Joan Antida Thouret was born in the little village of Sancey, in the diocese of Besançon, in Franche-Comté, on 27 November 1765, into a deeply Christian family. At a very early age “she felt a strong attraction to the stricter religious life and at the same time to the service of the poor.”

After Joan's mother died, at the age sixteen she managed her father's household at a village near Besançon, France. In 1787 a compelling divine call prompted her to join the Sisters of Charity at Paris.

There two serious illnesses impeded her religious training. The revolution dispersed the community in 1793, before Joan had made her profession. She returned to her hometown, where she ran a school for the village children.

When political conditions had improved, the vicar general of Besançon invited Joan to open a school. Reluctant at first because she did not feel she had been adequately prepared for the work, Joan overcame her reticence and started the school in April 1799.

Six months later she added a soup kitchen and dispensary. Critics denounced her for not returning to her original community. But she had not taken vows and had acted in obedience to the bishop. Joan also ran the female asylum at Belleveaux, which housed orphans, criminals, the homeless, and the mentally ill. Her sisters labored there under hopeless conditions, and opponents criticized and persecuted them for undertaking this work.

In 1807, her community was officially named the "Sisters of Charity of Besançon". On May 8, 1810, she and some sisters travelled to Savoy, Thonon, and a little later, with eight sisters, to Naples, where she cared for "Incurables" at a hospital. She also opened a school and a pharmacy at a convent they were given.

Pope Pius VII approved their community, which he named “Sisters of Charity under the protection of St. Vincent de Paul", on July 23, 1819. As of 2020, there were 4,000 sisters, spread over 27 countries, in the Sisters of Charity community, who provide a large variety of services for the poor. "Community life, the Eucharist and the Paschal Mystery are today, as they were for [Thouret], the key elements of their life".

Thouret died of natural causes in Naples on August 24, 1826. She was beatified on May 23, 1926 and canonized on January 14, 1934 by Pope Pius XI. Her statue appears among the 39 founders of religious orders at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Her feast day is May 23.

Other Saints of the Day

1. St. Epiphanius and Basileus

2. St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk

3. St. Eutychius & Florentius

4. St. Goban

5. St. Julia