Feast Day:	May 25
Born:	12 December 1779, Joigny, France
Died:	25 May 1865, Paris, France
Canonized:	24 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI

Foundress of the Society of
the Sacred Heart, born at Joigny, Burgundy, 12 December, 1779; died in Paris, 24
May, 1865. She was the youngest child of Jacques Barat, a vine-dresser and
cooper, and his wife, Madeleine Foufé, and received baptism the morning after
her birth, her brother Louis, aged eleven, being chosen godfather. It was to
this brother that she owed the exceptional education which fitted her for her
life-work. Whilst her mother found her an apt pupil in practical matters, Louis
saw her singular endowments of mind and heart; and when, at the age of
twenty-two, he returned as professor to the seminary at Joigny, he taught his
sister Latin, Greek, history, natural science, Spanish, and Italian. Soon she
took delight in reading the classics in the original, and surpassed her
brother’s pupils at the seminary.

After the Reign of Terror, Louis called
Sophie to Paris, to train her for the religious life, for which she longed. When
he had joined the Fathers of the Faith, a band of fervent priests, united in the
hope of becoming members of the Society of Jesus on its restoration, he one day
spoke of his sister to Father Varin, to whom had been bequeathed by the saintly
Léonor de Tournély the plan of founding a society of women wholly devoted to the
worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to prayer and sacrifice, and destined to
do for girls what the restored Society of Jesus would do for boys. Father Varin
had vainly sought a fitting instrument to begin this work; he now found one in
this modest, retiring girl of twenty. He unfolded the project, which seemed to
satisfy all her aspirations, and she bowed before his authoritative declaration
that this was for her the will of God. With three companions she made her first
consecration, 21 November, 1800, the date which marks the foundation of the
Society of the Sacred Heart. In September, 1801, the first convent was opened at
Amiens, and thither Sophie went to help in the work of teaching. It was
impossible yet to assume the name “Society of the Sacred Heart”, lest a
political significance be attached to it; its members were known as Dames de la
Foi or de l’Instruction Chrétienne. Father Varin allowed Sophie to make her
vows, 7 June, 1802, with Genevieve Deshayes.

The community and school
were increasing, and a poor school had just been added, when it became evident
to Father Varin that Mademoiselle Loquet, who had hitherto acted as superior,
lacked the qualities requisite for the office, and Sophie, although the
youngest, was named superior (1802). Her first act was to kneel and kiss the
feet of each of her sisters. Such was ever the spirit of her government,
November, 1804, found her at Sainte-Marie-d’en-Haut, near Grenoble, receiving a
community of Visitation nuns into her institute, One of them, Philippine
Duchesne, was later to introduce the society into America. Grenoble was the
first of some eighty foundations which Mother Barat was to make, not only in
France but in North America (1818), Italy (1828), Switzerland (1830), Belgium
(1834), Algiers (1841). England (1842), Ireland(1842), Spain (1846), Holland
(1848), Germany (1851), South America (1853) Austria (1853), Poland
(1857).

Mother Barat was elected superior-general in January, 1806, but a
majority of one vote only, for the influence of an ambitious priest, chaplain at
Amiens, wellnigh wrecked the nascent institute. Prolonged prayer, silent
suffering, tact, respect, charity, were only means she used to oppose his
designs. With Father Varin, now a Jesuit, she elaborated constitutions and rules
grafted on the stock of the Institute of St. Ignatius. These rules were received
with joy in all the houses, Amiens alone excepted; but Mother Barat’s wisdom and
humility soon won submission even here. In 1818 she sent Mother Duchesne, with
four companions, to the New World; her strong and holy hand was ever ready to
support and guide this first missioner of the Society. She called all the
superiors together in council at Paris in 1820, to provide a uniform course of
studies for their schools. these studies were to be solid and serious, to fit
the pupils to become intelligent wives and devoted mother; to give that
cultivation of mind. that formation of character, which go to make up a true
women; all was to stamped and sealed with strong religious principles and
devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Foundations multiplied, and Mother Barat,
seeing the necessity of a stronger guarantee of unity, sought it in union with
Rome. The solemn approbation was obtained much sooner than usual, owing to a
memoir drawn up by the foundress and presented to Leo XII in May, 1826. The
decree of approbation was promulgated in December. The society being now fully
organized and sealed by Rome’s approval, for forty years Mother Barat journeyed
from convent to convent, wrote many thousand letters, and assembled general
congregations, so as to preserve its original spirit. The Paris school gained
European repute; Rome counted three establishments, asked for and blessed by
three successive pontiffs. At Lyons Mother Barat founded the Congregation of the
Children of Mary for former pupils and other ladies. in he same year (1832), she
began at Turin the work of retreats for ladies of the world, an apostleship
since widely and profitably imitated. Numerous foundations brought Mother Bart
onto personal contact with all classes. We find her crossing and recrossing
France, Switzerland, Italy, often on the eve of revolutions; now the centre of a
society of émigrés whose intellectual gifts, high social position, and moral
worth are seldom found united; now sought out by cardinals and Roman princesses
during her vicits to her Roman houses; at another time, speaking on matters
educational with Madame de Genlis; or again, exercising that supernatural
ascendency which aroused the admiration of such men as Bishop Fraysinous, Doctor
Récamier, and Duc de Rohan.
These exterior labours were far from absorbing
all Mother Barat’s time or energies; they coexisted with a life of
ever-increasing holiness and continual prayer; for the real secret of her
influence lay in her habitual seclusion from the outside world, in the strong
religious formation of her daughters which this seclusion made possible, and in
the enlightened, profound, ans supernatural views on education which she
communicated to the religious engaged in her schools. She worked by and through
them all, and thus reached out to the ends of the earth. In spite of herself she
attracted and charmed all who approached her. New foundations she always
entrusted to other hands; for, like all great rulers, she had the twofold gift
of intuition in the choice of persons fitted for office, and trust of those in
responsible posts. Allowing them much freedom of action in details, guiding them
only by her counsels and usually form afar. Prelates who now and them ventured
to attribute to her the successes of the society, saw that instead of pleasing,
they distressed her exceedingly.

Beloved by her daughters, venerated by
princes and pontiffs, yet ever lowly of heart, Mother Barat died at the
mother-house in Paris, on Ascension Day, 1865, as she had foretold, after four
days’ illness. She was buried at Conflans, the house of novitiate, where her
body was found intact in 1893. In 1879 she was declared Venerable, and the
process of beatification introduced. [Note: Mother Barat was canonized in
1925.]

(Taken from Catholic Encyclopedia)