French Revolution beginnings The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary arose amid the religious upheaval caused by the
French Revolution. In March 1792, the Frenchman
Pierre Coudrin was secretly ordained to the priesthood. The following May, Father Coudrin went into hiding in an attic of the granary of the Chateau d'Usseau and stayed confined there for six months to escape the government's persecution of the Catholic non-juring priests who refused to accept the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy. One evening during his time in hiding, Coudrin had a vision of himself surrounded by a heavenly illuminated group of priests, brothers and sisters dressed in white robes, which he took as his calling to establish a religious institute that would be the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Coudrin left the granary and began his underground ministry in
Poitiers, waiting for the opportunity to start his group. During his underground ministry in 1794, Coudrin met
Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie. She had been imprisoned for hiding a priest. Upon her release, she told Coudrin of a vision she had while in prison calling her to the service of God. Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie shared with each other their visions of creating a religious institute in the midst of danger for Roman Catholics in France. The original members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary founded new schools for poor children, seminaries to help grow the priesthood of their institute and parish missions throughout
Europe. In 1825 the evangelization of the
Sandwich Islands in the Pacific was entrusted by the Holy See to the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, and the following year the first band of missionaries of the Sacred Hearts left France. At the time of Father Coudrin's death in 1837, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary had 276 priests and brothers and 1125 sisters. In 1840 the Brothers founded a house in Louvain, Belgium. The Brothers settled in Spain (1880), the Netherlands (1892), England (1894) and the United States (1905). Teams of missionaries settled in the several
Pacific Ocean islands to spread the Gospel, build churches, and evangelize new faithful. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was particularly successful in the
Kingdom of Hawaii. They established what is now the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu and built the
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, the oldest Roman Catholic
cathedral in continuous use in the
United States. Hawaii's first six bishops, from 1833 to 1940, were members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Other churches founded by the institute include
Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Hilo and
Maria Lanakila Catholic Church on
Maui.
Sacred Hearts Academy (K-12, girls) and St. Patrick's School (elementary, co-ed) in the Honolulu neighborhood of
Kaimuki were both founded by the order.
Mission in the United States In 1833 Reverends Edmundo Demellier, S.S.C.C. and Petithomme, S.S.C.C. began to minister to the
Passamaquoddy people in Maine. The Congregation's first province in the United States was established 1846. In 1850 they established the Santa Inés Mission (Chumash), in Solvang, California. == Saints, Blesseds, and other holy people ==