After being freed from her marriage, Joan retired to Bourges, where in 1501 she succeeded in founding a monastery in honor of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[1] The Rule of Life she wrote for her community is entitled The Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin, the imitation of which she proposed as the aim of the order.

It was confirmed by Pope Alexander VI and, on 8 October 1502, the first five members received the veil, the foundress herself taking solemn vows on 4 June 1503.

[1] Under Nicholas' guidance, new monasteries of the Order were founded in Albi (1507), Béthune (1516), Bruges (1517), Rodez (1519), Bordeaux (1520), Chanteloup (1529), and Louvain (1530).

The rapid expansion of the Order was due primarily to the patronage of the Archduchess Margaret of Austria, who had been betrothed in her infancy to the future King Charles VIII of France and brought up at the French royal court.

[3] Fleeing restrictions on and persecution of religious orders during the Third Republic, a monastery existed at Saint Margaret's Bay (Kent, England) from 1903 until 1976.