CLAUDINE THEVENET was the woman called by God to form the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary. Her work was born in a heart crushed by the pain of personal tragedy during the French Revolution. Her brothers were shot to death before her and the family was distressingly scattered.

Claudine was then 19 years of age and this event was a decisive turning point in her life. God works in such wondrous ways to realize His designs. She concluded that in all the violence she witnessed there was more ignorance than malice. The thought of those who live and die without knowing God haunted and caused her anguish. Far from closing in upon herself in suffering, she opened her heart to the miseries surrounding her. Led by the Spirit.

Claudine first opened her door to welcome two orphans-a door which would never close. Many young people would later cross the threshold of Houses founded throughout the world.

Her response to the calls of God took form in the total commitment of herself to the following of Christ. A Religious Family was born in the church.

THE CONGREGATION OF THE RELIGIOUS OF JESUS AND MARY. Claudine's ideal was to make God known and loved by means of CHRISTIAN EDUCATION in all social milieu. This ideal remains the aim of the Congregation with the preference, inherited from the foundress, for the YOUNG and among these for the POOR.