
Founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
In 1779, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat was born in Joigny, France as fire raged in houses nearby. Truly a child of fire, Sophie’s heart was captivated by God from an early age, and she was drawn to a life of contemplative prayer.
At the same time she recognized that post-revolutionary France had a pressing need for transformation through rigorous education and a spirituality of the Heart of Christ. Sophie and four companions made their first vows in 1800, giving themselves to a form of religious life which combined the contemplative and the apostolic, the one informing and enlivening the other. “Discovering and revealing the Heart of Christ” remains the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart to this day.
Besides her all-embracing passion for God, Madeleine Sophie Barat had other passions as well: she was an exceptional spiritual guide who helped countless others to discover and deepen their relationship with God; she was an inspired educator who insisted that those who would educate others had to cultivate in themselves both learning and virtue; and she was a gifted administrator who, by the time of her death in 1865, saw her little Society grow beyond 3500 members in foundations throughout Europe, North and South America, and Africa.
Madeleine Sophie Barat was named a saint of the Church in 1925.
Today over two thousand Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) serve in 41 countries around the world.
Indian Province
Founded in 1939, the Indian Province of the Society of the Sacred Heart is part of an international body of religious sisters who share the same vision and charism: Women who seek to live in tune with the Sprit, responsive to the needs of the present and the calls of the future, while remaining faithful to tradition that is anchored in the Church, local and international Women of compassion and love, committed to nourish and nurture life in all its forms, to work for community in our fragmented world Women who have experienced the love of the Open Heart of God and strive to spread that love in the world around them.
There is a joy in committing ourselves heart and soul to whatever task we are called – and in placing our unique gifts at the service of the congregation & those among whom we work. This is the joy that impels us onwards, that energises and empowers us.