Johanna Antida Thouret

Johanna Antida Thouret

Jeanne-Antide Thouret (born November 27, 1765 in Sancey-le-Long , France , † August 24, 1826 in Naples , Italy ) was a founder of the French order . She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church .

Life

Life to exile

Jeanne-Antide grew up 40 km east of Besançon in a wealthy farming family with many children. At the age of 16 she lost her mother and took responsibility for the siblings. In August 1787 she joined the Vincentine Sisters of the Cooperative of the Daughters of Christian Love of Saint Vincent de Paul in Langres (Rue de la Charité) and three months later moved to the motherhouse in Paris (then Rue du Faubourg Saint- Denis). In September 1788 she was dressed and sent to Alise-Sainte-Reine for a year (in between convalescence in Langres). The circumstances brought about by the French Revolution prevented Jeanne-Antide from taking a religious vow.

From January 1790 she worked in the hospital of Sceaux , from January 1791 in the hospital for the terminally ill in the rue de Sèvres in Paris, from May 1791 in Bray-sur-Somme . There she was seriously injured by a soldier in the ribs by a soldier in May 1792 while refusing to take the oath on the civil constitution of the clergy . It took a year to heal (mostly in Paris). In November 1793 she went to Besançon and lived there under difficult conditions according to the ideal of her now dissolved order. On March 7 (or 9), 1794, she attended the execution of the Capuchin Father Zéphyrin Edmond-Antoine Delacour (born November 17, 1738) from Vyt-lès-Belvoir , a neighboring town of her birthplace, and tried in vain to pick up his head as a relic . She spent the remainder of 1794 in Sancey.

Life in French-speaking and German-speaking exile

From December 1794, Jeanne-Antide Thouret in Sancey was increasingly exposed to the afflictions of representatives of the French Revolution. In August 1795 she therefore accepted an invitation from the founder of the order, Antoine-Sylvestre Receveur (1750-1804), to La Roche in Switzerland ( canton of Friborg ) to work there as an educator and in nursing. Receveur founded the Congregation Société de la Retraite chrétienne (“Solitarians of the Christian Contemplation”, still existing today: Sœurs de la Retraite chrétienne ) in Les Fontenelles in 1789 and fled to La Roche before the revolution. The sister community already belonged to Jeanne-Antide's sister, Jeanne-Barbe.

In September 1795 the entire community was expelled and started moving towards Germany, where Receveur had established bases. Jeanne-Antide accompanied an ambulance via Freiburg , Bern, Zurich and Konstanz to Babenhausen (north of Memmingen ), where they were picked up by Anselm Maria Fugger von Babenhausen . She stayed there until the summer of 1796. Then they fled from Napoleon via Augsburg, Donauwörth (August 3, 1796), Regensburg, Passau (August 13, 1796), Braunau to the gates of Salzburg (August 23), where one had to turn back and finally found accommodation at the beginning of October in Ettersdorf Castle in Wiesent near Regensburg.

At the beginning of December Jeanne-Antide hiked to Neustadt an der Waldnaab , where she supported her sick sister, who was staying there with another group, until her death on December 23, 1796. Then she traveled back to Wiesent. There, in the spring of 1797, there was hostility from ancestral sisters of the congregation, whom Jeanne-Antide had to accuse of incompetence in nursing and who tried to isolate Jeanne-Antide, who was perceived as an intruder. On April 24, 1797, she left Wiesent and hiked without money or passport via Regensburg, Augsburg, Lake Constance to Einsiedeln, from there after a four-day prayer stay (and acquisition of a passport) via Lucerne, Bern to Enges (June 24) and to her well-meaning Pastor of Le Landeron in the canton of Neuchâtel . He recommended them to Claude Petit-Benoît de Chaffoy (1752-1837), Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Besançon . Chaffoy personally convinced her to return to Besançon to found an educational institute and to care for the sick in need (and contrary to her vow never to step on French soil again). And so Jeanne-Antide was back in France on August 15, 1797 after two years of exile.

