Anne-Marie Javouhey, SJC (November 10, 1779 – July 15, 1851) was a French nun who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny.

She was born in the commune of Chamblanc,[1] the fifth of ten children of a local wealthy farm couple, Balthazar and Claudine Javouhey.

Through her teen years, she helped to hide and care for a number of priests persecuted by the French Revolution, including keeping watch for them as they said Mass.

She made a private vow when she was nineteen years old, but was not able to become a nun because the revolutionary government had closed convents and churches.

She founded the Sisters of St. Joseph at Cabillon in 1805 to educate children and to help reduce the miseries which arose out of the French Revolution.

She received permission from the government to use a former seminary which had become national property and there educated young girls and trained them for work.

In 1822, the institute was present in Guyana and Guadeloupe; At the request of the British government, she left for St. Mary's in Gambia, a holding place for about 400 slaves taken from Moorish vessels.

[6] Once back in France, Javouhey realized that she needed to re-establish control of the mission on Île Bourbon, and sent her sister Rosalie to take charge.

In 1828, she returned to the area, at the request of the French government to assist in preparing a group of African slaves for emancipation.

There were no scenes or other troubles at the emancipation and liberation of this group of slaves as marked similar occasions in other French colonies.