buried at Resurrection Cemetery in St. Louis.
St. John Fournier, CSJ
1814-1875 | Sister St. John first received the habit in April 1828 from a cloistered community in France called the Community of the Immaculate Conception. She then entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyon, France, in 1836. She arrived in the United States as a missionary in 1837 to teach at the newly established school for the deaf. She professed vows in Carondelet in 1838. She went on to teach African Americans and care for orphans in the 1840s before leaving to establish a new foundation in Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia). She died there in 1875 as superioress of dropsy (now called edema, a build-up of excess fluid in the body’s soft tissues) and is buried at St. Joseph Convent in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.
For more information on the French pioneer sisters, including how to visit the graves of those interred in North America, please contact the Carondelet Consolidated Archives at archivist@csjcarondelet.org or 314-678-0320.
So inspiring to review the early history of the founders. What intrepid women and so full of courage in a new land.
Also have enjoyed Mary McGlone’s first volume of Anything of Which a Woman
is Capable. So much for all of you to be proud of! And I am proud to have been a former member for 18 years.