The Congregation was born in France in the middle of the 19th century, under the inspiration of Marie Therese de Soubiran. She was a native of Castelnaudary, a small town in the region known as Lauragais in the south of France. It was here that she first founded a Beguinage, but 10 year later, she transformed this into a religious Congregation under the title of Marie Auxiliatrice.
In 1874, she was expelled from the Congregation by a scheming religious.
She was to spend the last 15 years of her life in the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity in Paris, where she died on 7th June 1889.
From the exile of the Foundress until the resignation in 1890 of the usurper who had become Superior General, the Congregation went through a period of great instability. But a time of revival was to follow, under the leadership of Marie Elisabeth de Luppe, assisted by Marie Angele Remes.