Marist Sisters
JEANNE-MARIE CHAVOIN:
FOUNDRESS OF THE MARIST SISTERS (SM)
Born in a small rural village of France in 1786, just before her country was tossed into the throes of revolution, Jeanne-Marie Chavoin grew up in a wholesome family environment. Her home, close to the village square, served as a tailor shop and, as Jeanne-Marie did not go to school, her education was hands-on, people-centred and focussed on life skills. She and her younger sister received a practical Christian faith from their parents. The Chavoins supported Catholic worship in secret in their cellar during the dark days of persecution. They also offered a home for over 20 years to a priest who initially had sided with the revolution and then repented - his was not a popular cause.
By the time she was 18 or 19, Jeanne-Marie had developed into a person of compassion, common-sense and solid faith who avoided drawing attention to herself. Around that time two strong life connections were made. A visiting seminarian began to guide her in her spiritual life and a young friend of hers, Marie Jotillon, returned from boarding school. The two girls, encouraged by the seminarian, developed a deep friendship based on weekly shared prayer. So began a long period of searching for how God wanted them to live out their adult lives.
Jeanne-Marie and Marie felt drawn to religious life, but not to living it in the manner of the groups they knew. None of the suggestions made to them seemed right to Jeanne-Marie. Then one day she received a letter from a priest who had got to know the two of them a few years earlier. He thought of them in connection with a project in which his own brother, Jean-Claude Colin, was vitally interested - it came to be known as "The Marist Project".
At last the waiting was over - this was it! Wasting no time, Jeanne-Marie (then 31 years old) and Marie (26) left home for another, very different, part of France to begin the women's branch of the Society of Mary. With Jean-Claude and his brother they developed both the vision and the practice of living the Gospel as religious (vowed) men and women in the manner they believed Mary would, in the French setting of their time.
It took another six years before the women had official permission to begin a religious community. But from 8th September 1823 onwards they were joined by others and soon expanded into other towns, all the while finding ways to be Mary's presence - caring for poor children, educating them, encouraging people to live their faith, earning a living through sewing. The sisters were noted for their joy and their simple, often very poor, life-style. In the early years many of them died young from TB, but Jeanne-Marie faced these losses with courage, even when it came to the death of her dear friend, Marie, in 1838.
In 1853, Jeanne-Marie Chavoin (known as Mother St Joseph) was urged to resign her position as leader. Some of the more educated women in the group, as well as Jean-Claude Colin, favoured a more refined life-style - less directly involved with people. As it happened, the foundress ended her days in a village previously neglected. There she lived as she had always wanted for her sisters - present to the villagers in their daily joys and sorrows, providing hope and care, and education for the poor. After her peaceful death on 30th June 1858, her funeral was attended by the few sisters living with her and by many people from miles around who had come to know and love her and who considered her both friend and saint.
Marist Sisters today choose, as far as possible, to live simply, in small groups, among the people to whom they minister, striving - in our own world - to adapt the pattern traced consistently and courageously by their foundress.