Who are we

The Institute of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart is an international Roman Catholic religious congregation of religious laymen dedicated to the formation of young people.  The Institute was founded in 1821 by Father André Coindre, a priest of the Diocese of Lyon, France.  The initial work in a refuge and vocational school for boys has evolved in response to the many needs of young people around the world.  Today, the Brothers serve in educational ministries of all types in more than 30 countries across five continents.

Governance

The Institute establishes a structure to best administer the mission of the community in a spirit of solidarity and collaboration as well as respecting the principle of subsidiarity.

The General Administration, based in Rome, consists of the Superior General and four General Councilors.  This leadership team is supported by the General Treasurer and the General Secretary.  Together these brothers coordinate the mission of the Institute around the world in light of the directives of the General Chapter.

The Institute is divided into twelve (12) provinces as well as four (4) delegations (most of which
is an integral part of a province). These provinces are further grouped into 4 conferences, who collaborate in a range of activities.  These conferences often have common formation programs and are established by language groups. The houses of Italy and Mozambique are missions of the Superior General in council. 

A community of brothers

From the Preamble to the Rule of Life:

To rescue young people from ignorance, to prepare them for life, and to give them a knowledge and love of religion, Father Andre Coindre, in 1821, founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

In the spirit of evangelism that marked the period, the founding of the Institute expressed a response to the needs of the time and place on behalf of neglected and dechristianized youth.

Father Coindre wanted the members of the Institute to be brothers living the values specific to the religious life and committing themselves in a stable way to the service of the Church and society.

As brothers, we commit our lives to the service of God and his people, especially through the formation of the young.  As brothers, we live in a community built on the values of the Gospel, among the people of God, hopeful that our life can inspire those same values in others.

With dedicated lay partners formed in the spirit of André Coindre, we accompany young people during their stages of educational and personal formation to help them fulfill their full potential.  As religious educators, we educate the young in faith and hope and love that they might know the wonder of God’s love and in their turn live out of that love and spread it to others. 

As our Rule states, we commit ourselves to live “as brothers of Christ, deeply united with him in
unceasing prayer, as brothers to our brothers in the common life, as brothers to everyone,
especially the neediest children and young people.”

History

Father André Coindre began his ministry as a priest in 1814 in the town of Bourg-en-Bresse near Lyon, France.  Working with laypeople in the town, he came to understand the plight of young people sent to prison for minor crimes and homelessness. When he was transferred to the parish of St. Bruno in Lyon, he continued that interest in these incarcerated young men while continuing his ministry as a parish priest and preacher.

In Lyon, he soon encountered Claudine Thévenet, a parishioner already leading a group of young women in a sodality of the Sacred Heart. As Claudine's spiritual director, Father Coindre encouraged her to found a community of religious women to rescue girls from the dangers of the streets. Today that community, the Religious of Jesus-Mary, is found worldwide and Claudine, known as Mother Marie St-Ignace, is recognized by the Church as a saint.

In 1818, with the support of businessmen and parishioners, Father Coindre began a refuge known as the “Pieux-Secours” (Pious Help) for the development of the young men he encountered in the local prisons. Three year later, wishing to give greater stability to the work and to focus it more deliberately on the formation of the whole person, spirit, soul, heart, mind and body, he gathered a group of ten men interested in this mission.  On September 30, 1821, these men took private vows in the chapel of Our Lady of Fourvière, in Lyon (France), becoming the first Brothers of the Sacred Heart.