Bigard, Jeanne and Stephanie

BIGARD, JEANNE and STEPHANIE. - Mother and daughter, foundresses of the "Work of St. Peter the Apostle for the Native Clergy." The mother, Stephanie, b. at Mortagne (diocese of Séez) on 5 March 1834 and d. at Paris on 5 Jan. 1903; the daughter, b. also at Mortagne on 2 Dec. 1859 and d. at Paris on 2 Apr. 1934. Struck by tragic family bereavements, and educated in a deeply religious spirit, they offered their work and their savings to the financing of native seminaries, first in Japan, then in the other missions, and they devoted their whole lives to this work. They had come to know the missions through the "Apostolic Work" (v. missioni) and then through direct correspondence with missionaries and missionary bishops. The work, which arose in 1889, developed rapidly; it had, naturally, its struggles; it was recognized (1902) as a moral entity by the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland) and in 1904, given the foundress's always precarious health, it was entrusted to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, in whose convent at Fribourg the B. retired and then died. In 1920 the Work was taken over directly by the S. Congregation of Propaganda.

Giovanni B. Tragella