22/04/2015
French Revolution beginnings
The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary arose amid the religious upheaval caused by the French Revolution. In March 1792, the Frenchman Piere Coudrin was secretly ordained to the priesthood. The following May, under the oppression of a government persecuting Catholic religious leaders, Father Coudrin went into hiding in an attic of the granary of the Chateau d'Usseau where he was confined for six months. One evening during his time in hiding, Coudrin saw a vision of being surrounded by a heavenly illuminated group of priests, brothers and sisters dressed in white robes. It was his calling to establish a religious institute that would be the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Coudrin left the granary and began his underground ministry in Poitiers, waiting for the right moment to start his group
Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie
During his underground ministry in 1794, Coudrin met Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie. She had been imprisoned for hiding a priest. Upon her release, she told Coudrin of a vision she had while in prison calling her to service of God. Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie shared with each other their visions of creating a religious institute in the midst of danger for Roman Catholics in France.
On Christmas Eve in 1800, knowing they could face the guillotine for their actions, Father Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie officially established the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
After the Revolution and the fall of Napoleon, the Congregation was formally approved by the Pope as a single institute composed of two branches of religious, one male and the other female, and a lay branch.
The original members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary founded new schools for poor children, seminaries to help grow the priesthood of their institute and parish missions throughout Europe. At the time of Father Coudrin's death in 1837, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary had 276 priests and brothers and 1125 sisters.
In 1840 the Brothers founded a house in Louvain, Belgium - the first house outside France. The Brothers settled in Spain (1880), the Netherlands (1892), England (1894) and the United States (1905).
The sisters, who concentrated their energies on education, went to Chile in 1838 and to Perú in 1848. They also started foundations in Honolulu in 1859 and Ecuador in 1862. Additional houses were founded in Spain (1881), Belgium (1894), England (1895), the Netherlands (1803) and the United States (1908).
