Jeanne-Marie Chavoin was born in Coutouvre on 29th August 1786, and was baptised in the church on the same day. The village had a population of 1700 in 1786.

“Coutouvre” means a “hill open on all sides “. From the highest point there is a magnificent view across the plain of Roanne to the distant Forez mountains. It was here that Jeanne-Marie Chavoin lived with her family for thirty years. She was a strong, healthy country girl, a good walker, with many natural gifts and no complexes. She had an inborn appreciation of the value of work and a great sensitivity to the needs of others.
(Sr. Winifred Rose: “A Founder and a Foundress”, Forum Novum, 2, p.10)

By temperament Jeanne-Marie Chavoin was an extrovert. Her father was a tailor. At that time a tailor in France lived in the centre of the village and worked in the shop, where people would come and go as they made their orders. The tailor’s shop was thus a great meeting place for the villagers. A little girl growing up in this environment is automatically caught up in social life. This is something that immediately points to an important difference between Chavoin and Colin.

Another characteristic of Jeanne-Marie’s background is noteworthy. In France during the Revolution every parish had a special memorial book: a list of all the families who did something for the priests during the Revolution. The Chavoin family does not appear on any of these lists. However, very significantly, after the Revolution there was an elderly priest who had taken the Oath, who had renounced his faith, but now wanted to return to the Church. The Chavoin family took this broken-down priest into their house and kept him for 10 years till he died. An example of hidden and unknown charity, when such deeds were neither glamourous nor fashionable.

Jeanne-Marie spent long hours in prayer in the church in Coutouvre, deciding her vocation. A stained glass window, erected in 1930, represents Jeanne-Marie, along with other notable clerics or religious born in Coutouvre. An important influence on her at this time was a seminarian by the name of Jean Philibert Lefranc. He used to come to Coutouvre on his holidays, and during his time there he formed a group of young people to whom he gave spiritual direction and instruction in the way of prayer. Jeanne-Marie Chavoin was among this group.

Pierre Colin had been a curate in the parish of Coutouvre from 1810 to 1814. When he became aware of his brother’s plans for the Society of Mary, he invited Jeanne Marie to come to Cerdon to stay. Jeanne Marie left home and went to Cerdon in 1817. She spent time here with the Colin brothers and shared the dream. Jean Claude Colin later said of her: “In the three branches of the Society, she is the person with the greatest spirit of faith and prayer” (RMJ Doc. 141:2)

JARNOSSE

Jeanne-Marie Chavoin, now Mother St Joseph, arrived in Jarnosse in 1855 with three other sisters to make a new foundation. The priest who invited them was Fr Lefranc, the one who had come to Coutouvre as a seminarian, and who was now pastor of Jarnosse. In 1855 the population was 1344.

The convent she built still stands. It was built according to her plans. An account of the activities of the Marist Sisters at Jamosse reads:

When the house in Jarnosse was founded, the Marist Sisters undertook with admirable devotion to teach the population of this village which was still very unlettered. Their solicitude was, above all, for the children. They took pains to develop their pupils’ moral and intellectual faculties by teaching them religion and elementary knowledge. Combining the functions of mothers and teachers, they lavished on these poor, under-privileged children the maternal care required in the areas of hygiene and cleanliness, they themselves making clothes for the poorest. The Marist Sisters also visited people who were ill, consoled them on their sick beds, and encouraged them to make a good preparation for death.

It was not long before the work flourished. Sixty young girls of 16, 17, 18, and even 20 years of age were accepted as boarders. This was the beginning of a domestic science school where, however, elementary instruction, and above all, religious formation, held a special place. The pupils were soon noted for their deep piety as they assisted at daily Mass.

Until they were turned out of the convent in 1902, besides the above-mentioned works, the Marist Sisters had charge of the girls’ club, the parish choir, the care of the church and sacristy, the preparation of young girls and boys for First Communion....
(Jessica Leonard, Triumph of Failure, p.86)

Mother St Joseph died at Jamosse on 30th June 1858.

Today we recognise that we owe our existence as a Marist congregation to both the founder and the foundress, whose roles are complementary. Jean-Claude Colin could not, however, envisage the women ‘s branch as being as fully apostolic as the men’s. This meant radically adapting the rule and was contrary to what the foundress intended for her sisters. It gave rise to various points of divergence and led to the inevitable conflict of ideas which affected the development of the congregation for over a century. It was not the spirituality of the hidden life, of a life of prayer, and of apostolic zeal which was lost but the apostolic spirituality of action which had motivated the foundress’s whole life. However, to the end, despite misunderstandings and suffering, Jeanne-Marie Chavoin acknowledged Jean-Claude Colin as the founder of her congregation. On May 31, 1858, she reminded him: “God has entrusted His work to you... to make (her spirit) known to all her children and to trace for them the path they must follow to be true Marists. (CMJ doc.91:2)

After the death of the foundress the style of life did gradually change and become progressively more “monastic” but this trend does not seem to have been peculiar to the Marist Sisters or to those successively responsible for the congregation, but it did create an ambiguous situation which was not clarified until 1960. Since then the history of our renewal has followed its course.
(Sr Winifred Rose: “A Founder and a Foundress”, Forum Novum, 1,2,1990)

Bon Repos	Cerdon

Death of Jeanne-Marie Chavoin

It was on the 29th June at six o’clock in the evening that I saw Mother Foundress alive for the last time. She had just received the last Sacraments. Jeanne Marie (Fouilland) felt her pulse, said she would not die just yet, but she judged by the patches of red that the circulation was slowing down and that the end was not far off. We found her fully conscious and she asked us to pray. I knelt down and the sisters came and knelt at the bedside. Soon after, the assistant, Sr Thérèse, sent me to fetch the priest for the prayers for the agonizing. The curate came but as she was not actually dying he thought it too soon for the “Recommendation of the Soul”. While I was fetching the priest her room was arranged as a chapel where the sisters gathered in the evening and during the night. At one o’clock in the morning the assistant called the boarders... The assistant kept the hands raised and asked her to bless the Reverend Mother at Belley. The reply was pronounced distinctly: “May the spirit of Mary remain always with her.” Other words were uttered but not distinctly enough to be understood. The assistant pronounced the names of the local superiors, prayers were said and petitions formed according to the needs of each, and for each Mother Foundress asked the special graces that she thought she needed. The assistant mentioned all the sisters both old and young whose names she could recall. The Foundress blessed them either by name or in general. She blessed all the houses especially Jarnosse, this Jarnosse where she had known the greatest difficulties. After this blessing a sister read the “Recommendation of the Soul” at two o’clock and they continued to pray until the last moment at half past three. She had no visible agony, her breathing grew weaker and weaker and quietly ceased, the last breath was no different from the rest.

She had wanted to be buried without fuss like the least of the sisters. The civil authorities wanted all the solemnity that it is possible to have in these parts. The bell was tolled every two hours and there was Mass with deacon and sub-deacon on 2nd July at 7 o’clock in the morning...
(Letter of Antoine Fouillard, 1858)