Sisters of the Incarnate Word in Brownsville celebrate 400th anniversary

The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament are still alive in Brownsville and working to make real the presence of Jesus in the world as they celebrate the 400th anniversary of their order’s founding in Roanne, France.

The Catholic religious order that until fairly recently administered Incarnate Word Academy on Resaca Boulevard got permission from Rome in 2023 to form a union among seven religious groups, said Sister Mary Irma Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the group.

Now, the local group is part of the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, which has about 600 members and is present in 12 countries around the world, whereas it used to be in just Texas, she said.

The new order has convent houses in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina and Uruguay in the Americas; France and Spain in Europe; and Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda in Africa.

The convent house in Brownsville is located where it has been for the last 20 years on Resaca Boulevard, where Incarnate Word Academy used to be and where the Villa Maria Language Institute still resides.

“The convent is still open. We have four Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament living there, and me, I come down periodically, but I also work in Corpus Christi as the regional treasurer. I’m going down this weekend,” Sister Gonzalez said.

“We have an associate’s meeting. Associates are lay people that have met us and like our vision, our charism. Our gift to the church is adoring, proclaiming, living extending the incarnate word of Jesus, who was made flesh. … Incarnate is to put to the flesh. So Jesus became a human being. The church refers to this manifestation of Jesus as the incarnation, he really became incarnate in Mary, and that’s our purpose, to evangelize, bringing people to Jesus, the Incarnate Word,” she said.

The Sisters of the Incarnate word and Blessed Sacrament were founded July 2, 1625, in Roanne, France, 400 years ago this summer. Its foundress was Jeanne de Matel. The family had a large residence Roanne. They were on the side of the wealthy when the French Revolution took place in 1792.

The associate’s meeting has been announced and will take place in March 2026, Gonzalez said.

The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, along with the Missionary Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate had a crucial role in the early history of the Rio Grande Valley.

Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament celebrate its 400th Anniversary at Villa Maria Language Institute (VMLI) in Brownsville, Texas during a press conference Tuesday, March 6, 2025, in Brownsville, Texas (Miguel Roberts | The Brownsville Herald)

“They were French and we came over with them in 1853 on a ship that sailed from France to the Port of New Orleans. And then we moved from New Orleans to Galveston and then from Galveston to Brownsville on schooners. And we had to come through Brazos Santiago on a light ship that landed at Port Isabel that at that time was named Point Isabel. And we were escorted to Brownsville because that was our destination, four sisters: Clare Valentine, the youngest, Ange Barre, Ethren Satin and Dominique (Revier.) In some ways she’s the famous one. The others opened a school in a week, worked with the Oblate fathers to build the building where they would live and added wings to it so they could house more students,” Gonzalez said.

Although Incarnate Word Academy has closed the sisters of the now Order of the Incarnate and Blessed Sacrament remain active in the community, primarily through the Villa Maria Language Institute on the onetime IWA campus.

“Definitely, in Brownsville there’s a need for language instruction. We teach English. We teach Spanish, we teach French, and in some cases if there’s a need we teach German. We have a sister who can teach German. It’s good. I feel that the more languages we know, the better. It broadens our horizons,” Gonzalez said.

The sisters teach language classes on their campus for a fee of about $500, as well as providing English instruction at Saint Eugene de Mazenod and San Felipe de Jesus Catholic churches and the Revival of the Cultural Arts center in downtown Brownsville.

The classes at the parishes and ROCA are funded through grants aimed at helping students who can’t afford the instruction to be able to come.

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