The Catholic tradition names Saint Vincent de Paul the patron saint of charity. While today the term “charity” is sometimes caricatured as a Band-Aid approach to addressing social problems, the effective charity demonstrated by Vincent and Louise in seventeenth-century France, and the effective charity of the Vincentian family today, calls for a radically different understanding. The […]
The Vincentian Studies Institute is extremely pleased to promote the publication of our colleague and fellow board member’s new work. Dr. Brejon de Lavergnée is a Professor of History and the Dennis H. Holtschneider Chair of Vincentian Studies at DePaul University. “The Daughters of Charity are today the largest community of Catholic women, with 15,000 […]
Responses to injustice based only on charity may readily be maligned for not addressing the systemic issues that cause suffering to be perpetuated; yet, properly understood, charity should be seen as an essential part of transformative action and as the vital relational and affective dimension of justice. The word charity derives from the Latin, caritas, […]
A unique benefit of membership in a Vincentian institution is that we belong to a large global family who participate in and lead acts of service and justice every day. Such actions are manifest in a vast array of social, educational, and religious undertakings. Depending upon their context and geographical location these endeavors may look […]
“Charity is the cement that binds communities to God and persons to one another.” Vincent de Paul (CCD, 2:413) For some, charity is construed negatively because it is equated to paternalism or perhaps a band-aid – – an approach that fails to address the root causes of systemic injustice. When viewed this way, Vincent de […]
Saint: Vincent de Paul: His Perceived Christological Thought Pattern on Charity and Christ in the Poor. By Michael I. Edem, C.M. From the publisher: “The entire work is divided into three parts. Each part has its accompanying chapters with corresponding introductions and conclusions. It is the incarnation that necessitated the self-emptying and self-abasement of Christ. […]
“Soeur (Sister) Angèle must have been the first nun-detective in fiction. She is a Sister of Charity (an order, we are told, founded by Vincent de Paul) but is also a medical doctor, attached at first to the French hospital and orphanage in Bethlehem, although we never see her there. She had previously been Dr […]
The Vincentiana Collection in the Archives/Special Collections Department of DePaul University’s Richardson Library recently acquired this rare example of a mid to late 19th century French porcelain tisaniere (teapot) molded in the figure of a Daughter of Charity. This quaint example illustrates the popularity of the Daughters of Charity as the proto-typical “bonne soeurs” of […]
Histoire des filles de la Charité vol.2 Qui ne connaît, au moins par leur riche iconographie, les célèbres cornettes des Filles de la Charité ? Fondée par saint Vincent de Paul et Louise de Marillac au xviie siècle, la petite communauté parisienne a rapidement gagné la France des villes et des villages pour devenir la principale […]
A 1656 royal decree outlawed begging and private almsgiving in Paris and forcibly confined persons who were poor in various institutions of the General Hospital. These measures were later mandated throughout France until 1715. The poor were treated as enemies of the state because of their numbers and the violence, crime, and social unrest that […]