Sainte Louise de Marillac
Fondatrice des Filles de
la Charité (+1660)
Louise est la nièce du
chancelier royal Michel de Marillac et du maréchal Louis de Marillac, arrêtés
tous deux et condamnés à mort par Richelieu après la "Journée des
Dupes" du 10 novembre 1630. Fille naturelle d'un grand seigneur, elle est
élevée par les religieuses dominicaines de Poissy. En 1613, mariée à un simple
bourgeois, elle devient Mademoiselle Le Gras. Son fils Michel lui donnera
beaucoup de soucis. A 34 ans, elle se retrouve veuve. C'est alors qu'elle
rencontre saint
Vincent de Paul. Subjuguée par la charité contagieuse du prêtre, elle
devient rapidement sa collaboratrice dans toutes ses actions charitables. En
1633, ils fondent ensemble la "Compagnie
des Filles de la Charité", appelée communément Sœurs de Saint
Vincent de Paul. Louise, supérieure de la nouvelle communauté, oriente les
sœurs vers tous les exclus de son temps : elle crée des petites écoles pour les
fillettes pauvres; elle organise l'accueil et l'éducation des enfants trouvés;
elle développe la visite à domicile pour les malades pauvres; elle envoie des
sœurs auprès des galériens... Une passion l'habite: l'amour de l'homme créé à
l'image de Dieu et racheté par le sang de son Fils unique. Comme Monsieur
Vincent, elle mourra à la tâche. Son corps repose à Paris au 140 rue du Bac.
Elle a été béatifiée en
1920, canonisée par Pie XI en 1934; en 1960, Jean XXIII la déclare patronne de
tous les travailleurs sociaux chrétiens.
Vidéo
chronique des saints sur la webTV de la CEF.
- Rendant hommage à
sainte Louise de Marillac, 'à qui Monsieur Vincent confia l'animation et la
coordination des Charités', le Pape appelle à redécouvrir 'cette finesse et
cette délicatesse de la miséricorde qui ne blesse jamais ni n'humilie personne
mais qui relève, redonne courage et espérance'. (le
15 mars 2017, Le Pape encourage une 'culture de la miséricorde' à la suite de
saint Vincent de Paul)
- Louise de Marillac
(1591-1660)
Durant de longues années,
Louise de Marillac est une femme habitée par l'anxiété, la culpabilité. Du fait
de sa naissance illégitime, hors mariage, elle est rejetée par sa famille,
placée dans des institutions...
Figures
de sainteté - site de l'Eglise catholique en France
Sainte
Louise de Marillac - diocèse de Paris
À Paris, en 1660, sainte
Louise de Marillac, veuve, qui sans négliger l'éducation de son fils, fonda les
Filles de la Charité, sous la direction de saint Vincent de Paul, et forma par
son exemple ses compagnes au soin des malades, à l'instruction religieuse des
enfants pauvres, mais surtout à la prière et à la confiance dans le Seigneur.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/810/Sainte-Louise-de-Marillac.html
Statue de sainte Louise de Marillac avec deux enfants, face à la chapelle qui lui est dédiée, quartier Bois-Luzy, Marseille 12e. Inscription sur le socle : "Sainte Louise de Marillac protégez Bois-Luzy"
Sainte Louise de Marillac
Louise est la nièce du
chancelier Michel de Marillac et du maréchal Louis de Marillac, arrêtés tous
deux et condamnés à mort par Richelieu après la "Journée des Dupes"
du 10 novembre 1630. Fille naturelle d'un grand seigneur, elle est élevée par
les religieuses dominicaines de Poissy. En 1613, mariée à un simple bourgeois,
elle devient Mademoiselle Le Gras. Son fils Michel lui donnera beaucoup de
soucis. A 34 ans, elle se retrouve veuve. C'est alors qu'elle rencontre saint
Vincent de Paul. Subjuguée par la charité contagieuse du prêtre, elle devient
rapidement sa collaboratrice dans toutes ses actions charitables. En 1633, ils
fondent ensemble la "Compagnie des Filles de la Charité", appelée
communément Sœurs de Saint Vincent de Paul. Louise, supérieure de la nouvelle
communauté, oriente les sœurs vers tous les exclus de son temps : elle crée des
petites écoles pour les fillettes pauvres; elle organise l'accueil et
l'éducation des enfants trouvés; elle développe la visite à domicile pour les
malades pauvres; elle envoie des sœurs auprès des galériens... Une passion
l'habite : l'amour de l'homme créé à l'image de Dieu et racheté par le sang de
son Fils unique. Comme Monsieur Vincent, elle mourra à la tâche, en 1660.
