Global Josephite Movement - Le Puy
Co-founder of the Australian Sisters of St Joseph, Fr Julian, was inspired by the work of a group of Sisters of St Joseph he met while in France on a holiday in 1853. These sisters of St Joseph had been founded in France in 1650 at a time following the Wars of Religion and the Protestant Reformation. During the French Revolution the sisters were disbanded. They reformed in Lyon in 1807 under the leadership of Mother St John Fontbonne.
In 1861, a few years after his time in France, and after his arrival in South Australia, Fr Julian met the young governess Mary MacKillop. They shared their dream for Catholic education to be accessible to the poor children in remote rural areas of Australia. The memory of the group of women he had met in France came back to him. In his Memoirs Fr Julian wrote:
it was while I was in Auvergne that I formed the idea of the Sisters of St Joseph. I found in many parts of France a convent system prevailed which was of great assistance to the Church in every way. The daughters of farmers and humble people were the sources from which the convents were recruited. They were not highly educated, nor probably very refined, but they lived a life of great edification, and supplied most of the wants which religious communities could fulfil. … They lived in great poverty and simplicity, and there was no fine ladyism about them; but they were of the people and loved by them.
… I had been accustomed to regard a nun as one on whom a great deal of money had to be spent and who must be raised above the labouring classes, both in means and in education. I felt instinctively that a nun to be with the poor, and a servant of the poor, should belong to the humbler classes, especially as the immense wants of the Church in that direction could only be effectively and abundantly recruited from that class. But when I saw how the want was supplied in France, I made up my mind that I would use all my efforts to extend these institutions to my own country, though I never dreamt of trying myself to establish a thing of the kind at that time, as naturally, it seemed utterly out of my power.
J.T. Woods. Memoirs
The shared dream of an Australian Congregation of religious women who would serve the poor in rural areas was realised, however, and its origins can be strongly connected to this group of women in France.
Today the Sisters of St Joseph who began in Le Puy have branches spread all over the world.
Mary Cresp records that:
... There are 23 diocesan groups of Sisters of St Joseph in USA, and the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet are divided into four provinces and three vice-provinces. In 1966 all groups came together to form the Federation of Sisters of St Joseph in USA. The same process took place in Canada. In Europe, the Sisters of St Joseph scattered in dioceses in France and Italy, established foundations in other countries – northern and southern Europe, India, South and Central America, Africa...
M. Cresp, In the Spirit of Joseph. p 19
An International Centre, the Centre International St Joseph, has been developed in Le Puy in France and Australian Sisters of St Joseph have visited here in recent times to connect, to enjoy hospitality and to participate in international programmes and workshops.
The Mission of the Centre is:
To promote interaction and communion among Sisters, Associates and lay partners in creating an earth community based on the values of right relationship with God, with others, and with the planet
