Introduction
We are a group of Catholic Religious Sisters who dedicate our lives to “doing a little good” in the places where we are missioned. We follow in the footsteps of our Foundress Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey whose vision was based on LIBERATION. She did this through Education, Nursing, Caring for Orphans, Pastoral Work of any kind. Her motto was “The Holy Will of God”. We all strive to live this Charism to the full in the places where we live and work.
The Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, founded in France in 1807, by Anne Marie Javouhey, are a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. The congregation has approximately 2600 sisters in 57 countries, 30 provinces, 418 communities across 5 continents, working in education, health, evangelization and social action.
Cluny in India
The French Authorities in India were desperately looking for some religious Congregation to take up the task of educating girls in French India. It was at this juncture that the then French Governor Viscount Desbassyns de Richemont, who was also the Governor of Pondicherry, sent an invitation to Mother Rosalie Javouhey, Superior in Bourbon, requesting her to take up education in Pondicherry. The Sisters landed in Pondicherry on 10th February 1827.
There are at present 6 Cluny Provinces in India:
- South India
- South East India
- South West India
- South Central India
- North East India and Nepal
- North India Plains
The Sisters participate in the work of the Church in the following principal ways:
- through education, in kindergarten, school and parish settings
- through parish pastoral work, in close collaboration with the parish priest
- through visitation of the sick and elderly in their homes, and in the Rest Homes and hospitals
- through nursing, hospital chaplaincy
- through youth work
- through work with immigrants, including ethnic chaplaincy ministry
In all our work, we strive to reach out to people in need, to help them to a fuller dignity, and to bring them the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
