- Welcome To Nava Jeevan Province, India (St. Joseph Society Kumhari)
History
History
Founder
Fr. Jean-Pierre Médaille, SJ
Jean-Pierre Médaille was born in Carcassonne, France on Oct. 6, 1610 and was educated at the Jesuit College there. He entered the Society of Jesus in Toulouse shortly before his 16 th birthday and was ordained in 1637. He went on to serve in a succession of administrative offices in the Society that utilized his considerable intellectual gifts.
Médaille was also a gifted spiritual director and a superb preacher. In 1645, he was assigned to preach parish missions. It was during these missionary tours that he encountered several young single women and widows who confided in
him their desire to consecrate their lives to God and the service of the people in need while living in the world.
In Le Puy-en-Velay, the Saint-Joseph hospice for orphans and widows was under the authority of Bishop Henri de Maupas. He had been a friend of Saints Vincent de Paul and Francis de Sales. Both of them had
founded congregations of women engaging in apostolic works outside the cloister (a requirement for women religious at the time). Father Médaille approached the Bishop with his little design for women who wished to combine holiness of life with apostolic activity, and the Bishop responded favourably.
He handed over the administration of the Le Puy hospice to the six women who formed the nucleus of the new congregation of St. Joseph. On Oct. 15, 1650, Bishop de Maupas gave them official approval as a religious congregation.
Father Médaille’s legacy to the Sisters of St. Joseph includes Constitutions and also a spiritual treatise called the Maxims of Perfection, the Maxims of the Little Institute and a letter to one of the first Sisters proposing the Eucharist as a model for the congregation. These continue to guide the lives of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Foundress
Born in Bas-en-Basset, Haute-Loire, on 31 March 1759, Jeanne Fontbonne was the youngest child of Michel and Jeanne Theillère Fontbonne. In 1778 she entered a house of the Sisters of St. Joseph, which had just been established at Monistrol (Haute-Loire) by Bishop de Gallard of Le Puy. The following year she received the religious habit. At the age of 26 she was chosen by the community to be their Superior and remained there until the French Revolution. She and her sisters established a hospital.
During her years of leadership, she established and reorganized pre-revolutionary communities to become satellites of the Motherhouse. By the end of her leadership, she was responsible for establishing a number of new congregations in France and Italy as well as over 240 communities of the Lyon congregation. In 1836 at the request of Bishop Rosati of the Diocese of St. Louis in Missouri, she sent six sisters to America.
She kept in constant correspondence with them. This began the expansion of numerous congregations of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States and Canada.
She died on 22 November 1843 in Lyon.
Congregation History
The Congregation of St. Joseph was born in Le Puy en Velay, France, in 1650, in response to the situation of war, famine and social injustice etc. It is one of the first feminine congregations juridically recognized as an apostolic religious congregation, thanks to the founder, Jean Pierre MEDAILLE and Msgr. Henri de Maupas, Bishop of Le Puy en Velay.
During his missions in the central region of France, Father Médaille met some “widows and young women” who did not feel attracted to the cloistered religious life but who desired to consecrate themselves to God and serve the neighbor. They are: Françoise Eyraud, Claudia Chastel, Marguerite Burdier, Anna Vey, Anna Chaleyer and Anna Brun.
For them and with them, Father Médaille conceived the project of a new congregation. Rapidly, the Sisters become more numerous and live in small communities, without any distinctive sign, engaging themselves in all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
The French Revolution (1789) disperses the congregation.
After the Revolution, some communities regroup and form new congregations.
Sister St. John Fontbonne, after having been imprisoned and freed, is called to St. Etienne, in 1808, to accompany 12 women who desire to become religious and she forms them according to the spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Many other young women present themselves.
Mother St. John is then called to Lyon where she establishes the motherhouse: communities multiply giving birth to new congregations in France and abroad. The Sisters respond to a wide range of services.
At the beginning of the century, the laws of secularization in France, as well as requests from different countries, lead to the departure of Sisters to: Armenia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England, Greece, India, Ireland, Lebanon, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United States.
Later, animated by the Spirit of Vatican Council II (1963-1965), the Sisters seek to respond to urgent needs in West Africa and the St. Joseph Congregations work more together.
In 1996, there is the fusion of the St. Joseph Congregations of Bourg and Bordeaux with Lyon.
In collaboration with others, we work for unity and reconciliation, living the call of the Gospel: “That All May be One,” for the life of the world.
Our pioneers to India
In 1906, six French Sisters – the torch bearers of the visions and designs of Father Medaille and Mother St Jean Fontbonne arrived in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. Indian Mission kept growing by the continued response of the
missionary zeal.
The Birth of Nava Jeevan Region
The Provincial and General Chapter of 2005 had a significant impact on the North Sector. The Chapter of 1999 had recommended steps toward promoting the North Sector into a statutory Region. Serious efforts were made in this direction over the subsequent years. The Provincial Chapter of 2005 recognized that the sector was ready to be established as a region and made a recommendation to the General Chapter.
In January 2005, during the General Chapter held in Loyola, Spain, the Province of India's efforts to establish a region in North India were affirmed, encouraged, and blessed. Following this, the Regional Assembly, comprising all the sisters of the North Region with at least three years of temporary vows, was convened at St. Joseph Bhawan, Ambikapur, from June 4 to 10, 2005.
During this assembly, Sr. Lucy Parakkattu was elected as the first Regional Superior, with Srs. Ann Joseph Pulikal and Nilmani Tigga as her councilors. The newly formed region was named Nava Jeevan, and the pioneering council assumed leadership during a Eucharistic celebration officiated by the Archbishop of Raipur, Rt. Rev. Joseph Augustine, D.D., on July 3, 2005, at St. Joseph Convent, Kumhari.
Sr. Cathrine Manimalatharapil, the Provincial, along with Srs. Emily Joseph, Mary Pulikeel, Syria Puahapam (Provincial councilors), and the Provincial-elect Sr. Lilly Thokanattu, were present for this historic occasion.
The Nava Jeevan Region initially consisted of seven communities and two extended communities, with a total of 53 sisters. The administrative center of the region is based at St. Joseph of Lyon, Kumhari.