On October 15, 1650, in the ancient city of Le Puy, France, the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph was founded. Father Jean-Pierre Medaille, a Jesuit priest, and six intrepid women--with the approval of the local bishop, Henri de Maupas--formed the Daughters of Saint Joseph based on a model he called, a "Little Design."

As a spiritual director and confessor traveling throughout the region, Father Medaille was confronted with poverty, sickness and distressing situations of orphans and young girls, but at the same time he found that there were women thirsting for a commitment to God and service to the neighbor. While praying before the Blessed Sacrament the model was revealed to him. He felt a call from God to begin something new that would enable these women to commit their lives to God, serve the neighbor, but without a cloister!

In seventeenth century France this was a radical idea. Before him both Saint Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, and Saint Vincent de Paul had organized congregations of women to lead lives combining religion and service to society, but in keeping with a ruling made more than sixty years earlier during the Council of Trent (1545-1543) the Church prevailed and these women were again cloistered.

Conscious of this, he advised the women they would have to choose between official recognition and apostolic openness. To assist them in this difficult undertaking he wrote out their mission steeped in a contemplative way of life. As the years have borne out, Father Medaille was a man of great wisdom with a visionary approach to life.

He envisioned the Daughters of Saint Joseph as a very simple grouping of women, totally selfless in community, where love was the rule. He stressed that each of these women must search for God's will and respond to the prompting of grace found deep within. He encouraged them to treasure their baptismal calling and challenged them to go further and to take the next step driven by the very energy of God. The devotion to a life of prayer that these women exhibited sent them out to serve others, and that very service brought them back to prayer. Their spiritual life in the world was active, in fact a single movement--a mystical movement.

What extraordinary and courageous women called by God to share a common cause and respond to the impulse of the Spirit at a time and place alien both to their Church and their world.

To learn more about the history of our congregation and how we came to Florida 140 years ago, please visit the Father Miguel O'Reilly House Museum website.