Educational and health service in Besançon and the surrounding area from 1797

On September 5, 1797, the Directory required all French to take an oath of hatred of royalty. Jeanne-Antide, who had just opened a school in Sancey, had to go into hiding for refusing to oath and hid with a friend in nearby La Grange until October 6, 1798 . Then the danger was over and she returned to Sancey. At the invitation and with the support of Vicar General Claude-Ignace de Franchet de Rans (1722–1810) she opened a girls' school on April 11, 1799 in Besançon ( Rue des Martelots ), which she ran alone for a year, but always with the intention of other sisters gathered around and under the supervision of a spiritual director - the vicar general had assigned her to the former Jesuit François-Benoît Bacoffe (1743–1813) - to open an institute. Four postulants entered from June to September 1800, including Blessed Anne-Marie Javouhey (1779–1851), who, however, will not stay. In addition to teaching, they were systematically trained in nursing in order to later be able to work in poor and sick care.

As a first step, Jeanne-Antide opened a pharmacy next to the school with catering for the needy sick, the so-called “bouillon” (after the hot soup that was served there). On May 3, 1801, a second base was set up in Rue Battant, and very quickly others. Above all, however, the sisters' activities expanded to include two hospitals for the poor and a military hospital (1806 in rue Sarrail ), which the authorities left entirely in their own hands and where, to the public's amazement, they established and maintained humane conditions in a short time. An official inventory from 1808 counts 1500 cared for sick people and 475 school girls. The number of sisters at the end of 1809 was 165 (39 of them novices), who worked in around 40 locations in the diocese.

Officialization of the religious order

Jeanne-Antide, who saw herself as the founder of the order, realized that her community needed a constitution in the form of an order rule, all the more since the Parisian Vincentines had been admitted again since December 1800 and she wanted to separate from them. In the summer of 1802 she therefore retired to Dole for four months , where she wrote the Constitutions et Règlements pour la Société des Filles de Saint Vincent de Paul with the support of Abbé Jean-Claude Filsjean (* 1766, later vicar general of the diocese of St. Claude ) and chose an appropriate costume (which led to the customary designation as "gray sisters"). The fact that it then took another eight years to obtain state recognition can be explained by the circumstances of the time.

Since the oath of civil constitution required of all priests and religious, which was rejected by a majority, the Catholic Church in France has been in a schismatic state. The Concordat of 1801 only officially ended this situation for the time being, because the resentments against the oath sworns (the so-called jureurs ) often persisted for a long time. In Besançon, the refusals (the so-called refractaires ), including Jeanne-Antide, had the upper hand. In 1802 Napoleon in the person of Claude Le Coz (1740-1815) placed an oath as archbishop before them. Although Le Coz had proven his loyalty to the church by turning against the tightening measures of the revolution after the oath and paying for his rebellion with 14 months in prison, and incidentally cultivated a saintly lifestyle, Jeanne-Antide was the only one took his side and subordinated her congregation to him. An important motive for this was that she was able to defend herself in this way from the Abbé Bacoffe, who wanted to depose her as superior and set herself up to become the founder of the order, and that she could also prevent (with the help of the prefect) from being subordinate to the Parisian Vincentian Sisters . In 1807, therefore, Jeanne-Antide submitted the rules of the order, which had been revised by Filsjean, to the archbishop for approval and had them printed immediately after this was done on September 26th. Then she traveled to Paris to attend the congress of all women dedicated to nursing and teaching, which was convened by the Emperor and subordinated to the Empress Mother Laetitia Ramolino , where she stood her ground brilliantly, received rich state subsidies and, to distinguish it from the Parisian Vincentines, the new name Soeurs for her order de la Charité de Besançon accepted. It is due to the schismatic circumstances and the lateral drift of the Réfractaires that it took until August 22nd, 1810 for the order to be officially recognized by the state.

