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April 2010 St. Louise de Marillac After writing about St. Vincent de Paul in the last issue, this seems like the appropriate time to highlight the life of his good friend, St. Louise de Marillac. Although Louise de Marillac was born into a wealthy aristocratic family, her early life was anything but stable. She was born out of wedlock in 1591. Her father, a widower, acknowledged and raised her but did not legitimize her, and she apparently never knew her mother. When a new stepmother did not accept her, she was sent to be educated in a Dominican convent where her aunt was a nun. Then, in 1604, her father died and she was sent to live with an older woman to learn household management skills. She was devout, intelligent, introspective, and, for those times, well-educated. She had a desire for the religious life, but when she applied to the Capuchins in Paris, she was refused. When her uncle arranged a marriage for her, she accepted the hand of the man he had selected, Antoine de Gras, secretary to the queen (1613). They had one son, Michel, and Louise settled into a domestic life, truly caring for her husband and son while still finding time for parish works. Unfortunately, in 1621, her husband became ill and gradually declined until he died four years later. Antoine’s illness was a catalyst for Louise to reconsider a life of service. Already she was working with the Ladies of Charity, wealthy women whose good works helped the poor. But the severity of her husband’s condition sank Louise into depression and caused her to consider her own future. Two years before his death Louise had a vision, giving her encouragement in nursing her husband and also indicating that she would later have an opportunity to give Christian service to the poor. About the time that poor Antoine died, Louise met Vincent de Paul, which was the beginning of a long friendship and relationship in service to the poor. Louise was looking for a way to serve the Lord; Vincent de Paul recognized her intelligence and organizational skills. Louise continued to seek guidance and to reflect on the best course of action for herself. In 1629, she accepted the mission of Confraternities of Charity and went to work. She applied intelligence and stamina to the tasks of reviewing the adequacy of service and financial accounts at various mission sites as well as encouraging the workers to maintain a Christian attitude in their work. With Vincent de Paul, Louise began organized charity in France. (Remember the brutal Thirty Years’ War which raged over Europe, 1618 – 1648.) Four years later, in 1633, she recruited four young women to be the core of her service group. She specifically chose young women from the ‘working’ class as she realized that they would have a deeper understanding of the needs of the poor than would women from easier circumstances. In the early years of her work, Louise used her own home as the training center for the group which eventually became the Sisters of Charity. The women dressed simply and worked wherever there was need – from hospital ward to humble home. The need was so great and the desire among many young women to help was so strong that the group grew quickly, always monitored by Louise, always deferring to Vincent de Paul for ruling on how they should be organized. All the while that Louise was working with desperately poor and troubled people, she kept a deep spiritual reference in her life. Throughout the mid 1630s, Louise’s group grew – not bound by vows or settled in one place, but organizing and managing hospital services first in Paris and later spreading to other cities in France. In 1639, Louise and three other Sisters traveled to Angers, about 190 miles southwest of Paris to organize a satellite version of the Sisters. Her team managed to coordinate the points of view of the city government and the medical community of Angers to form a cooperative system of dealing with patients in the local hospital. This careful program and attention to details became the model for the Sisters, a plan which is still in use today. Although the plan for care began with the sick, it was expanded to care for many others: orphans, prisoners, infirm and mentally ill, and soldiers in the field. The next step expanded into education as well. In 1642, Vincent de Paul finally agreed to the Sisters’ taking vows. They worked together, prayed together, and tried to live their lives in imitation of Christ. Louise de Marillac thought of “letting go of her personal plan and surrendering to God’s will” (Wikipedia). A balance between religious contemplation and community activity was encouraged in the members of the order. The Sisters continued their work: the first group of Daughters sent outside of France went to Warsaw in 1652. And in 1655, the Company of the Daughters of Charity was officially organized, received approbation by the Archbishop of Paris, and held their first election of officers. All this time, Louise kept on working, urging the Sisters on with encouragement and prayer. The original chapter house in Paris grew to more than forty houses by the time Louise died on March 15, 1660, at the age of 68. Saint Vincent de Paul outlived her by six months. Louise became Saint Louise de Marillac, canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1934. Her feast day is March 15; she is revered as the Patroness of social workers. A note about the Orders of Charity: The Ladies of Charity were the original helpers. They were wealthy volunteers who aided in helping the sick and the poor; they gave money but did not dedicate their lives to the cause. St. Louise favored the term Sisters of Charity while St. Vincent preferred Daughters. The Order exists today as the Daughters of Charity, but ‘Sisters’ is also used. Sources: AmericanCatholic.org – http://www.americancatholic.org Catholic Online – http://www.catholic.org/saints The Vincentian Center: Louise de Marillac – http://www.vincenter.org/res/word/ldmlife.html The Vincentian Center: St. Louise de Marillac – Chronology – http://www.vincenter.org/vdp-ldm/chronl.html Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_de_Marillac To top of page |