Founded by Claudine Thevenet at Lyons, France, 1818, primarily for the education of girls. The congregation has 70 houses, including colleges, normal schools, boarding and day schools, orphanages, dispensaries, and guesthouses, in France, Spain, England, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, India, Argentina, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The mother-house is in Rome; the total number of religious Isaiah 1,600.