GIOVANNA ELISABETTA BICHIER des AGES, saint. — Co-foundress of the Daughters of the Cross, known as the Sisters of S. Andrea, born on 5 July 1773 in the ancestral castle of “des Ages,” on the borders of Berry and Poitou; died at La Puye on 26 Aug. 1838.
In 1798 she first met S. Andrea Uberto Fournet (v.) and placed herself under his direction; in 1805 he proposed to her the founding of a religious congregation for the care of the sick and the education of girls, especially in the countryside. The first five Daughters of the Cross, as the new religious were called, pronounced their vows in Feb. 1807 at the castle of Molante, near Maillé, whence they moved in 1820 to La Puye, which became the motherhouse.
B. des A. devoted herself tirelessly to extending the Congregation, making numerous journeys through various provinces of France, especially in the south, so that she left nearly one hundred foundations. She was beatified on 13 May 1934 and canonized on 6 July 1947.