Jean-François Moyne

Jean-François Moyne (born February 4, 1801 in Arbois , † November 27, 1854 in Couzon-au-Mont-d'Or ) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman and founder of the order.

life and work

The priest

Moyne grew up north of Lyon in Belleville . After his ordination he was chaplain in Neulise with Roanne . Then he headed the Minor Seminary of Saint-Jodard and at the same time ran the parish of Pinay . In 1834 he became pastor of Couzon-au-Mont-d'Or near Lyon .

The founder

In 1837 he founded a sister collection there in the historic La Viarde house , which, following the example of the work of spreading the faith begun by Pauline Jaricot in Lyon in 1820, earned money for the mission, in this case by weaving silk. With the approval of Cardinal de Bonald , eight of the sisters were dressed as members of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi in 1844 (with Canon Jacques Allibert, 1780–1864, as spiritual director).

The Franciscan Sisters of the Propagation of the Faith. Death of its founder

In 1848 the revolutionary silk weavers from Lyon, who viewed the work of the sisters as unfair competition, destroyed all the equipment in the house and scattered the sisters. However, these could return and continue working with more modern machines. The number of candidates for the house was so great that the first subsidiary was founded in Belleville in 1854. In the same year, the founder died after a short illness at the age of 53 surrounded by his community. Cardinal de Bonald took this as an opportunity to give the community its final name, namely “Soeurs Franciscaines de la Propagation de la Foi” (Franciscan Sisters of the Propagation of the Faith).

Further development of the order

With the help of the Capuchins of Lyon, the statutes were approved in 1862. In 1868, at the request of Augustin Planque, the first nuns went to Africa and the novitiate was established in Lyon-Monplaisir. In 1874 there was a break between Planque and the energetic Superior Mother Bonaventura (1874–1904), who was attached to the Franciscan ideal. From the separated African missionaries emerged in 1876 the “Soeurs missionnaires de Notre-Dame des Apôtres” ( Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles ). In 1877 a subsidiary was founded in Lille , from there in Boulogne-sur-Mer , later in Belgium, in 1901 in India (Maryabad near Lahore , today in Pakistan ), from which the Indian Franciscan Tertiary Sisters developed in 1922 .

In 1886 they moved into a larger house in Monplaisir-La Plaine (Lyon, 119 avenue Paul-Santy) (today a retirement home). In 1932 the parent company moved from Lyon to the neighboring Francheville , house La Chardonnière (65 Grande-Rue, since 2010 Foyer Notre-Dame des Sans-Abris, but there are still a few sisters on site). In 1987 the Franciscan Sisters of Soignies in Belgium joined the order. There are 9 houses left in France, 4 in Belgium and 5 in Africa.

literature

• Les Soeurs franciscaines de la propagation de la foi. Leur origine et leurs œuvres . 1898.
• "Je te donnerai les nations en héritage." Les Soeurs franciscaines de la propagation de la foi . Maison-mère des Soeurs franciscaines de la propagation de la foi, Francheville-le-Haut 1953.
• Yannick Essertel: L'aventure missionnaire lyonnaise 1815–1962 . Cerf, Paris 2001, pp. 74-76.

Web links

• Brief history of the order, French
• Historical information on the first religious house in Couzon, French, with picture
• Entry of the Franciscaines de la Propagation de la Foi de Francheville in the diocesan database, French
• Archive entry of the Franciscan Sisters of the Propagation of the Faith, French
• Entry of the order in the authority file of the French National Library
• Heritage entry of the religious house in Lyon-Monplaisir