PERNET, ÉTIENNE. - Assumptionist, founder of the Little Sisters of the Assumption, b. at Velleson (diocese of Besançon) on 23 July 1824, d. in Paris on 3 Apr. 1899.
Having entered the ecclesiastical career, when the time for priestly ordination arrived, he was terrified by the lofty dignity of the priesthood, fled from the Seminary, nor did his superiors, who esteemed him, succeed in overcoming his reluctance. The struggle lasted more than two years, after which he entered among the Assumptionists (1850). Then the founder, Fr. d'Alzon, obliged him to be ordained a priest (3 Apr. 1857). In 1865 Antoinette la Fage, whom he directed, communicated to him her plan to found a new congregation of religious women, called the Little Sisters of the Assumption, who were to devote themselves to the care of the sick in their homes. The Father drew up its constitutions, which the Cardinal of Paris approved, and they received the decree of praise in 1879. The Father moreover founded three associations of lay persons: the "Ladies Servants of the Poor," to help the sisters in the assistance of the poor and the sick; the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Assumption, made up of working fathers of families, to preserve their fellow workers from evil and direct them to good; the "Fraternity of St. Monica," made up of women, for the apostolate among their colleagues. The cause of beatification was introduced on 30 March 1931.
Bibliography
Celestino Testore