Servant of God. Joseph Louis Ravel is the Founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. Born on 24th August 1824 at Valeren, France, in a family of landlords, Servant of God. Ravel grew up in an environment of profound mysticism and entered the Major Seminary of Foreign Missions. He was ordained as a Catholic Priest on 17th June 1848.
Servant of God. Ravel's compassion, unshakeable faith, nobility, and astuteness made him take up a missionary assignment with the M.E.P. Priests at Coimbatore, with Karumathampatti as its headquarters.
To eradicate illiteracy, ignorance, intolerance and bias among the people, Fr.Ravel worked relentlessly categorizing himself with the people acquiring their idiom and civilization. A presbytery and a church at Wellington, the Church of Our Lady of Rosary at Karumathampatti are the fruits of his apostolic labour. Care for the sick, education of women and fighting the evils of castes were concerns close to his heart. These motivated him to begin the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in 1863. Savariammal, an uneducated village girl from Karumathampatti was the first postulant of this new congregation. Through her and many others like her Servant of God. Ravel succeeded in inculcating the great Law of Charity in the society.
After 32 years of productive and altruistic service as a devoted servant of God this noble soul, commended his spirit in the hands of Our Lord on 31st January 1881, inspiring his followers: "To live as the living teaching of the great law of charity, which is the true foundation and beautiful summary of the Christian religion".
