Anne-Marie Javouhey
19th century French nun
Feast: 15 July (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Anne-Marie Javouhey was born at Chamblanc, in the diocese of Dijon, on 11 November 1779, and founded the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny to relieve the miseries left by the Revolution.
From 1819 the congregation took up foreign missions; in 1822 she herself founded a house at Gorée in West Africa, and in the Gambia gave herself without stint to the victims of an epidemic. In French Guiana from 1828 she built a self-supporting colony, took charge of 520 Africans preparing for their freedom, and founded a leper colony. She died on 15 July 1851.
The miracles
The Catholic Encyclopedia records that her cause of beatification was introduced on 11 February 1908; it was written before any beatification.
Why that counted as sanctity
A foundress who took her sisters to Africa and nursed the dying in an epidemic.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Anne-Marie Javouhey
- Wikidata Q2565862 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Anne-Marie Javouhey (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.