Daughters of Wisdom GBI

Website of the Daughters of Wisdom
Province of Great Britain and Ireland

Louis-Marie Grignion (1673-1716) was a priest who spent much of his life walking the roads of France, teaching and preaching and drawing many people to God. In 1701, he met the young Marie-Louise Trichet (1684-1759) who felt the call to religious life and desired particularly to serve the poor and marginalised in northern France. She joined Louis-Marie at the Hôpital Général in Poitiers.

Louis-Marie was forced to leave the hospital and returned to the ministry of itinerant preacher and mission-giver. Marie-Louise continued their work of relieving the suffering of the poor later joining Louis-Marie in La Rochelle with Catherine Brunet who had worked with her in Poitiers and who would soon become the second Fille de La Sagesse.

After the premature death of Louis-Marie, Marie Louise went on to establish foundations in small church schools, the care of the sick and the administration of large maritime hospitals.

By the time Marie-Louise de Jésus died, the Congregation had 174 sisters in 36 communities - today there are over 2500 distributed throughout five continents.

Louis-Marie de Montfort and Marie-Louise de Jésus were both laid to rest in the parish church of St Laurent sur Sèvre (Vendée).

In 1888, Louis-Marie was beatified, and in 1947, following the miraculous cure of Sr Gerard at Abbey House, Romsey, he was declared a saint by Pope Pius XII.

Marie-Louise de Jésus (Trichet) was beatified by Pope John-Paul II on May 16 1993.