SISTER JACQUES

Monique Bouregeois was born in Nantes and spent her childhood in a variety of places in France. At the age of 21 she moved to the then small perched village of Vence with her family. She began her nursing studies in the early 1940s an then moved temporarily to Nice. In 1942 she became a temporary night nurse for Henri Matisse, subsequently serving as his model as she continued other nursing assignments. At the height of W.W. II, she moved to Vence to Le Foyer Lacordaire where she was cared for as she recovered from a tuberculosis scare. In late 1943 she left for the Dominican Convent of Monteils and took her permanent vows as a Dominican Nun in 1946. She was then sent back to Vence and worked as a nursing sister. From 1946-1951 she worked closely with Matisse as he designed and then completed his masterpiece chapel - La Chapelle du Rosaire. In 1952, she left Vence, working temporarily in Paris, then on l'Ile de Ré. She finally became the Director of Les Embruns, rehabilitation Center in the small Basque town of Bidart where she continues to reside.