April 11, 2023, 224 years of the foundation of the Sisters of Charity
To commemorate April 11 is to live the challenges of the present with firm roots and at the same time open to God’s future.
Not even Jeanne-Antide, in those spring days, was clear about the future of what was taking root in Besançon, in Franche-Comté, a border region that was also being challenged by the aftermath of the French Revolution.
There were immediately several girls who joined her, her already experienced dedication to the poor, the sick, the illiterate girls. But now it was a matter, through these presences, of contributing to the work of re-evangelization that awaited the whole French Church.
The strength and courage of that response to pastoral and social challenges reaches us today.
Sisters and lay friends give thanks to the Lord for the gift of the Spirit that aroused in Saint Jeanne Antide missionary ardor, a convinced love for the Church, much tenderness for her sisters and for the poor.