Subsidiary founded in Naples

Through the mediation of the Empress mother and her half-brother Joseph Fesch , Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon, in 1810 Joachim Murat , brother-in-law of the Emperor and King of Naples , asked Jeanne-Antide to set up a branch in Naples . With seven sisters she traveled to Rome from October 7th to 30th, 1810 and on to Naples from November 12th to 17th, where they were assigned the Regina Coeli monastery in Via Sapienza , which, however, first had to be made habitable . Jeanne-Antide, who originally wanted to return after six months, faced endless difficulties for years, with which she did not want to leave her fellow sisters alone, and therefore stayed in Italy permanently. Your most important support was initially the Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Zurlo (1757-1828), but not his subordinates, and after the return of the Bourbons in 1815, their minister of education will try to force the nuns out of Regina Coeli until 1820.

In 1811 the community took over the military hospital adjoining the monastery with 1200 patients (later there was also home care). At the same time, the sisters received a capable spiritual companion in the person of Domenico Narni-Mancinelli (1772-1848), later Archbishop of Cosenza and Caserta. But as long as Murat ruled, the sisters were viewed by the population as occupiers. It was only with the return of the Bourbon Ferdinand I that acceptance increased and numerous religious admissions took place in Naples.

Recognition of the order by the Pope

From November 1818 to August 1820, Jeanne-Antide stayed in Rome to have her rule of the order confirmed by the Vatican, not least out of concern for maintaining the unity of the two branches of the order in France and Italy. Cardinal Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi , his successor Giulio Maria della Somaglia , also the later Cardinal Dean Bartolomeo Pacca , as well as Pope Pius VII himself were favored by the founder, so that the rule of the order (with Jeanne-Antide as Superior General) was solemn by the Pope on July 23, 1819 was approved. However, the Vatican had incorporated three changes, concerning the validity of the profession (simple vows for the time of belonging to the order), the name of the order (now: Filles de la Charité sous la protection de Saint Vincent de Paul “Daughters of Christian love under protection of St. Vincent de Paul ”) and the person of the superior general (previously the Archbishop of Besançon, in future the respective local bishops will be responsible).

Conflict with Besançon and trip to France

Since the new rule was tantamount to disempowering the Archbishop of Besançon, who only had to oversee the houses of his (now shrunk) diocese, everything now depended on how the prelate concerned would react. What happened next can only be understood in the context of the above-mentioned schismatic state of the French Church, which revealed itself with the utmost sharpness, precisely at the expense of Jeanne-Antide.

In 1815 the political restoration under King Louis XVIII. hoped to abolish Napoleon's Concordat and to be able to return to the Church of the Ancien Régime (with the replacement of all oaths among the bishops, etc.). Pius VII, however, stuck to the Concordat and only allowed retouching, such as increasing the number of dioceses from 60 to 80. Gabriel Cortois de Pressigny (1745–1823) was Ludwig's disappointed negotiator in Rome . And it was precisely this Pair de France and reactionary Gallicanist who succeeded him after the death of Archbishop Le Coz in Besançon. On November 6, 1819, he openly opposed the Pope, declared the rule changes made by the Vatican in his diocese to be invalid and forbade the religious houses of his diocese to allow Jeanne-Antide access (“même pour un seul jour”, even if only for a single day). On the 29th he made Chaffoy his proxy with the sisters. It also did not help that the Pope, at Jeanne-Antide's request, reaffirmed the decree of approbation on December 14th, and in April 1820 Chaffoy appointed Sister Catherine Barrois as provisional superior general. The efforts of the papal nuncio Vincenzo Macchi were equally fruitless . Pressigny, who did not know Jeanne-Antide personally, denied her "according to the testimony of all the good priests of Besançon" any suitability to be superior.

On July 20, 1821, Jeanne-Antide left Naples and arrived on September 12 at the Thonon-les-Bains branch (outside the diocese of Besançon). She visited the branch in Bourg-en-Bresse and then traveled on to Paris, where she arrived on November 2nd. There there was a chance encounter with Pressigny, who rejected Jeanne-Antide, who threw herself at his feet, so harshly that the ministers around were shocked. Numerous letters to Pressigny went unanswered. On September 26, 1822, Sister Catherine Barrois of Pressigny, elected with an absolute majority, was appointed Superior General of the Order. Jeanne-Antide spent the summer of 1823 in Thonon and learned there of Pressigny's death (on May 2, 1823), but that did not change the situation in Besançon. On August 20, 1823, she began her return journey to Italy. It is uncertain whether she came to Besançon during her stay in France (as is reported - possibly in legend).

