She was married to the Dauphin of France on 9 February 1747, Maria Josepha of Saxony married Louis of France. The dauphin had been married to Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain who had died in childbirth in 1746. In France the Saxon princess was known as "Marie-Josèphe de Saxe". The dauphin mourned the death of his first wife but would eventually fall in love with Marie Josèphe. Like her husband, Marie Josèphe was very devout. She was the mother of some eight children, her favourite being Louis, Duke of Burgundy who died young. Politically reserved, she exerted herself only once, in 1762, in vain, for the preservation of the Society of Jesus in France. The Society had been dissolved by the King on the initiative of the duc de Choiseul and Madame de Pompadour.