• Original Habit of the Order of Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament

  

• The History of OVISS

  The birth of Jeanne Chezard de Matel, on November 6, 1596, in Roanne, was an answer to prayer. Her mother, Jeanne, had previously had four pregnancies, in which the babies were stillborn or died at or soon after birth. The couple longed to have a family, and they prayed and sacrificed for this intention.

  
  

        Their prayer was heard, and in spite of many complications during the pregnancy, little Jeanne was born. The precocious young girl delighted her parents and had a happy childhood in spite of her too-often absent father, who held a position in the King's court in Paris. She was also plagued by a severe, recurring malaria-like illness, which left her moody and irritable.

   She was a pious young girl, and except for a period during her teen years when her attention was diverted from her religious practices, Jeanne continued to grow in love of God and prayer.

   

        During her twenties, she spent six years trying to discern her vocation. One day during her prayer, she was told, "I have destined you to institute an order in my name." She would later learn, through prayer, that the title of the new Order would be "Incarnate Word" and that she was to carry the name of the Incarnate Word to the ends of the earth. In response to this request, Jeanne began the Order on July 2, 1625, in Roanne, France. Before her death in 1670, this great mystic, writer, and spiritual director had established houses in Lyons, Grenoble, Avignon, and Paris.

   

        After Jeanne's death, the Order continued to bring the Incarnate Word to the people until the French Revolution, during which the Order was dispersed. After the war, Father Stephen Denis brought together several of the dispersed members and restored the Order, which continued to grow in France.

    

       In 1852, in response to an invitation from Bishop Jean Odin, the first Bishop of Texas 1852, Mother St. Claire Valentine, who was barely 24 years of age and the superior of three companion Sisters, left France to travel to America and open a foundation in Brownsville. This became the cradle of the Order of the Incarnate Word in America.

  Foundresses of Nazareth Convent/Academy – December 21, 1866

  In a community meeting on August 22, 1866, Mother St. Ange and the Brownsville community gave their consent to Bishop Dubuis for the foundation of a monastery in Victoria, Texas. Five Sisters were chosen from Brownsville: Mother St. Claire Valentine, superioress; Sister Paul Goux, assistant; Sister Mary Louise Murray and her sister, Sister Mary of the Cross Murray; and Sister Justine Fonvielle. Sister Regis Chavassieux, a novice, came directly from France.

  On December 21, 1866, Mother St. Claire and her four companions from Brownsville arrived in Victoria and were joined by Sister Regis. They were warmly welcomed by the people of Victoria and by their pastor, Father Augustine Gardet, who offered them his two-story frame house which consisted of four rooms. The first school was opened on January 7, 1867, with an enrollment of 55 pupils. It was known as “The Convent School,” while the official religiously designated name was the “Monastery of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Victoria, Texas.” Mother St. Claire renamed the school “Academy of Nazareth,” and it was chartered under this title on May 5, 1880.

  From this monastery of Nazareth, more monasteries were founded as the Sisters responded to the need for more schools. Because of the cloister, the Sisters could not leave the Victoria monastery to go to other parishes to teach, so new cloistered monasteries were established.

  After the lifting of the cloister in 1916, the Sisters from each of the monasteries began to leave the monasteries and go out to other towns and parishes to teach and to minister in hospitals. After the promulgation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the Sisters from the various Incarnate Word monasteries began to meet and discuss the possibility of some type of reconfiguration. There were three autonomous Houses of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in the Archdiocese of San Antonio in Texas; on August 12, 1939, the Houses in Victoria, San Antonio, and Shiner voted to form a union. A decree of union was authorized on August 5, 1939, and the revised Constitutions received papal approval on August 14, 1939. The first General Chapter, held on December 28, 1939, chose the Nazareth Convent in Victoria, Texas, as the Motherhouse and Novitiate.

  Nazareth Convent served as the central headquarters for the total membership of the union from 1939 to 1963. The facilities at Nazareth Convent became inadequate to accommodate the growth of the Community; with the help of the people of Victoria and surrounding areas, a new structure was built on a 40-acre tract which the Sisters had purchased in 1880. The new headquarters, dedicated on April 28, 1963, was named Incarnate Word Convent.

  Today, in the United States, there are four congregations:  three in Texas (Victoria, Corpus Christi, and Houston) and one in Ohio (Cleveland). 

   

  The Brownsville Community also sent Sisters to Mexico. 

   

  Today, the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament serves twelve countries:

  
             United States     Mexico    Guatemala     Honduras     El Salvador
        Argentina     Uruguay     Spain     France     Kenya     Rwanda     Tanzania

   

  The original intent of the Foundress Venerable Jeanne Chezard de Matel was to have one Order. Over the years, and especially after the French Revolution, independent generalates/foundations were established in the United States and Mexico and throughout the world. With hearts infinitely grateful to Jesus, the Incarnate Word Sisters received a Decree from Rome, which was issued on July 2, 2023, proclaiming the official reunion of the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament!

  
  

• Prayers for the Canonization of Venerable Jeanne Chezard de Matel & Help with Pregnancy