Beaujeu, France

Jeanne Pierrett (Mother St. Pierre) was born May 22, 1845 in Beaujeu, France to Pierre and Claudine Cinquin - wealthy, cultured, well educated, and deeply religious. Jeanne's early education was received from the Ursuline nuns in Beaujeu, who fostered her intellectual as well as her spiritual development. In April 1868, at the age of 23, she asked for admission to the novitiate in Lyon to begin her preparation for missionary work as a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word.

She left Lyon for Texas that same year, and just a few months later in March 1869, she was sent to San Antonio to open a hospital there. She travelled with two professed Sisters, Madeleine Chollet and Agnes Buisson, to open what became Santa Rosa Infirmary. It was in the convent chapel of the Ursuline Sisters in San Antonio, that Pierre professed her religious vows on August 15, 1869.