Ven. Madeleine-Sophie Barat

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Foundress of theSociety of the Sacred Heart, born at Joigny,Burgundy, 12 December, 1779; died inParis, 24 May, 1865. She was the youngest child of Jacques Barat, a vine-dresser and cooper, and his wife, Madeleine Foufé, and receivedbaptism the morning after her birth, her brother Louis, aged eleven, being chosen godfather. It was to this brother that she owed the exceptionaleducation which fitted her for her life-work. Whilst her mother found her an apt pupil in practical matters, Louis saw her singular endowments of mind and heart; and when, at the age of twenty-two, he returned as professor to theseminary at Joigny, he taught his sister Latin, Greek, history, naturalscience, Spanish, and Italian. Soon she took delight in reading the classics in the original, and surpassed her brother's pupils at theseminary.

After the Reign of Terror, Louis called Sophie toParis, to train her for thereligious life, for which she longed. When he had joined the Fathers of the Faith, a band of ferventpriests, united in the hope of becoming members of theSociety of Jesus on its restoration, he one day spoke of his sister to Father Varin, to whom had been bequeathed by the saintly Léonor de Tournély the plan of founding asociety ofwomen wholly devoted to the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, toprayer and sacrifice, and destined to do for girls what the restoredSociety of Jesus would do for boys. Father Varin had vainly sought a fitting instrument to begin this work; he now found one in this modest, retiring girl of twenty. He unfolded the project, which seemed to satisfy all her aspirations, and she bowed before his authoritative declaration that this was for her the will ofGod. With three companions she made her firstconsecration, 21 November, 1800, the date which marks the foundation of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In September, 1801, the firstconvent was opened atAmiens, and thither Sophie went to help in the work of teaching. It was impossible yet to assume the name "Society of the Sacred Heart", lest a political significance be attached to it; its members were known asDames de la Foi orde l'Instruction Chrétienne. Father Varin allowed Sophie to make hervows, 7 June, 1802, with Genevieve Deshayes.

The community andschool were increasing, and a poorschool had just been added, when it became evident to Father Varin that Mademoiselle Loquet, who had hitherto acted as superior, lacked the qualities requisite for the office, and Sophie, although the youngest, was named superior (1802). Her first act was to kneel andkiss the feet of each of her sisters. Such was ever the spirit of her government, November, 1804, found her at Sainte-Marie-d'en-Haut, nearGrenoble, receiving a community of Visitationnuns into her institute, One of them, Philippine Duchesne, was later to introduce thesociety into America. Grenoble was the first of some eighty foundations which Mother Barat was to make, not only inFrance but in North America (1818),Italy (1828),Switzerland (1830),Belgium (1834), Algiers (1841).England (1842),Ireland(1842),Spain (1846),Holland (1848),Germany (1851), South America (1853)Austria (1853),Poland (1857).

Mother Barat was elected superior-general in January, 1806, but a majority of one vote only, for the influence of an ambitiouspriest,chaplain atAmiens, wellnigh wrecked the nascent institute. Prolongedprayer, silent suffering, tact, respect, charity, were only means she used to oppose his designs. With Father Varin, now aJesuit, she elaborated constitutions and rules grafted on the stock of the Institute of St. Ignatius. These rules were received withjoy in all the houses, Amiens alone excepted; but Mother Barat's wisdom andhumility soon won submission even here. In 1818 she sent Mother Duchesne, with four companions, to theNew World; her strong and holy hand was ever ready to support and guide this first missioner of the Society. She called all the superiors together in council atParis in 1820, to provide a uniform course of studies for theirschools. These studies were to be solid and serious, to fit the pupils to become intelligent wives and devoted mothers; to give that cultivation of mind, that formation of character, which go to make up atruewomen; all was to stamped and sealed with strong religious principles and devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Foundations multiplied, and Mother Barat, seeing the necessity of a stronger guarantee of unity, sought it in union withRome. The solemnapprobation was obtained much sooner than usual, owing to a memoir drawn up by the foundress and presented toLeo XII in May, 1826. Thedecree ofapprobation waspromulgated in December. Thesociety being now fully organized and sealed by Rome's approval, for forty years Mother Barat journeyed fromconvent toconvent, wrote many thousand letters, and assembled general congregations, so as to preserve its original spirit. TheParisschool gainedEuropean repute;Rome counted three establishments, asked for and blessed by three successive pontiffs. At Lyons Mother Barat founded the Congregation of the Children of Mary for former pupils and other ladies. In the same year (1832), she began atTurin the work of retreats for ladies of the world, an apostleship since widely and profitably imitated. Numerous foundations brought Mother Bart onto personal contact with all classes. We find her crossing and recrossingFrance,Switzerland,Italy, often on the eve of revolutions; now the centre of asociety ofémigrés whoseintellectual gifts, high social position, and moral worth are seldom found united; now sought out bycardinals and Roman princesses during her vicits to her Roman houses; at another time, speaking on matterseducational with Madame de Genlis; or again, exercising thatsupernatural ascendency which aroused the admiration of such men as Bishop Fraysinous, Doctor Récamier, and Duc de Rohan.

These exterior labours were far from absorbing all Mother Barat's time or energies; they coexisted with a life of ever-increasingholiness and continualprayer; for the real secret of her influence lay in her habitual seclusion from the outside world, in the strong religious formation of her daughters which this seclusion made possible, and in the enlightened, profound, andsupernatural views oneducation which she communicated to the religious engaged in herschools. She worked by and through them all, and thus reached out to the ends of the earth. In spite of herself she attracted and charmed all who approached her. New foundations she always entrusted to other hands; for, like all great rulers, she had the twofold gift ofintuition in the choice ofpersons fitted for office, and trust of those in responsible posts. Allowing them much freedom of action in details, guiding them only by her counsels and usually form afar. Prelates who now and them ventured to attribute to her the successes of thesociety, saw that instead of pleasing, they distressed her exceedingly.

Beloved by her daughters,venerated by princes and pontiffs, yet ever lowly of heart, Mother Barat died at the mother-house inParis, onAscension Day, 1865, as she had foretold, after four days' illness. She wasburied at Conflans, the house ofnovitiate, where her body was found intact in 1893. In 1879 she was declared Venerable, and the process ofbeatification introduced. [Note: Mother Barat wascanonized in 1925.]

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