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Also known as
Joan Antide Thouret; Jeanne Antide Thouret
Profile
Daughter of a tanner. Her mother died when Jane was 16 years old, leaving
the girl to manage the family and help her father raise her younger
siblings. Joined the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1787
at Paris, and worked in various hospitals over the next five years. During
the suppression of religious orders in the French Revolution, she was
ordered to return home to a secular life. Jane refused, and tried to
escape the authorities; she was beaten so badly that it took months to
recover.
She finally returned on foot to Sancey where she cared for the sick, and
opened a small school for girls. In the late 1790's, the government
repression forced her to flee to Switzerland. There she teamed up with
other exiled religious and clergy to minister to the sick. However, due to
anti-Catholic prejudice, the group was forced to move on to Germany.
Jane later returned to Landeron, Switzerland where she met with her
order's Vicar-General of Besançon. He asked her to found a school and
hospital for her Order, and in 1799 the school opened in Besançon. The
congregation Jane founded to run these institutions was the Institute of
the Daughters of Saint Vincent de Paul. Her people soon began to expand,
to operate other schools and hospitals in France, Switzerland, and Italy,
and moved into prison ministry. The Institute received papal approval in
1819.
Born
November 1765 at Sancy, diocese of Besançon, France
Died
1828 at Naples, Italy of natural causes
Canonized
1934 by Pope Pius XI
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