._-_P849_-_Mus%C3%A9e_Carnavalet.jpg)
Louise de Marillac,
l’aristo devenue servante des "seigneurs de la rue"
Aliénor
Goudet - Publié le 01/08/20
Fondatrice des Filles de
la Charité en 1633 au côté de saint Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac a
apporté aux pauvres de Paris aide et espérance en se mettant à leur service.
Découvrez son oeuvre à travers les yeux de l'un de ceux qu’elle appelait ses
"seigneurs de la rue".
Paris, 1642. Il n’est pas
bon d’être des gens de la rue en novembre, lorsque le froid commence à
mordiller les pieds et les mains nus des clochards. Les passants se font
moindres, et les aumônes, encore plus rares.
Comme chaque matin,
Lucien s’éveille au son des cloches qui sonnent six heures, le ventre criant
famine. Il se lève lentement de son lit de pierres glaciales et soupire. Il
transforme sa médiocre couverture en manteau, place sa béquille usée sous son
bras et se lance d’un pas aussi lourd que las. Il lui faut se rapprocher des
grandes rues s’il veut avoir la chance de croiser une âme qui prendrait pitié
de lui.
Mais en traversant les
ruelles du faubourg Saint-Nicolas, il aperçoit d’autres personnes comme lui, et
s’étonne. Non qu’y voir des pauvres soit inhabituel, mais en ce jour de froid
mordant, ils devraient se déplacer vers les rues passantes ou les églises pour
y faire la manche. Mais ils ne bougent pas. Comme s’ils
attendaient.
« Nous attendons
Mademoiselle de Marillac et ses filles, lui répond-elle. C’est aujourd’hui ici
qu’elles doivent passer. »
Curieux, Lucien
s’approche d’une jeune femme vêtue de haillons, avec un visage pâlot mais les
yeux pétillants malgré de grosses cernes. Gardant ses distances pour ne pas
l’effrayer, il lui demande ce qu’elle attend. Pourquoi ne va-t-elle pas mendier
?
– Nous attendons
Mademoiselle de Marillac et ses filles, lui répond-elle. C’est aujourd’hui ici
qu’elles doivent passer.
– Qui sont-elles ?
– Celles que Dieu nous a
envoyées. Elles ont promis de revenir.
Lucien s’esclaffe devant
tant de naïveté. Cela fait bien dix, si ce n’est quinze ans, qu’il est à la
rue. Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’il entend cette fausse promesse. Curé ou
autre, personne ne la tient. C’est comme ces rumeurs sur ce prétendu monsieur
Vincent qui porterait secours à tout miséreux. Quelles sottises !
– Elles viendront,
insiste la jeune femme. Reste donc, boiteux, et tu verras.
Avant que Lucien n’ait le
temps de réfléchir à cette offre étrange, des bruits de pas rapides se font
entendre. L’instant d’après, jaillissant d’une ruelle menant aux grandes rues,
un attroupement d’une quinzaine de bonnes femmes se répand dans la petite
place.
« L’une offre de
l’eau à un homme sans bras, une autre lave le visage d’un aveugle, une
troisième bande la plaie d’un enfant blessé. »
Toutes vêtues de gris, de
lourds sabots aux pieds, elles se hâtent dans les ruelles sales et pauvres
demeures des alentours. L’une offre de l’eau à un homme sans bras, une autre
lave le visage d’un aveugle, une troisième bande la plaie d’un enfant blessé.
