 In 1847 she became a pupil of the Religious of the Sacred Heart at Marmoutier, remaining there four years, and thereafter fell into the circle of Peter Julian Eymard, a priest from Lyon who had changed the orientation of his vocation towards Eucharistic worship.This was however a period during which the Rissorgimento had virtually frozen all overt Vatican activity, and much irregular activity was approved at Diocesional levels.Following the death of the latter in 1869, in 1871 she moved to Ars in eastern France in the hopes that the supernatural powers of vocational discernment associated with the Blessed Jean Vianney, a friend of Eymard's who lived and is buried there, would guide her.