She was born in Dijon, the eldest child of Jean de Xainctonge, a politician, and his wife, Lady Marguerite Collard, both members of the nobility.

[1] An uncloistered order of women, operating a free school for girls, was a new idea at that time, and de Xainctonge met with a great deal of resistance.

Nonetheless, on 16 June 1606, Anne opened the first convent of what would later become the Society of the Sisters of Saint Ursula of the Blessed Virgin,[4] in a house that had previously been a restaurant.

[5] In lieu of a religious habit, she and her companions adopted the simple black dress of the Spanish widows everywhere visible in the region of Dole, so as to render them inconspicuous in the streets on the rare occasions they had to leave the house.

[2] Due to her work she was considered a candidate for beatification soon after her death, but the French Revolution and other wars of the period led to the destruction of many documents.