Our History

Daughters of Wisdom

The Daughters of Wisdom trace their beginnings to 18th Century France. Founded by Saint Louis de Montfort and Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, the aim of the Daughters of Wisdom congregation was to seek Divine Wisdom.

St. Louis de Montfort walked among the poor and abandoned, telling the story of Jesus and how God, who created all, loves all and redeems all. In 1701, Blessed Marie Louise Trichet met Louis de Montfort. In a culture where the poor went unattended, Marie Louise was inspired to choose to live among the poor and dedicate her life to their concerns as a woman religious. From the experience of God as divine Wisdom came a deep desire in both Louis de Montfort and Marie Louise Trichet to fashion a way of living that would serve others and make divine Wisdom known and loved.

Over the centuries, the Daughters of Wisdom spread to other lands. Today, nearly 2,000 sisters in twenty-one countries seek Divine Wisdom in suffering humanity. They do this through lives of prayer and service, living a spirituality rooted in the Bible, especially in the Books of Wisdom and Proverbs. This spirituality was further developed in the book, The Love of Eternal Wisdom by Saint Louis de Montfort.

The work of the Daughters of Wisdom has occasionally brought them to martyrdom, for example, at the guillotine in the French Revolution and in Africa in the 1964 Congo massacre. In the Congo, American Daughter of Wisdom, Sister Mary Antoinette (Anne Donniacuo) was killed. Her icon, written by Rev. William Hart McNichols, SJ, is enthroned in the chapel at Wisdom House.

To discover more about the Daughters of Wisdom in the United States and abroad, click here: Daughters of Wisdom, USA Province and fdlsagesse.org.

Spruce Brook Farm

Our property, originally known as Spruce Brook Farm, was purchased in 1949 by the Daughters of Wisdom from the family of Margaret and Frederick Busk. The Busk family estate became a convent and novitiate for the Daughters of Wisdom, and was named Mary Immaculate Novitiate. In 1960, the center also housed Seat of Wisdom College and in 1967, the center began its transition into an interfaith retreat center with the presence hosting a Buddhist retreat.