The one who was chosen to implant the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Savoy was one of the Black Daughters who had become a Sister of Saint Joseph under the name of Sister Saint John Marcoux. In following her life, one understands the value of this woman who enentually became the foundress of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chambery.

Suzanne Marcoux was born on the 3rd of May, 1785. Having lost her father, she was confided at a very young age to her uncle. Her parents by adoption showered her with tenderness, giving her a solid christian foundation and a good education. The young child was gifted in many ways, but suffered much because when she was only six, her teachers, the Ursulines, were dispersed by the Revolution, and because her uncle who had strongly defended rebel priests was driven into hiding. Suzanne was terrified by the searches that went on in her home.

From the time of her first profession, "...... the life of Sister Saint John Marcoux was not more than a series of painful undertakings, of transferrals, of humiliating calumnies in which her only support would be in heroic obedience and invincible patience." God had prepared for Mother Saint John a safe refuge against her persecutors in faraway Savoy,  where she was sent by her superiors with two companious; on August 2, 1812.