Sisters of the Christian Doctrine (Nancy)

The Sisters of the Christian Doctrine of Nancy (French: Sœurs de la Doctrine Chrétienne de Nancy) (D.C.) is a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church for women, whose primary mission is the teaching and nursing of the poor. Its members place after their names the order's initials, D.C. They are known as the "Vatelottines" in honor of their founder, and also "School Sisters", especially in Germany and Luxembourg, because of their primary mission. They should not be confused with the Spanish order of the Sisters of the Christian Doctrine (Mislata), which was founded in 1880.

In 1718, Jean-Baptiste Vatelot (1688 – 1748), a sacristan (later canon) at the Cathedral of Toul, founded a school for poor girls in the house of his father, Jean Vatelot (1666 – 1741), in Bruley, a village 4.33 kilometers (2.69 miles) northwest of Toul. He placed the school under the protection of St. Anne and entrusted the management of the school to three of his sisters, Marie, Françoise and Barbe. They were joined by another sister, Veronique, and other women as the partnership began to assume the direction of the rural schools of the diocese. The Bishop of Toul, François Blouet de Camilly (1664 – 1723), requested Father Vatelot to formulate the rules for the teachers. According to the Règlement [Regulations] outlined by the priest, the teachers were not bound by religious vows (they were bound to the sisterhood only by their oaths), not held to the cloistered life, not required to wear the religious habit and not even assigned to a house, but they could be sent in pairs to any of the parochial schools that required them.

In spite of the financial difficulties, Father Vatelot managed to buy a house in Toul in 1722 and named it the "Mother School" for the spiritual and professional training of the teachers. Influenced by the essays of St. Francis de Sales and St. Vincent de Paul, he wrote two booklets. One of them was "Christian Meditations" for the spiritual side under the title of Méditations chrétiennes à l'usage des Sœurs Maîtresses d'école du diocèse de Toul [Christian Meditations for the Usage of the Sister Schoolmistresses of the Diocese of Toul], published in 1839 in Nancy. The other was the "Familiar Method" for the professional side, under the title of Méthode familière pour les petites écoles contenant les devoirs des maîtres et des maîtresses d'école, avec la manière de bien instruire [Familiar Method for the Little Schools, containing the Duties of Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses for the Purpose of Good Teaching], published in 1749 in Toul. short, for the professional side. He intended them to help the Sisters in their guidance of their students to "be all that grows to the dimensions of the Son of God" [pour qu'en tous grandisse l'homme jusqu'à sa pleine dimension de fils de Dieu].