Jeanne-Antide Thouret

Jeanne-Antide Thouret was born on 27 November 1765 as the fifth child; three brothers and one sister came before her.[2] She was baptized on 27 November in the name of her godmother. Her father worked as a tanner and her mother died in 1781 which prompted her to take care for her siblings and aid her father.[1] She also had to deal with an aunt who disagreed with her father letting her look after the siblings.

In 1787 she joined the Vincentian Sisters in Paris on 1 November 1787 (after having entered it at Langres that July) and worked at several hospitals and joined the order despite her father's disapproval; her father died in the late 1780s.[2] The French Revolution saw the authorities order her in May 1794 to return to the secular life and the authorities beat her when she refused this; it took several months for her to recover. The revolution also forced her into exile in Switzerland on 15 August 1793 due to anti-religious repression and it was there that she teamed up with other exiles to tend to the ill. Thouret was later forced to relocate to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1795 due to prejudice in Switzerland and was at Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria where her little sister died.[1] In 1797 she left Wiesent near Regensburg and reached Einsiedeln in Switzerland before making the trip to Landeron. Thouret returned to Landeron where she met her order's vicar general from Besançon who asked her to found a school and a hospital.

On 15 August 1797 she returned to France in Besançon where she founded a school for poor girls. On 11 April 1799 she founded a new congregation in Besançon known as the Thouret sisters with the support of Letizia Ramolino (Napoleon's mother). From May to September 1802 she busied herself with compiling the rule of her new congregation. On 23 July 1819 her institute received papal approval in a meeting held with Pope Pius VII who gave canonical privileges to her convents.[2][3] The Archbishop of Besançon did not grant diocesan approval to the order despite the pope having given his own approval.[3] The religious and eight others then moved to Naples.

Thouret died at "Regina Coeli" monasterium in Naples on the evening of 24 August 1826 from a cerebral hemorrhage.[3] In 2008 there were 2620 religious in a total of 326 houses and the congregation now operates in places such as Malta (since 1868) and Spain (2014).

There is a statue of the late saint in Saint Peter's Basilica that Enrico and Carlo Quattrini constructed in 1949 and is now located in the right transept east.

The cause of sainthood was introduced on 16 July 1900 while holding two processes in both Naples and Besançon under Pope Leo XIII - she was titled as a Servant of God - while Pope Pius XI declared her to be Venerable on 9 July 1922 upon the confirmation of her life of heroic virtue.

Pius XI also beatified Thouret on 23 May 1926 and then canonized her less than a decade later on 14 January 1934.

• Hagiography Circle
• Saints SQPN
• Jeanne-Antide Thouret at Find a Grave
• Saint Peter's Basilica