At La Puye near Poitiers, likewise in France, Saint Jeanne Elisabeth Bichier des Âges, virgin, who during the French Revolution sought out Saint Andrew Hubert Fournet as he carried on his ministry in secret, and, once peace had been restored to the Church, founded the Congregation of the Daughters of the Cross to instruct the poor and relieve the sick.
Lifespan: 1773–1838
Beatified: 13 May 1934 by Pope Pius XI
Canonized: 6 July 1947 by Pope Pius XII, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 26 August
“If we have founded a congregation, we did it without knowing it and without intending to.”
Jeanne Elisabeth Bichier des Âges
Jeanne Elisabeth Bichier des Âges was born on 5 July 1773 at the Château des Âges de Blanc, in Berry, France. The good example of her parents soon kindled in the child’s heart an irresistible attraction to the poor and the suffering. After four years spent at the college of the Hospitaller Sisters of Poitiers, she felt drawn to become a Trappistine out of love for penance; the French Revolution, however, prevented her from realizing that dream. At nineteen, the untimely death of her father compelled her to assume charge of the family estate, which was threatened by the subversive laws of the Revolution.
In 1797 she met Andrew Hubert Fournet, parish priest of Maillé, to whom she entrusted the direction of her soul. Initially drawn to the austere religious life — the Trappists or the Carmelites — she followed Fournet’s counsel and instead founded a Congregation whose charism was the care of the sick and the education of young girls.
In 1807 the Institute of the Daughters of the Cross came into being and developed rapidly.
When she died on 26 August 1838, Jeanne Elisabeth left behind ninety-nine houses in twenty-three dioceses.
Despite an outward serenity, Jeanne Elisabeth knew profound physical and moral suffering, above all after 1815, when she was left permanently disabled following an unsuccessful surgical operation. Deeply devoted to the Eucharist, she lived a spirituality grounded in the contemplation of the Cross.