History

From the beginning, education has always been the chief mission of the Sisters of St. Louis. Within days of their installation in Juilly, they had opened a school for the village girls and shortly after, there followed a boarding school, an orphanage and finally, in 1859 a teacher training college. In this same year two even more important events took place: the Institute was officially recognised by the State and secondly, the first Irish foundation was made. Already a number of foundations had been made in the Paris region but this venture into the English-speaking world was a new departure. Meanwhile Juilly continued to thrive but the Prussian invasion of 1870 and the political upheavals which followed, spelt trouble for the Church and the religious orders in France. In the early years of the twentieth century the long-lasting struggle for control of education resulted in the closure by order of government, of all schools run by religious. Juilly boarding school was closed down in 1906 and remained closed until 1919 when it was quietly reopened under the name of Cours Bautain. It is now a day school catering for boys and girls from the age of six to fifteen.

The closure of the school did not affect the orphanage or the charitable works the Sisters were engaged in: village records pay tribute to the services they rendered when as yet there was neither doctor nor pharmacy in Juilly. But the economic hardship brought about by two world wars, together with a decline in vocations to the religious life took their toll and if Juilly was to continue its mission, it needed help. And that was how the Irish branch of the Institute, which had developed separately, came back to the place of its origin.