The founders were
Antoniette d'Orléans-Longueville, assisted by the Capuchin
Joseph Le Clerc du Tremblay. Antoinette became a widow in 1596, and entered the convent of the
Feuillantines at
Toulouse in 1599. After her profession she was commanded by the Pope to act as coadjutrix to the abbess of
Fontevrault, and assist her in reforming her convent. Here Antoinette met Tremblay, who became her director: he had just reformed the monastery of l'Encloître, and when
Pope Paul V ordered Antoinette to found a seminary for training religious, this convent was chosen for that purpose, and was soon filled with novices. In 1614 Antoinette founded and built a new convent at Poitiers, dedicated to
Our Lady of Calvary, which became the cradle of the congregation. By permission of the Pope, she left Fontevrault to enter this monastery, and took with her those nuns who wished to follow the Benedictine rule in all its strictness. The abbess of Fontevrault at first consented to this, but afterwards objected, and it was not until Antoinette's death that Tremblay established the new congregation, gave them constitutions, and got
Pope Gregory XV to issue a Bull erecting them into an independent congregation under the title of Our Lady of Calvary. ==Later history==