Part 9: Growing together By 1838 the Marist Sisters were well established in Belley. Since 1826, 44 young women had professed their vows in Mary’s little congregation. They came from Coutouvre, where Jeanne-Marie Chavoin grew up; from Cerdon, where she and Marie Jotillon made the first foundation; from Belley and its surrounding district and from St Chamond near where Marcellin Champagnat and other Marist Fathers ministered.

…in spite of difficulties Those early years brought hardship – there was the poverty of their own surroundings and of the people the sisters wished to help. Most of the children they taught and those they took in as boarders were unable to pay their way. So there was the struggle to make ends meet – requiring the sisters to sew whenever they had spare time. And there was illness… Sadly, a number of sisters died young. By 1840, the foundress had buried 16 of the women in whom she hoped for the future. Most were under 30 years of age, one was only 14…

…and even grief… One of the deaths was that of Sr Marie Jotillon, first companion of the foundress. As Marie’s body was carried out of the house, Mother St Joseph was heard to say: “Half of myself is leaving the community today.” It was also said: “To bear this heavy cross she had need of all her courage and conformity to the will of God.”

… the congregation expanded… It happened that around the time of Sr Marie’s death, a long-awaited permission was received: for the Marist Sisters to make a foundation in the thriving city of Lyon. Lyon was an obvious choice – a city well-connected to the rest of the world by road and waterways; a business centre attracting the rich middle-class generous to charitable requests; an intellectual domain with a history of 2000 years and an excellent university. Furthermore, Lyon was a Catholic stronghold, especially dear to the hearts of the early Marists. Not only had devotion to Mary been characteristic of its people for centuries but this was the city watched over by Our Lady of Fourvière to whom the first aspirants of the Society of Mary had made their Solemn Pledge a little more than 20 years earlier.

Part 10 of the Jeanne-Marie Chavoin Story will be published in April She used to say: We must have confidence, God is not dead! We must count on Providence, it has never let us down and it will not fail us today. God will come to our help. She took God at his word as Mary did! …because our foundress put her trust in God!