The Sisters of the Company of Mary, Our Lady are the members of a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Jeanne de Lestonnac (1556-1640) in France in 1607.

After a brief period as Cistercian nun, she envisioned the establishment of a new kind of religious community, whose essential task would availability to all those in need, most especially for the education of girls.

The following year, the foundation received the approval of King Henry IV, allowing for expansion in the Kingdom of France.

Five members of the new order completed their period of novitiate and took their religious vows on 10 December 1610, at which time the community established its first school for girls in Bordeaux.

[2] Houses were established in Béziers, Poitiers, and Lu Puy (1618), Périgueux (1620), Angen (1621), La Flèche and Riom (1622).

After the changes in canon law governing religious institutes resulting from the Second Vatican Council, the various independent monasteries of the Order united with the company.

[citation needed] Today the Company of Mary numbers about 1,500 members working in over 400 teaching institutions in 26 nations across the world.