To this end, Alphonse was baptized and soon entered the Society of Jesus, where he spent several years. In 1843 Theodore founded a small community of women who wished to collaborate with him in the education of Jewish children, starting with two Jewish sisters who had come to him for guidance and later converted to Christianity. In 1850, with the permission of the pope and of the Jesuit Superior General, Alphonse left the Society to join his brother and his work. Together the Ratisbonne brothers established the Congregation of the Fathers of Our Lady of Sion in 1852.