Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny is a Roman Catholic religious order.

Foundress

Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey, our foundress was born in a remote village in Burgundy, France,on 10th November 1779. She grew up to be a lively youngster, by refusing a proposal, she cleared her intentions to consecrating herself to God. During the revolution against the church in France, her courage, intelligence and initiatives saved lives of many outlawed priests. She was the first white to set foot on African soil,Fact|date=May 2008 travelling through dense forest to free thousands of slaves. In South America she helped the lepers to move their colony near the sea where the salt water burnt their wound to a river side where she installed a dispensary for dressing their wounds regularly. In France her attention drew to the lunatics who were neglected, she introduced the occupational therapy something unknown during that time. Soon it became one of the most up-to-date psychiatric units in France.Although long years of toil and work in various parts of the globe had taken its toll on her once-robust body, Anne Marie had the happiness of helping people in five continents. She gave back her soul to God on the 15th July, 1851.

Blessed Anne Marie's Vision on Education

"I have promised God to give myself wholly to the service of the sick and the instruction of little children", she wrote in one of her letters to her father. Her programme of education gives us a keen insight into how she envisions a human being. She believed that all people are equal and have a right to human and spiritual formation and that education consists in helping a person "to be more" rather than in helping him/her "to have more". And she says, "It is not sufficient to have taught them how to work and satisfy this purely material needs, they must also know how live with others and themselves and to realize what they owe to God and their brethren". This prefigures what "vatll" would say about education. "A true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end of the good of societies"

The Cluny History

July 15th 2003 is the 152nd death anniversary of our foundress Bl.Anne Marie Javouhey.(1779-1851)

Anne Marie Javouhey, who was familiarly known as Nanette was born in Burgundy, France on 10th Nov.1779.

She grew up at a time when the country was in the grip of the French Revolution. Churches and schools were closed and priests, religious and believers were persecuted. It was under these circumstances that Anne Marie as a young girl tried to meet the spiritual needs of the people around her, by teaching catechism, preparing them for the Sacraments etc.

Anne Marie Javouhvey was guided by the impulses of the Holy Spirit to found the Society of St. Joseph of Cluny on 12th May 1807, where she along with her three sisters and five others, made their profession in Chalon - sur - saone, and later established themselves in a house in Cluny (France). The Congregation from then on began to be called the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny.

Anne Marie Javouhey cared for the orphans, educated children and worked for the human development of all. She worked for the formation of the African Clergy and was the outstanding liberator of slaves.

In her own lifetime, her missionary activities were extended to the five continents. She was so recognised for her devotedness, ingenuity and audacity that she was acclaimed as the "Liberator of Slaves, The Valiant Woman, The Apostle of Negroes, and The Mother of Black Races".

She died on 15th July 1851 and was beatified on 15th October 1950.

The first house in India was opened in Pondicherry in 1827.

Today there are about 3000 sisters engaged in evangelisation through education, social and pastoral ministries.

Cluny in South West India (Bangalore)

Her light is not put out in the dark. She lives in her 299 sisters of this province in four states : 11 houses in Karnataka, 15 houses in Tamil Nadu, 3 houses in Kerala and 4 houses in Goa. She also lives through school, hospitals, centres for the mentally and physically disabled, opportunity schools for the slow learners, children's homes, prison-ministry and non-formal education

Cluny in India

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny arrived in India in the year 1827 and went on to make their presence felt in various territories here. Some of the places where the sisters have established are New Delhi, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh.

Cluny in the World

#Europe 94 Houses
#Africa 68 Houses
#Oceania 24 Houses
#America 80 Houses
#Indian Ocean 35 Houses
#Asia 110 Houses