Lucien observe, incapable de cligner des yeux, tant il croit rêver.
Lire aussi :
Sainte
Louise de Marillac, la première « bonne sœur »
Une des frangines
s’approche alors de la jeune femme de tout à l’heure. Elle a une cinquantaine
d’années et pourtant, ses yeux ont un éclat de jeunesse indéniable. Elle se
tient droite avec une posture digne d’une grande dame, mais son regard ne fuit
personne.
– Marie, appelle-t-elle,
voici trois pain chaud pour vos enfants, et des draps propres pour votre
père.
– Comment vous remercier
encore, mademoiselle Louise?
– Comme chaque fois,
remerciez Dieu.
Sans attendre une autre
parole de gratitude, la frangine se tourne vers lui. Il tressaille lorsque ce
regard perçant et pourtant si doux se pose sur lui, sans le moindre
dégoût.
– Je ne vous connais pas,
dit-elle. D’où venez-vous?
– On m’appelle Lucien, répond-t-il,
quelque peu intimidé. Je crèche au faubourg souffrant.
– Très bien, monsieur
Lucien. Nous y viendrons demain.
« Une larme coule
sur la joue de Lucien, alors qu’il contemple l’offrande de mademoiselle Louise
de Marillac. Tant de bonté en un si court instant, est-ce possible ? »
Sur ces mots, elle lui
tend un pain chaud. A peine l’eut-il saisit que la dame lui tourne le dos et
s’enfonce dans les ruelles d’un pas toujours pressé, suivit de ses filles, sans
demander son reste. Une autre atmosphère règne dans la petite place. Les
miséreux sourient et partagent leur nourriture.
Une larme coule sur la
joue de Lucien, alors qu’il contemple l’offrande de mademoiselle Louise de
Marillac. Tant de bonté en un si court instant, est-ce possible ? Sa main tremble,
de peur que ceci ne soit qu’un rêve. Mais la jeune femme en haillons, lui
sourit.
– Ne crains plus rien et
rentre chez toi. Demain, c’est toi qu’elles iront voir.
Les cloches sonnent.
C’est bientôt l’heure de la messe. Peut-être bien qu’il ira cette fois, puisque
c’est Dieu qu’il faut remercier.
Mademoiselle de Marillac
continuera d’oeuvrer pour ses « seigneurs de la rue » jusqu’à sa mort
en 1660 et sera canonisée en 1934. La misère est présente partout dans le
monde, autant aujourd’hui qu’au XVIIème siècle, mais la générosité et le
dévouement de Louise de Marillac continuent d’inspirer et demeurent des valeurs
nécessaires afin de servir autrui.
Lire aussi :
Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs,
l’église où Louise de Marillac a été guérie de sa dépression
Dans les pas de Louise de
Marillac à Paris
Marzena
Devoud - Publié le 14/03/21
En suivant les pas de
Louise de Marillac à Paris, on apprécie l’unique idéal de la fondatrice
des Filles de la Charité : soulager la misère matérielle et morale. A
l’occasion de sa fête, ce 15 mars, Aleteia vous propose de découvrir les lieux
marqués par cette sainte parisienne.
Cliquez
ici pour ouvrir le diaporama
Canonisée par Pie XI en
1934 et proclamée patronne des œuvres sociales par Jean
XXIII en 1960, Louise de Marillac impressionne. Orpheline, née à
Ferrières-en-Brie (Seine-et-Marne), elle est ramenée par ses oncles pour
épouser à l’âge de 22 ans Antoine le Gras, écuyer de Marie de Médicis. Veuve à
34 ans, elle quitte le très aristocratique quartier du Marais pour suivre saint
Vincent de Paul avec qui elle fonde l’ordre des Filles
de la charité.
