.
From her childhood Sophie Barat was deeply affected by Jansenism, a reform movement within the church in France, rooted in the theology of predestination. By the late 18th century Catholics in France were weighed down, first by an image of God which was severe, threatening and demanding, and then by the conviction that human nature was profoundly sinful, that human beings were incapable of doing any good act. It was considered almost impossible to make a good confession and communion, such was the sinfulness of the human being.

The impact of this devastating view of human nature meant that the practice of approaching God in  sacrament had diminished, especially among the male members of the population. As a child and young adult in Joigny Sophie imbibed these varying strands of  religious experience. The region of the Yonne was considered to be among the most jansenistic in France and it affected Sophie  profoundly.

In the course of her life Sophie Barat made an inner, spiritual  journey in the course of which she continually strove to transform her image of a severe, harsh God into one of warmth and love and vulnerability. It took great and continual efforts throughout her life to face into her own self-image, her image of God, her shadow self and the shadow self of her colleagues. On the one hand  the image of God could be cold, empty, harsh, critical and emotionally frozen. On the other hand it could be warm, full of energy, gentle, generous minded and vulnerable.

It was never easy and it demanded all her courage to trust enough to let go of old certainties, old burdens. Though her  leadership of the Society and founding of schools were the focus of her fame in the 19th century,  few glimpsed the private, reticent Sophie Barat behind the role and there, in that private space, she searched and found a God of warmth and tenderness. This discovery gave Sophie the courage to come to terms with herself and make sense of her life. She learnt painfully how to stand alone, in her own individuality.

This was a unique achievement and a task all face, in any age. Indeed her inner achievement had great, long term consequences for the image of the divine, of the holy, in our time. In her testament to the Society of the Sacred Heart, read after her death, she admitted she had only realised a part of what she had searched for all her life and that her journey was not over, nor was that of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

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