Jeanne Chézard de Matel, OVISS (6 November 1596 – 1670) was a French Catholic mystic who founded the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, whose rule and constitution were approved in 1633 with the principal objective of youth education.

She was the daughter of Jean Chézard, a French army officer and nobleman, and his wife, Jeanne Chaurier, whose first four children were stillborn or had died as infants.

[2] On July 2, 1625, at age twenty-nine, guided by her spiritual directors, Jeanne began the work of founding the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament with two companions in Roanne, but soon moved to Lyon.

At the early stages, she thought of naming the Order after the Lamb of God, whose peace would bring about “a gentle, peaceful relationship between God and our soul.” Yet in prayer and discernment, Jesus is said to have revealed to her that the name of the Order was to be only “Incarnate Word, for in this is expressed all of who I am.” Monseigneur de Miron, the Archbishop of Lyon, died unexpectedly after having occupied the archepiscopal See for only two years.

Against all odds, Jeanne de Matel received the habit of the order she had founded and made her religious profession, a few hours before her death in the early morning of September 11, 1670.

Many struggled to remain faithful to their commitment to the Incarnate Word, protecting the relics and writings of Jeanne, and the other guiding documents of their Order.

After a 3-month voyage and 7 months in Galveston learning English and Spanish, the Sisters landed at then Point Isabel in the middle of January, 1853, and traveled to Brownsville.

[6] Jeanne de Matel is referenced frequently in the novel The Cathedral by Joris-Karl Huysmans where the central character, Durtal, contemplates writing her biography.