Main Stream: Visitandines

The charism of the Visitandine Nuns is a contemplative life marked by humility, gentleness, and loving surrender to God, inspired by the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Their vocation emphasizes interior devotion rather than external austerity, fostering a spirituality accessible to all through patience, kindness, and trust in divine providence. Within the enclosure, Visitandines devote themselves to liturgical prayer, mental prayer, and quiet fidelity to ordinary duties, offering their lives as a gentle yet powerful witness to God’s love for the Church and the world.

The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary was founded in 1610 in Annecy, France, by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Originally envisioned as a congregation open to women who were unable to endure the severe austerities of other orders, the Visitation emphasized charity, humility, and interior holiness. However, following ecclesiastical directives of the time, the Order adopted papal enclosure, becoming a contemplative monastic institute. Despite this change, the gentle and pastoral spirituality of its founders remained central. The Order spread rapidly throughout Europe and later to the Americas and Asia, and its monasteries continue today as places of prayer, serenity, and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Visitation Monastery, Annecy (France) 📩 annecy.visitation@gmail.com