The Congregation of St. Joseph traces its roots to the village of Lepuy, France, where, in 1650, six ordinary women, ranging in age from 15 to 46, formed a religious community to serve their neighbors in need. Their director, Jesuit missionary Jean Pierre Medaille, envisioned a new kind of religious community, and thus the sisters were without cloister or habit (revolutionary at the time), lived in small groups, and worked to support themselves.
