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In 1805 Anne Marie heard that Pope Pius VII is to spend a few days in Chalon after consecrating emperor Napoleon. On the 14th April, Easter Sunday, the Pope celebrated the holy mass at St. Vincent, the old cathedral and went to St. Peters. The four Javouhey sisters were there to meet Pope with Monseigneur de Fontange, bishop of Autun. After blessing them the Pope said to Anne Marie “God will do great things through you”. A little while later the parish priest of St. Peter’s church invited Anne to settle in Chalon and thus she settled down there on 14th of August 1806 teaching the young.
On 20th August 1806, the small society comprising of four Javouhey sisters and others six girls, Peter, Anne Marie’s brother and a friend became an association of St. Joseph. On 12th December the same year, Napoleon I signed the decree recognising the association.
12th May 1087 A red letter day in the history of the sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny. On this day in the church of Chalon the four Javouhey sisters along with five other young girls committed themselves by vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and took the religious habit receiving the new name. Anne Marie Javouhey was elected as superior general when she was 28 years old.
At the request of the bishop of Autun Anne Marie settled in Autun where she opened a school for the poor children and a weaving centre for the young women. In 1812 she heard that the convent of Recollects in Cluny is up for sale and requested her father Balthazar to buy it for her works of charity. This profound gift of her father became the mother house and the novitiate. A school and a boarding were also opened in the premises. It is thus the new foundation came to be known as ‘The sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny’
Senegal – 1818, Sierra Leone – 1822, Gambia – 1822, Angola – 1883, Brazzaville – 1886, Mozambique – 1890, Guinea – 1893, Gabon – 1966, Ghana – 1990, Guinea Bissau – 1993, Congo – 1993, Cameroon – 1995, Tanzania – 1997, Niger – 1999, Burkina Fasou – 2012, Togo – 2012
Reunion – 1817, Madagascar – 1861, Seychelles – 1861
France – 1807, Italy – 1854, Ireland – 1860, Scotland – 1879, Portugal – 1881, England – 1903, Spain – 1903, Switzerland – 1912, Poland – 1992
Tahiti – 1844, Marquises – 1847, New Caledonia – 1860, Fiji – 1888, Cook Island – 1895, Australia – 1903, Raiatea – 1925, New Zealand – 1940, Papua New Guinea – 1970
Guiana – 1822, Martinique – 1822, Guadeloupe – 1822 , St Pierre & Miquelon – 1826, Trinidad & Tobago – 1836, St. Lucia – 1854 , St. Vincent – 1856, Haiti – 1864, Peru – 1870, Grenada – 1875, U S A – 1947, Canada – 1958, Brazil – 1961, Paraguay – 1967, Dominique – 1993, Cuba – 1997, Argentina – 2001
India – 1827, Philippines – 1994