A branch of the Association of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, founded in France in 1820 by Pierre-Bienvenu Noailles, a canon of that city, who conceived the idea of founding a congregation in which Christians of every class of life might lead a life of perfection. In 1820 he placed the first three members of the Holy Family in a house at Bordeaux, under the name of the Ladies of Loreto. As the numbers increased the sisters were divided by their founder into two categories: