BERNARDINE OF ESQUERMES. — Three French Cistercian nuns, expelled by the Revolution and returned to their homeland in 1797, resolved to live together and opened a boarding school in Douai, which they transferred two years later to Esquermes, near Lille. In 1827 an attempt was made to restore the community of Esquermes to the observance of the Cistercian Rule, but the boarding school, which had meanwhile grown considerably, was ill-suited to the demands of a life eminently contemplative. New constitutions were therefore drawn up and approved by the Holy See in 1901, and other houses were opened in other cities, so that today the Institute numbers eight with about 300 nuns devoted to the instruction and education of young women.
Enciclopedia Cattolica