The Congregation of Divine Providence was founded by Father Jean-Martin Moye, a French priest who saw the lack of educational opportunities for females in his parish in Lorraine, France.
On January 14, 1762, Father Moye sent out educated women to teach in those rural areas and to administer the word of God. These four women, including one Marguerite LeComte, lived, like the first members of the Church, without provisions, trusting instead in God's divine Providence, hence the resultant congregation's name. The name was actually thought up by the villagers themselves.
Father Moye later traveled to China to do missionary work, then returned to France to administer the new congregation. He succumbed to typhus during the French Revolution in 1793 and was beatified in 1954. His feast day is May 4.
The Congregation of Divine Providence was formally established at Saint-Jean-de-Bassel, in 1827. Its existence now stretches over four continents. Within the United States, the Congregation is located in Melbourne, Kentucky, and San Antonio, Texas.
Famous quotes containing the words congregation of, congregation, divine and/or providence:
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o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with
golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Passing through here in 1795, Bishop Asbury commented, ‘The country improves in cultivation, wickedness, mills, and stills.’ Five years later, he held a meeting in the neighborhood and remarked that he thought most of the congregation had come to look at his wig.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Then to the third—a face nor child nor old, very calm,
as of beautiful yellow-white ivory,
Young man I think I know you—I think this face is the
face of the Christ himself,
Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide;
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)