Brothers of the Sacred Heart

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic religious congregation founded in 1821 by the Reverend André Coindre (1787-1826). Its Constitutions were modeled upon those of the Jesuits, while its Rule of Life was based upon the Rule of Saint Augustine. Its members bind themselves for life by simple vows of religion. There are only a few priests in the Congregation, the vast majority of its members being lay Brothers, who live in community in accordance with the Congregation's Rule of Life. The objective purpose of the Congregation has evolved slightly over the years - though its fundamental mission remains centred on the education of the young: in asylums, parochial and select schools, and colleges.

André Coindre was a survivor of the chaos created in French society by the Reign of Terror at the end of the French Revolution. Though only a child at the time, out of this experience, he became committed to providing the moral, intellectual and religious development of the many boys left orphaned by the upheavals of this era. As a young man, Coindre entered the seminary of the Diocese of Lyon, France and eventually was ordained as a secular priest of the diocese. During his period of preparation for his ministry, he came to envision men and women trained to work with the poor through education.

The first steps toward a concrete expression of this vision took place with his participation in the foundation in 1815 of the Religious of Jesus and Mary by St. Claudine Thévenet, the daughter of a merchant in the silk trade, for which Lyon had become noted. Like Coindre, Thévenet had survived the horrors of the late Revolutionary period. She was not left unscathed, as she had to watch both her brothers being brutally murdered during that period.

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