Death and canonization

In the time up to her death, Jeanne-Antide was busy with start-ups in northern Italy. But the division of their congregation into a French and an Italian part was difficult to get over. There was also physical suffering. When she died in 1826, half of Naples marched in front of her body. The process of beatification opened in Naples in 1895, continued in Rome in 1900, promoted to Besançon in 1918 and ended with the beatification in 1926 . He was canonized on January 14, 1934.

Further development of the congregation

In 1862 the seat of the Italian Congregation was moved from Naples to Rome. A first request for the merger of the two congregations came from Besançon in 1919, but was postponed on the advice of the Vatican. The Pope Pius XI. After the canonization by decree, the union was prevented by the French government. From 1953 new efforts were made for a merger. In 1954, the Superior of Besançon went to Rome for the first time to meet all the Superiors. In 1957 the two congregations met on a pilgrimage to Sancey. In 1965 they elected a common superior general. There were numerous mergers with other orders with similar objectives. Today the reunified and enlarged Congregation Suore della Carità di Santa Giovanna Antida Thouret (French: Sœurs de la Charité de Sainte Jeanne-Antide Thouret ; English: Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne-Antide Thouret / Spanish: Hermanas de la Caridad de Santa Juana Antida Thouret / Latin: Sororum Caritatis a Sancta Ioanna Antida Thouret ) represented worldwide (but not in German-speaking countries) with 4000 sisters.

Honors

In 1932 the neo-Romanesque basilica Sainte-Jeanne-Antide was built in Sancey-le-Long. In Belfort , the church of Sainte Jeanne-Antide (Rue de Rome) is dedicated to her. In Besançon, a street and a tram bear her name.

The Wiesent community erected a wayside shrine for Jeanne-Antide in 1994

Works

• Istituto ossia regole e Costituzioni generali della Congregazione delle figlie di carità sotta la protezione di S. Vincenzo de 'Paoli = Institut ou règles et Constitutions générales de la Congrégation des filles de la Charité sous la protection de S. Vincent de Paul . Vincenzo Poggioli stampatore della RCA, Rome 1820.
• Lettres et Documents . Jacques et Demontrond / Sœurs de la Charité, Besançon 1965. 2nd edition, 1983.
  • (Italian) Santa Giovanna Antida Thouret. Fondatrice delle Suore della Carità 1765–1826: Lettere e documenti . Suore della Carità di S. Giovanna Antida Thouret, Rome 1974.

literature

• Gabriele Lautenschläger:  THOURET, Johanna Antida. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 11, Bautz, Herzberg 1996, ISBN 3-88309-064-6 , Sp. 1493-1494.
• Paola Arosio and Roberto Sani: Sulle orme di Vincenzo de 'Paoli. Jeanne-Antide Thouret e le suore della Carità dalla Francia rivoluzionaria alla Napoli della Restaurazione . Vita e Pensiero, Milan 2001.
• Antoine de Padoue Duffet: Storia dell'unione tra le Suore della Carità di Roma e di Besançon . Casale Monferrato (AL): Piemme, 1986.
• Antoine de Padoue Duffet: Les premières compagnes de Jeanne-Antide . Baume-les-Dames 1994.
• Théodule Rey-Mermet: Nous avons entendu la voix des pauvres. Sainte Jeanne-Antide Thouret (1765-1826) . Nouvelle Cité, Montrouge 1998 (preface by Jean Delumeau ).

Web links

• Entry to Johanna Antida Thouret on medal online
• http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienJ/Johanna_Antida_Thouret.html
• http://kirchensite.de/index.php?myELEMENT=98207
• http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/33000
• Information on the saints' stay in Germany
• Congregation website, Italian, French, English and Spanish

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://pages.et4.de/de/vorderer-bayerischer-wald/streaming/detail/POI/7524264CCA468C49B10D85E02F11746A/bildstock-hl-johanna-antida-thouret