Our Beginnings
The first Ursulines
of Jesus
On July 2nd 1802 Charlotte Gabrielle Ranfray arrived at Chavagnes-en-Paillers, in La Vendee, France in a cart, with five companions. In this parish devastated by the revolution they came to open a modest boarding school for young girls, at the request of the new parish priest, Louis-Marie Baudouin.
In post revolutionary France the first Sisters were involved in rebuilding the Church through prayer, educating children, nursing the sick, working with priests and restoring family life.
Mother House of Ursulines of Jesus, Chavagnes-en-Paillers
As time went on the Sisters began to increase in numbers. During the following 32 years, community spread into other parts of post-revolutionary France. Chavagnes-en-Paillers became the cradle of the congregation.