Anne de Xainctonge

Anne de Xainctonge (21 November 1567 – 8 June 1621

At the age of seventeen, de Xainctonge made her appearance in high society with all the pomp of her position. She is described as vivacious and witty. When an acceptable suitor presented himself, she declined the proposal and her parents reluctantly let her have her way. The catechism lesson of a Jesuit, gave her the idea to assist with the instruction. She gathered those students having most difficulty and helped prepare them for the regular class.

Near her house was a Jesuit school for boys which inspired her with the idea of educating girls. An uncloistered order of women, operating a free school for girls, was a new idea at that time, and de Xainctonge met with a great deal of resistance. In 1596 she left Dijon for Dole, a university town, at that time in Franche-Comté and under Spanish influence. There she found other young women interested in teaching women and girls. Rome had recently reasserted the cloister as the only approved form of religious life for women. Nonetheless, on 16 June 1606, Anne opened the first convent of what would later become the Society of the Sisters of Saint Ursula of the Blessed Virgin, in a house that had previously been a restaurant. In lieu of a religious habit, she and her companions adopted the simple black dress of the Spanish widows everywhere visible in the region of Dole, so as to render them inconspicuous in the streets on the rare occasions they had to leave the house. Her cause was formally opened on 24 November 1900,