Venerable Antoinette Fage (7 November 1824 – 18 September 1883) was a French Catholic nun. With Father Etienne Pernet, she founded the Little Sisters of the Assumption. She took the name Marie of Jesus.

Life

The daughter of Jean Fage, a soldier, she was born in Paris 7 November 1824. Her mother, a seamstress, was deserted by her husband. Desperately poor, her grandmother provided some assistance until her death in 1830. Antoinette was somewhat handicapped at a young age after suffering a fall which was not properly treated and damaged her spine. She remained disabled and her growth was stunted, leaving her below average height,^[1] her body twisted, with one shoulder higher than the other.

Antoinette was orphaned at the age of thirteen and cared for by friends of her grandparents. She later worked at a sewing workshop to support herself, and joined the Sodality of Our Lady of Good Counsel, whose members visited the poor to distribute food. She also became involved in the charitable activities of the Archconfraternity of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. She visited the poor with food and small offerings of money, becoming so well-known that in 1861, the Mesdames de Meynard asked her to become director of an orphanage for girls.^[2] When the orphanage could take in no more, she found families who would board the girls.

She met Etienne Pernet in 1864.^[3] Pernet told her of his plan to form a new religious order. In 1865, she formed the first community of the new order.^[4]

The congregation was officially approved by the Pope in 1897. By that time, the order had communities in England, Ireland and the United States.^[5]