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The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is a Roman Catholic religious institute of brothers, priests, and nuns founded by Father Pierre Coudrin. The priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are also known as the Picpus Fathers, for their first house on the Rue de Picpus in Paris, France. The Congregation was founded during a time of religious and political upheaval in France caused by the French Revolution. Because of religious persecution in France, Pierre Coudrin was ordained to the priesthood in secret, then went into hiding in an attic for six months to avoid arrest. While in hiding, he had a vision of himself surrounded by a group of priests, brothers and sisters dressed in white robes, and illuminated by heaven. Understanding this to be a call to establish a religious institute, he left his hiding place and began an underground ministry, gatering together those who would become the nucleus of his new group. During this period, he met Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie, who had been imprisoned for hiding a priest. She told Coudrin of a vision she had while in prison calling her to the service of God. On Christmas Eve in 1800, Father Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie officially established the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, approved by the Holy See in 1817, as a single institute composed of a male and female branch of religious, as well as a lay branch. Members of the Congregation established schools and seminaries, and soon spread to other parts of the world. The Congregation was especially successful in the Kingdom of Hawaii, where it established what is now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, and built the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States. Hawaii's first six bishops were members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

 

 

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