Source: ACF, 3S2 /28.5, memento.

Monsignor Joseph Hippolyte Guibert played a special role in the expansion of the Congregation in France in the 19th century. By 1890 (he died in 1886), six of the eleven existing French Cenacles owed their foundation to him, either directly or indirectly.

Bishop of Viviers between 1842 and 1857, Bishop Guibert saw the Congregation grow in his diocese and in Lyon. It was he who supported the Archbishop of Paris in the project to found the Cenacle in the capital in 1850, at the invitation of the Jesuits. Archbishop of Tours from 1857 to 1871, he called the Congregation there, and the sisters opened a house in July 1862. In October of the same year, he visited it in the company of Bishop Lavigerie, who, having become Bishop of Nancy in 1863, in turn called the Cenacle. That house was established in 1864. Appointed Archbishop of Paris in 1871, Bishop Guibert, along with the civil and religious authorities, supported the project to establish the Cenacle in Lille. This goal was achieved in 1877. The Congregation agreed to establish a house in Marseille in 1883 largely due to the insistence of Bishop Robert (1819-1900), former secretary to Bishop Guibert in Viviers. Finally, shortly before his death in 1886, Bishop Guibert invited the Congregation to establish a Cenacle in Montmartre, on the hill where he had begun work on the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The decision to establish a presence there was made, and a house was founded shortly afterwards in 1890.