Magdalena Sofia Barat (1779–1865)

Biography

Her priest brother, eleven years older than her, was in charge of her training, and he was very severe. Later, a Jesuit priest, Father Varin, took her under his direction, who knew how to lead her to carry out her project of an institution aimed at the education of young girls from the “world”, that is, from the nobility and upper bourgeoisie. Beginning the following year, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, as they were called, founded a boarding school in Amiens; In 1815 the institution received its constitutions, modeled on the Jesuits; In 1850 he owned sixty-five houses in France and abroad. Mother Barat led them for sixty-five years. She was an unparalleled educator who did with her disciples exactly the opposite that her brother did with her: dilated and freed their souls instead of tyrannizing and constricting them.