louise de marillac

Serving from the Heart

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May you never take the attitude of merely getting the task done…

“As for your conduct toward the sick, may you never take the attitude of merely getting the task done. You must show them affection; serving them from the heart; inquiring of them what they might need; speaking to them gently and compassionately.” Louise de Marillac (Spiritual Writings, p. 773)

Louise de Marillac spent many years in active ministry directly serving those on the margins. She was an accomplished leader whose deep sense of compassion infused all her actions. Over the course of her life, Louise organized and administered a broad spectrum of works in healthcare, education, and social welfare. These works continue worldwide today through the efforts of the Daughters of Charity, the religious community of women she co-founded with Vincent de Paul.

In the tradition of Vincentian personalism, every day at DePaul we are presented with opportunities to serve from our heart and demonstrate acts of compassion. How do you see your work continuing this legacy?

Louise de Marillac enters St. Peter’s Basilica

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The Vincentian Studies Institute recently purchased two photographs from February 1954 that capture the delivery of the monumental statue of Saint Louise de Marillac to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.   Louise’s canonization took place in 1934.  Her statue became the thirty-ninth and last, to fill one of the internal niches of St. Peter’s.  The sheer size of the sculpture emerges in scale against the figures of the various workers.  The photographs will join the Vincentiana collection at the Archives and Special Collections Department of DePaul University’s, John T. Richardson Library.

 

Feast Day of St. Louise de Marillac

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Thursday, May 9, marked the Feast Day of St. Louise de Marillac, the Patron Saint of Social Work in the Catholic Church. Louise worked hand in hand with St. Vincent de Paul to care for the sick and poor in 17th Century France, and together they co-founded the Daughters of Charity, which is the largest order of Religious Sisters in the world today. Louise was a mother and wife; she had better hand writing than the Queen Regent of France; she was one of the pioneers of Social Work as we know it today, and above all, she saw the humanity and inherent dignity of every person that she met. Mission and Ministry invites you to learn more about St. Louise de Marillac and encourages you to think about how you can relate to this exemplary person 400 years after she left her mark on the world.

 

Vincent and Louise: A Model for Teamwork

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When Louise de Marillac first discovered that Vincent de Paul had been assigned to be her new spiritual director, she stated, “It was repugnant for me to accept him.” While it is hard to know exactly what was behind Louise’s sentiments, it is clear that she was not pleased by the idea of working together with this Gascon peasant. However, as time went on, Vincent and Louise developed a deep and effective collaboration that would transform service to the poor and marginalized in seventeenth-century France and beyond. From a less than promising start, their friendship lasted 35 years, and their work together created a living legacy of which we are all part.

Think back to an instance when your initial perception of a work relationship changed over time. What did you learn from this experience?

A.2, Light, in Louise de Marillac, et al., Spiritual Writings of Louise De Marillac: Correspondence and Thoughts (New City Press, 1991), 1.

VHRN Newsnote: Second Volume of the History of the Daughters of Charity published by Fayard

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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 congrégation de sœurs actives à la fin de l’Ancien Régime. «  La rue pour cloître  »  : telle était la règle de vie originale de ces femmes, ni cloîtrées ni mariées mais célibataires vouées au service des pauvres.
Après un premier tome consacré à la période moderne, Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée aborde ici les deux siècles suivants, entre Révolution française et Deuxième Guerre mondiale. «  Le temps des cornettes  »  : c’est celui d’un nouveau contrat social entre États et Églises pour répondre aux pauvretés de l’âge industriel comme à la forte demande d’éducation, de santé et de loisirs des sociétés urbanisées. Sensibles à la conjoncture politique, les Sœurs de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul connaissent aussi exil et martyre en France, au Mexique ou en Chine. L’échelle des cornettes est désormais globale, de l’Europe à ses espaces coloniaux comme aux nouveaux mondes américains. Missionnaires, elles exportent un culte marial si français depuis les apparitions de Catherine Labouré en 1830. Mais encore institutrices, infirmières, éducatrices ou syndicalistes, elles accompagnent les nouveaux fronts de la professionnalisation féminine au xxe siècle. Elles contribuent ainsi à redessiner les rapports de genre au sein de sociétés dures aux femmes. Féministes, les bonnes sœurs  ? La question mérite d’être posée.
C’est tout l’intérêt de cet ouvrage, appuyé sur de riches archives, que d’évoquer avec rigueur le rôle capital joué par des générations de femmes qui ont lié horizon spirituel et travail social.

Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée est agrégé et docteur en histoire, maître de conférences habilité à la Sorbonne. Il est spécialiste d’histoire sociale et religieuse, et s’attache en particulier à une histoire de la charité, de la philanthropie et de l’assistance.

EAN :
9782213709796
EAN numérique :
9782213711102
Code article :
2028653
Histoire
Parution :
30/05/2018
700pages
Format :
153 x 235 mm

Newsnote: Capucines Convent, Paris 17th century

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This postcard recently added to the Vincentiana Collections at DePaul University’s Archives and Special Collections depicts part of the famous Convent of the Capucines to which Louise de Marillac was denied admission. The Capucines had arrived in Paris representing the cloistered women of the Capuchin reform which in the previous century had been introduced into the Franciscan order. The large convent was located at the site of the present Place Vendome in Paris. The depiction above is from 1705.

Newsnote: Honore de Champigny, O.F.M. Cap., (1566-1624)

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The Vincentiana Collection at DePaul University’s Archives and Special Collections has acquired a rare copy of the 1864 biography of Charles Bochart de Champigny (in religion Honore). Champigny was the superior of the French Capuchins who is said to have turned down the request of the young Louise de Marillac to enter the new convent of the Capuchin nuns which had been established in Paris. Interestingly the biography makes no mention of his role with this convent, although it talks about his role as a reformer of several convents of other orders in Paris. After his death in 1624 both Louis XIII and Louis XIV supported opening his cause of canonization. However, Champigny’s cause never progressed passed the recognition of the heroicity of his virtues in 1898.

Newsnote: New Louise de Marillac book published by New City Press

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Louise de Marillac, born out of wedlock into an aristocratic family, young widow and mother of a son, fully committed her life to all those who were suffering, regardless of who they were. In Paris together with St. Vincent de Paul she founded a community of Sisters, who dedicated themselves to care for the sick and for the poor. The Daughters of Charity, one of the largest Catholic women religious communities are active today in more than 100 countries. Available from Amazon.com

Praying with Louise de Marillac – Introduction

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Louise de Marillac was a wife, mother, widow, teacher, nurse, director of the Confraternities and Ladies of Charity, and cofounder with Vincent de Paul of the Daughters of Charity.  Patron of Social Workers, Louise knew personal suffering, and she also knew the suffering of God’s poor people.  She was an organizer, a radical thinker who lived life intensely and whose quest was to do the will of God with a deep faith in divine providence.

Praying with Louise de Marillac is a book in the Companions for the Journey series of meditation guides on Christian spirituality.  Authored by Audrey Gibson, DC, and Kieran Kneaves, DC, it was published by Saint Mary’s Press,  Christian Brothers Publications, Winona, Minnesota, in 1995.  ISBN O-88489-329-4  Copies may be obtained directly from the publisher or on-line at www.amazon.com

 

Newsnote: Exciting Purchase: “Ex Libris Ludovici de Marillac”

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The Vincentiana Collection at DePaul University’s Archives and Special Collections today acquired a 1637 edition of the Roman Pontifical (Bishop’s Sacramentary) issued under the authority of Pope Urban VIII and the Archbishop of Paris. The volume belonged to Saint Louise de Marillac and is autographed: “ex libris Ludovici de Marillac.” This is an important and exciting purchase to add to DePaul University’s growing Vincentian Special Collections.