Under the direction of their leader, Jeanne Adrian adruab, they formed a community and, in 1675, asked the archbishop of Lyon, Camille de Neuville, to allow them to open a combination of school and hostel where they could instruct unschooled poor girls.

[1] In 1685, the Filles de Saint-Nizier, as they were commonly called, accepted the management of St. John's Hospital in the city of Valence (Drôme) which became the headquarters of the Congregation.

In 1727, the Congregation was given legal recognition by King Louis XV, and, ten years later, Bishop Millon of Valance updated their Rule, aligning it with their increased involvement in the hospital and teaching ministries.

[3] In the effort to keep the Congregation alive, Mother Blanche-Agnès Dubost succeeded in having the autonomous hospitals of Valence, Montélimar and Crest form a corporation legally recognized by the Consulate (1810).

A steady growth in membership followed the disruption of the Revolution and occasioned the opening of new convents, schools, hospitals, day clinics, homens for the aged and orphanages throughout France and, from 1840 on, in North Africa.

A series of anticlerical laws issued by the French government that year caused the Sisters to lose seventy schools throughout France and Algeria.

So it was that the Congregation expanded to England (1886), Switzerland (1891), Belgium (1895), Italy (1903), Madagascar (1928), Gabon (1963), USA (1964), Spain (1968), Ireland (1977), South Korea (1985), Colombia (1986), Cameroon (1996), China (1996), and Peru (2007).

They are in Europe: France, England, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy; in Africa: Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Madagascar; in America: Canada, Colombia and Peru; in Asia: China, South Korea, Philippines and Vietnam.