Madeleine Sophie Barat was canonised by the Catholic Church in 1925. This is the first major biography of Sophie Barat since the late 19th century. It peels away the shrouds of hagiography and sainthood, and re-establishes her as an educator, a woman of the church and an individual in her own right.

Born in France on the eve of the Revolution, Madeleine Sophie Barat was caught up in the movement to restore and recreate a society devastated by violence and war. She founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1800. This community of women developed an educational project which was rooted in France and soon spread internationally. Sophie Barat led this rapidly expanding congregation of women for sixty-three years; by the time of her death the Society numbered 3,359 members.

Madeleine Sophie Barat: A Life tracks her development from her childhood in the Bourgogne, to her death in Paris in 1865. Her life was marked by several profound movements in French society; the volatile political situation and the tangled complexities of Gallicanism and Ultramontanism. The book also explores her own inner journey, from her dark Jansenistic roots to her developing belief in a loving God. She tried to share this with her colleagues and hoped it would influence the Society’s work of education. Within a turbulent and changing world Sophie Barat created new places and spaces for the education of women which had an impact on society far beyond her own expectations and lifetime.

This major new biography was specially commissioned by the Society of the Sacred Heart to commemorate the 200th anniversary of their foundation. Phil Kilroy has had unprecedented access to the abundant material held in the Society’s archives around the world, and to the material held in public archives in France and Italy.

Home Introduction Who was Sophie Barat? Sophie Barat - Educator

My Own Vintage - Reflections on Madeleine Sophie Barat

Sophie Barat - Leadership Sophie Barat - Legacy The New Biography