We invite you to discover, through her words, Saint Jean Antida Thouret, founder of the Sisters of Charity.

Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret (1765–1826), born in Sancey-le-Long, France, grew up in a humble and deeply Christian family. From an early age, she felt a strong call to serve the poor, which led her to join the Company of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in 1787. The French Revolution forced religious communities to disperse, and Jeanne Antide returned home. There, without abandoning her vocation, she devoted herself clandestinely to caring for the sick and supporting those most in need. In 1799, the bishop of Besançon entrusted her with organizing a school and a hospital. This mission became the foundation of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity under the protection of St. Vincent de Paul—now known as the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret—, a community that combined religious life with service to the poor in hospitals, schools, and parish catechesis. Her life was marked by prayer, simplicity, and active charity, inspiring her Sisters to see the face of Christ in every child and every sick person. She died in Naples on August 24, 1826, and was canonized in 1934.

Text of St. Jeanne Antide Thouret:

Let us despise the world and its false gods. Let us despise its honors. In vain would we seek our happiness in them. It will benefit us greatly to receive nothing from the world but ingratitude and opposition. This will detach us from it and attach us closely to God alone.

—Jeanne Antide Thouret.

Commentary:

Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret, shaped by suffering, loss, and the tumult of the French Revolution, deeply understood how the world can seduce, distract, or even betray. She recognized that worldly honors—or the apparent goods of recognition, approval, success—can seduce the soul into illusions of happiness that leave it empty. Her life speaks of a radical detachment—one born not from asceticism alone but from a passionate embrace of God and a self‑emptying love for the poor.

To “despise the world” does not mean hatred or harsh judgment, but rather a loving refusal to seek our center in anything other than God. In the Gospel, Jesus warns: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19‑20). In other words, we are invited to root our desires beyond the transient, the superficial, the approving gaze of society.

Saint Jeanne Antide lived this gospel truth. At sixteen, orphaned of her mother, she assumed responsibilities in her family—without prestige or applause—but from love and faith. At twenty‑two, she entered the Daughters of Charity, drawn by the fatherly presence of Vincent de Paul—but then faced the violent revolution that scattered religious communities. Her response was not bitterness, but an offering of everything to God. She walked alone across hostile Europe to bring care to the poor, displaced, orphaned, imprisoned—and in return, she was met often with opposition, indifference, or pain. Yet she held on, trusting in God alone.

The invitation to receive “nothing from the world but ingratitude and opposition” is counter‑intuitive. Who would wish it? Saint Jeanne Antide knew: adversity, when borne in faith, loosens our grip on illusion and strengthens our union with God. Saint Paul shares this insight: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances… I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11‑13). In adversity, a detached soul finds a resilient peace in God and a generous readiness for service.

For Vincentian followers—clergy, religious, laity, and lay associates—the detachment from worldly honors opens spaces to serve with humility and freedom. When a Vincentian educator or health worker avoids the seduction of recognition, they can serve with genuine compassion. When a Sister visiting prisoners resists the temptation of self‑importance, she enters more deeply into Christ’s suffering and presence.

Saint Jeanne Antide’s charism was founded on such freedom. Her rule of life emphasized “God alone” (Deus solus), community life, Eucharist, the Paschal Mystery, and service to the poor. Through unexpected suffering—separation from her congregation, conflict with Church authorities, exile—she trusted only God’s will and returned gratitude even amidst ingratitude. She wrote, “when God calls and is heard, He gives all that is needed.”

Worldly honors and false gods divert attention from the only true good that endures. A Vincentian, inspired by Saint Jeanne Antide, asks: Am I serving because of what I’ll gain—or because Christ gains in the poor I serve? When honors come, do I accept them as blessings from God—or do I quietly place them aside and keep my gaze on the cross? When opposition or ingratitude comes, do I recoil—or do I allow it to detach me from illusion and reattach me to God?

This path is not for the faint of heart—but it is for the hearts that love immensely. It is the path of Gospel freedom, of solidarity with the poor, of trust that God suffices. In a world full of noise and idols—wealth, prestige, success, self‑promotion—Saint Jeanne Antide’s words invite all believers: “Let us despise the world… so that we may be attached to God alone.”