The Religious of Jesus and Mary is an international congregation of Catholic sisters who have shared the Church’s mission in the United States since 1877.
Committed to the apostolic call and style of St. Claudine Thévenet, who founded the Congregation in 1818, we serve in various educational, pastoral, social and spiritual ministries, through which we make known God’s goodness and forgiving love, as revealed in the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
This courageous woman was born in Lyon, France, the second of seven children of a silk-merchant, whose family nickname was “Glady.” In 1789, the French Revolution brought chaos into her life and her world. Lyon was placed under siege, and many of its citizens, including two of Claudine’s brothers, joined the anti-revolutionary resistance movement. They were captured and imprisoned, and sentenced to death by firing squad in January of 1794.
We RJM in the United States now form one province, but once we were three provinces. We are a tapestry woven of many cultures, a province with origins in Europe, French Canada and Mexico. The American experience of Religious of Jesus and Mary mirrors this nation's evolution within a multi-cultural and heterogeneous population.