The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (SPC) is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

religious apostolic missionary congregation of

pontifical right In Catholicism, "of pontifical right" is the term given to ecclesiastical institutions (religious and secular institutes, societies of apostolic life) either created by the Holy See, or approved by it with the formal decree known by the Latin na ...

for teaching, nursing, visiting the poor and taking care of orphans, the old and infirm, and the mentally ill. It was founded in Levesville-la-Chenard, France, in 1696."Fr. Louis Chauvet", Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, Generalate, Rome
/ref> The interior spirit is a love of sacrifice and labor for the spiritual and temporal good of others. The postulancy lasts from six months to one year, the novitiate two years, after which the sisters take vows annually for three to seven years, and then perpetual simple vows.

History

In 1696, the congregation was founded by Louis Chauvet, the parish priest of Levesville-la-Chenard, a little French village, and Marie-Anne de Tilly, a young woman from a noble family. Chauvet enlisted three volunteers. Their first house belonged to Chauvet. The first superior, Marie Michau, died in 1702, She was succeeded by Marie-Anne de Tilly, who died the following year. In 1708 the small community of sister was entrusted to the

Bishop of Chartres The oldest known list of bishops of Chartres is found in an 11th-century manuscript of Trinity Abbey, Vendôme. It includes 57 names from Adventus (Saint Aventin) to Aguiertus (Agobert) who died in 1060. The most well-known list is included in the ...

Paul Godet des Marais Paul Godet des Marais (1647–1709) was a French Bishop of Chartres, and served as spiritual director for Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, Mme de Maintenon. History Marais was born at Talcy, Loir-et-Cher, Talcy, near Blois. He st ...

. The bishop gave them a small house and the Apostle Paul as a patron. The house formerly belonged to a

sabot Sabot may refer to: * Sabot (firearms), disposable supportive device used in gunpowder ammunitions to fit/patch around a sub-caliber projectile * Sabot (shoe), a type of wooden shoe People * Dick Sabot (1944–2005), American economist and bus ...

-maker, and this gave them the name of by which they were originally known. In 1727, the sisters were asked by Louis XV to establish a foreign mission at Cayenne in French Guiana. The congregation was dispersed under the Terror, during the French Revolution, but was restored by

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, who gave the sisters a monastery at Chartres, which originally belonged to the

Jacobins The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

, from which they became known as .

Beyond France

The sisters expanded their missionary work to the Islands of Martinique in 1818. They settled in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1847 at the invitation of

Cardinal Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was an English Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1 ...

. By 1902 they had over two hundred and fifty houses in France where, besides various kinds of schools, they undertook asylums for the blind, the aged, and the insane, hospitals, dispensaries, and crèches. By 1913, more than one hundred and sixty of these schools had been closed, also thirty of the hospitals, military and civil, in the French colonies, three convents at Blois and a hospice at Brie. On the other hand they had in the meanwhile opened five or six hospitals overseas. In 1904, seven sisters came to the Philippines from Saigon, Vietnam at the invitation of Frederick Z. Rooker, bishop of Jaro. They opened a girls' boarding school in

Dumaguete Dumaguete, officially the City of Dumaguete (; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Negros Oriental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it h ...

. Over time, they developed St. Paul University System, which became known for training nurses.

Hong Kong

The first Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres arrived in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

in 1848. Institutions founded by the sisters include: * St. Paul's Convent School * St. Paul's Secondary School * St. Paul's School (Lam Tin) * St. Paul's Hospital (Hong Kong) * St. Teresa's Hospital

Core values

References

---- ; the entry cities: *Steel, ''Convents of Great Britain'' (London, 1902)

External links