The title Sisters of St. Joseph applies to several Roman Catholic religious congregations of women. The largest and oldest of these was founded in Le Puy-en-Velay

Le Puy-en-Velay

Le Puy-en-Velay is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France.Its inhabitants are called Ponots.-History:Le Puy-en-Velay was a major bishopric in medieval France, founded early, though its early history is legendary...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. This Congregation has approximately 14,000 members worldwide: about 7,000 in the United States; 2,000 in France; and are active in fifty other countries.

The Congregation was founded in Le Puy by the Jesuit Jean Paul Médaille

Jean Paul Médaille

Jean Paul Médaille was a French Jesuit missionary, and founder of an order of Catholic religious sisters.Médaille was born at Carcassonne, Department of Aude, France...

 on October 15, 1650.