On Saturday, May 24, 2025, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat, founder of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Discover her story!
Reprinted with permission. Access the original (in French) here: https://saint-denis.catholique.fr/24-mai-2025-cent-ans-de-la-canonisation-de-sainte-madeleine-sophie-barat/
Who was Madeleine-Sophie Barat? In short, an amazing woman.
- Born into a humble family in the small town of Joigny in the Yonne region of France, she contributed to the education of thousands of people, rich and poor, throughout the world.
- Raised in a Jansenist environment where people feared God, she founded a congregation dedicated to discovering and manifesting the unfathomable love of the Heart of God.
- Born prematurely, she suffered from abusive authority during her youth as well as poor health, yet she governed the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for nearly 60 years, traveling far and wide, facing the dangers of successive revolutions, and radiating firmness, gentleness, and charity.
- Irresistibly drawn to the Carmelite order, she knew how to live and share the order’s spirituality with the fire of action.
- Closely linked to the Jesuits in her life and in the drafting of the Constitutions, she developed an Ignatian congregation, defending its feminine characteristics and aimed at discovering and manifesting the love of the Heart of Jesus.
- A simple woman with little ecclesiastical status in the 19th century, she was a key figure in preserving unity between the Church of France and the universal Church during the Gallican crisis.
- Characterized by her humility during her canonization process, her statue stands in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, her body—which remained intact—is displayed in a sumptuous shrine in the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Paris, and one of her relics was even placed in the high altar of Notre-Dame de Paris when it reopened in December 2024.
- And the list goes on…
It is best to discover the life of Madeleine Sophie Barat in an atmosphere of prayer… and to let yourself be led with her to the Heart of Jesus, who was her inspiration, her strength, her fruitfulness, her life, as He wants to be ours.
- A novena that evokes the human and spiritual journey of Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat, and invites us to discover and manifest more fully the love of the Heart of Christ in our personal, ecclesial and societal lives: https://hozana.org/communaute/12509-neuvaine-a-sainte-madeleine-sophie-barat
(Download the novena) - A book: “Praying for 15 days with Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat,” by Sister Marie-Paule Préat, Éditions Nouvelle Cité, April 2025
“The life of Madeleine Sophie Barat shows that ‘the world can change from the heart’. This woman, born in 1779 into a world in search of new bearings, discovered the Heart of Jesus as the source of spiritual and social rebirth. Imbued with an austere Jansenism in her childhood, she was drawn by the compassionate love of God and devoted herself entirely to Him. One of the pioneers of girls’ education, she had an intuition for a holistic education that starts from a person’s inner being to understand the whole person and engage them in the transformation of the world.” (Back cover)
- Her birthplace, converted into a spiritual center run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart: https://centre-sophie-barat.com (Joigny, Yonne)
- Other resources: https://www.religieusesdusacrecoeur.com
Written by Claude Deschamps rscj for the Diocese of Saint-Denis-en-France
Section |History|International News|Society Celebrations: Centennial of the Canonisation of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat
Province |Belgium/France/Netherlands
Tags |Madeleine Sophie|Madeleine Sophie Barat|Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat
