in Amiens in northern France in September 1801 and Sophie travelled to this important provincial city in order to teach. Sophie made her vows, 7 June 1802. The new community and school grew quickly. A school giving classes to the poor of the town was opened. In December 1802, at the age of twenty-three, Sophie became Superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Expansion In November 1804, Barat traveled to Sainte-Marie-d’en-Haut, near Grenoble, in southeastern France, to receive a community of Visitation nuns into the Society. Among them was Philippine Duchesne, who would later introduce the Society to America and was canonized a saint in 1988. A second school was then established at Grenoble, followed by a third at Poitiers in western France. Father Varin envisioned an entire network of such schools and, after the first establishments in France, foundations were established in North America (1818), Italy (1828), Switzerland (1830), Belgium (1834), Algiers (1841), England (1842), Ireland (1842), Spain (1846), Holland (1848), Germany (1851), South America (1853), Austria (1853) and Poland (1857). Barat is credited with the twofold gift of intuition in the choice of persons fitted for office and trust of those in responsible posts. New foundations were always entrusted to other hands. In January 1806, Barat was elected Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1820, she called all if the superiors together in a council at Paris to establish a uniform course of studies for the quickly expanding network of Sacred Heart schools. The studies were to be serious, to cultivate the mind, and to create young women who would be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and perform good deeds in God's name. As foundations continued to multiply, Sophie saw the need for a greater degree of unity and sought the approval of the Vatican in Rome. By 1826, the Society of the Sacred Heart had received its decree of approbation from Rome. In 1832 Barat founded at Lyons the "Congregation of the Children of Mary" for former pupils and other ladies. In 1840, Barat averted a potential schism between the Vatican and the Archbishop of Paris. All of her sisters pressured her to choose sides, Sophie refused to do so and was able to heal the breach. Over the course of her 65 years as the superior general, Sophie and her Society survived the regime of Napoleon, saw France undergo