The Religious of Jesus and Mary (French: Religieuses de Jésus-Marie), abbreviated as R.J.M., form a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to the education and service of the poor. An institute of consecrated life of pontifical right, the congregation was founded at Lyon, France, in October 1818, by Claudine Thévenet.
Contents
Foundation
Thévenet had survived the siege of her native city by the forces of the French Revolution, seeing two of her brothers executed before her eyes in 1794. This inspired a resolve in her to dedicate her life to the relief of the suffering in the world. Some 20 years later, her work came to be guided by a local Catholic priest, the Abbé André Coindre, who was committed to establishing institutions to educate and help the children of the poor in the city. One day he committed to her care two young girls who had been found abandoned near the Church of St-Nizier.
Thévenet then established a small house of refuge called La Providence to care for the children of the city. She was joined in this work by a group of women who formed a society, of which she was elected president. In 1818, Fr. Coindre suggested to Claudine that she should commit herself to the consecrated life under Ignatian spirituality, which call she accepted. With the members of the society she had founded who also wished to follow that path, she established a small convent in the working-class neighborhood of La Croix-Rousse. They soon need to expand and moved to a house in the Fourvière sector of Lyon.
Growth
The congregation received the approval of the Bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay in 1823 and of the Archbishop of Lyon in 1825. Their Constitutions were approved by Pope Pius IX on 31 December 1847. The object of this congregation was to give girls a Christian education conformable to their social position. For this purpose the Sister would have boarding schools and academies.
In France, before the expulsion of 1901, they were at Lyon, and at Le Puy-en-Velay, Rodez, and Remiremont. Owing to the religious persecution in France at that time, the General Motherhouse was transferred to Rome in September 1901.
Beyond France
In 1842, several Religious of Jesus and Mary travelled from France to India, where 12 communities were established, including ones at Bombay, Poona, Lahore, Simla and Agra (see Convent of Jesus and Mary). In 1850, the first house in Spain was founded at Sant Andreu de Palomar near Barcelona; then followed other foundations, at Valencia, Barcelona, Orihuela, Sant Gervasi, Alicante and Murcia. In 1902, the RJM in Spain sent sisters to found houses in Mexico City and at Mérida, Yucatán.
North America
The first house of the congregation in the Americas was founded at St-Joseph, Lévis, Quebec, Canada, in 1855. In 1876, Sillery, Quebec, became the Provincial motherhouse for America. Houses in Canada were founded at St-Gervais, St-Michel, Trois-Pistoles, and Beauceville.
By the middle of the 19th century, poor harvests sent many French Canadians to emigrate south to find work in the industrialized towns of the United States. In 1877, several Sisters left Sillery to open houses in the United States. The first foundation was that at Fall River, Massachusetts. The house at Manchester, New Hampshire, was founded in 1881; then, at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a boarding school and two parochial schools (1884). At Providence, the religious set up a convent and two parochial schools. The RJM established the former Villa Augustana in Goffstown and sisters continue to minister in Warwick, Lincoln, and Exeter, Rhode Island.
In 1902, several sisters left the motherhouse in Rome to establish the congregation in New York City. When they arrived in New York, they were blessed with hospitality from one of the alumnae from one of their schools in Canada who had immigrated to the United States. As they explored how exactly to minister in New York City at the turn of the century, the high cost of housing and an admonition from the bishop to find sources of income led them to open a unique residence for young working women in lower Manhattan called Our Lady of Peace. The residence was built on 15th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. When Our Lady of Peace opened in 1909 it was a modern, ten-storey building with 112 single rooms and 14 suites. The residence had an elevator, a common dining room, a library, and a chapel. The residents had full electricity and running water and even had telephones on every floor and a rooftop garden. The residence proved to be a powerful ministry that provided safety and community for young women coming from around the US and around the world to work or go to school in New York. When revolution spread across Mexico, Our Lady of Peace offered a place of refuge for the RJM sisters who had to flee.
Our Lady of Peace, played a role in the formation and vocational discernment of Blessed Dina Bélanger who is the first person born in Quebec to be beatified. Dina had desired to become a nun since an early age, but she demonstrated great musical skills and her piano teacher and parish priest encouraged her parents to enroll her in the Institute of Musical Art in New York (which became the Juilliard School). While studying in New York, Dina lived at Our Lady of Peace with the RJM sisters. After graduating and spending a few years giving concerts in Quebec, Dina chose to enter the Religious of Jesus and Mary. Her religious name was Mother Marie of St. Cecilia of Rome and she became a music teacher before developing tuberculosis, which took her life at 32. While isolated and suffering from TB, Dina wrote about her interior world, her mystical writings were eventually published and became popular. Dina Bélanger was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1993.
Current status
Today, over 1,000 Religious of Jesus and Mary serve in 29 countries around the world. They are supported in their work by over 1,600 associates, who form the Family of Jesus and Mary.
Notable members
Saint Claudine Thévenet
Blessed Dina Bélanger