One day, while making his thanksgiving after Holy Mass in the loft of a bar where he had been hiding for some months, he had a vision. He seemed to see himself and an unknown woman as founders of a new congregation of men and women, whose members would kneel before the Blessed Sacrament day and night in reparation to the Sacred Hearts for the crimes of sinners. At the same time, he saw white-clad missionaries carrying the message of the Gospel and the love of the Sacred Hearts to pagans in far-off islands.
Soon after, Divine Providence guided his steps to Poiters, where he became spiritual director of a small group of women, banded together under the title of "Society of the Sacred Heart," whose purpose was to make perpetual adoration and to carry on works of mercy. Among these ladies was a young noble woman, Countess Henriette de la Chevalerie. The countess, saved from death at the guillotine by the death of Robespierre only a short time before, had joined the society upon her release from prison and had become the most fervent of the adorers. When Father Coudrin saw her, he recognized her as the woman he had seen in the vision in the barn at La Motte. Soon after, she became co-foundress of the new congregation.
A property was purchased on the Rue de Picpus in Pris, adjoining the famous Picpus Cemetery, wherein are buried are some 1700 victims of the guillotine and famous members of the French nobility, including Lafayette. The task of praying in perpetuity for their souls was entrusted to the new congregation by
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