His Work
Father Henri Caffarel’s founding activity stems from a conviction: the call to holiness. He launched various movements to guide lay people towards holiness. He responded to calls and needs, and did so as an educator concerned to be understood and to encourage others, in keeping with his invitation, “Let us seek together.”
The Teams of Our Lady
The Teams of Our Lady are a movement founded by Father Henri Caffarel and four couples, who wished to experience all the riches of their sacrament of marriage. The movement invites couples to journey in a team accompanied by a priest. Founded in 1939, there are now 74,000 couples in 92 countries (2025).
Fraternité Notre-Dame de la Résurrection
La Fraternité Notre-Dame de la Résurrection is a movement of consecrated widows, who offer their lives to the Lord continuing to live in the world. Founded in 1943 with a group of widows accompanied by Father Henri Caffarel, there are now 300 members in France and Africa.
Espérance et Vie
Espérance et Vie is a movement that grew out of the Spiritual Group of Widows, founded by Father Henri Caffarel and young widows, and became an association in 1945. It is a Christian movement for the early years of widowhood and for supporting widowers and widows.
The Intercessors
The Intercessors grew out of the Watchers founded by Father Henri Caffarel in 1959 to pray for Christian marriage and the family. The Intercessors can choose to pray for an hour every month, to fast, or to offer up the sorrows and joys of their daily lives.
Father Henri Caffarel also initiated, with the help of Father Pierre Joly and Father Alphonse d’Heilly, Marriage Preparation Centres, that emanated from spiritual retreats for engaged couples organised from 1944 onwards.
The House of Prayer of Troussures
The House of Prayer of Troussures was opened in 1966 by Father Henri Caffarel to welcome all those who wished to be introduced to prayer. The Weeks of Prayer offered sessions in complete silence for six days “to experience God.” Troussures welcomed 25,000 people over thirty years.
This work continues through the initiatives offered by Teams of Our Lady at the House of the Couple, Massabielle (in Saint-Prix, Val d’Oise), and above all through the importance given to interior prayer in Teams of Our Lady and their Schools of Prayer.