En devenant la première
supérieure de cette communauté religieuse, Louise et ses Filles inventent une
nouvelle forme de vie consacrée. Elles sont les premières religieuses à pouvoir
sortir dans la rue, chose absolument inconcevable à l’époque où la clôture et
les vœux solennels étaient de rigueur. Mais c’était sans compter sur l’appui de
ce géant de la charité qu’était saint
Vincent de Paul, figure du renouveau spirituel et apostolique du XVIIe
siècle. Elle poursuit le même idéal que lui : soulager la misère matérielle et
morale. Bouger, ne jamais s’arrêter… Découvrez ces lieux où elle a vécu ou
fondé de grandes choses. Mettez vos pas dans ceux de Louise de Marillac, une
sainte hors-norme :
Vendredi 11 janvier 1980
Ma Révérende Mère,
Mes Sœurs,
Imaginez avec moi que saint Vincent de Paul et sainte Louise de Marillac, vos
deux fondateurs si unis dans leur passion évangélique de servir les pauvres et
qui retournèrent vers le Seigneur à quelques mois d’intervalle voici déjà plus
de trois siècles, soient présents à cette rencontre de famille! Mais ils sont
avec nous mystérieusement. Permettez-moi de leur laisser la parole, me faisant
seulement leur interprète.
Alors que vous poursuivez
les travaux de l’Assemblée générale de la Compagnie, ceux que vous vénérez
comme votre Père et votre Mère veulent d’abord vous affermir dans l’actualité
de votre vocation. La chaleur de la charité est bien ce dont les humains ont le
plus grand besoin aujourd’hui comme toujours.
Certes, les misères
sociales du dix-septième siècle et de l’époque de la Fronde sont bien
lointaines. Mais “les pauvres sont toujours parmi nous”! Qui nous donnera des
statistiques précises sur la pauvreté réelle en chaque pays et à l’échelon du
monde? Des chiffres sont souvent publiés qui concernent le commerce,
l’agriculture, l’industrie, les banques, l’armement, etc. Mais, à l’époque des
ordinateurs, savons-nous le nombre précis d’analphabètes, d’enfants abandonnés,
de sous-alimentés, d’aveugles, d’infirmes, de foyers disloqués, de prisonniers,
de marginaux, de prostituées, de chômeurs, de gens vivant dans les bidonvilles
du monde entier! ... Chères Sœurs n’ayez d’yeux et de cœur que pour les
pauvres, comme Monsieur Vincent et Mademoiselle Legras!
Et pour vous stimuler
encore - si besoin était - ils vous disent: Contemplez Notre Seigneur
Jésus-Christ, écoutez-le vous redire le sens de sa mission: “L’Esprit du
Seigneur est sur moi... Il m’a envoyé porter la bonne nouvelle aux pauvres,
annoncer aux captifs la délivrance et aux aveugles le retour à la vue, rendre
la liberté aux opprimés...”[1]. C’est vrai, l’Evangile nous présente
presque toujours le Christ parmi les pauvres. C’est son milieu de vie.
Il me semble également
que ces deux grands saints de la charité vous adjurent avec tendresse et
fermeté de défendre et de développer votre appartenance radicale à
Jésus-Christ, selon les promesses que vous renouvelez chaque année le 25 mars.
La chasteté, à cause du Christ et de l’Evangile, en est le signe plus profond.
Et loin d’être une aliénation de la personne il est une étonnante promotion des
capacités et des besoins de maternité de toute femme! Vous êtes mères.
Vous collaborez à la
protection, à l’orientation, à l’épanouissement, à la guérison, à l’achèvement
paisible de tant de vies humaines, au plan physique, moral et religieux! Voyez
toujours votre célibat consacré comme un chemin de vie pour les autres, et
révélez ce secret aux jeunes qui hésitent à entreprendre la voie que vous avez
suivie. Aimez non seulement les pauvres, aimez vous-mêmes être pauvres, en
esprit et en actes. Saint Vincent de Paul et sainte Louise de Marillac en ont
plus dit par leur service concret des pauvres - de jour et de nuit - que par de
longs traités sur la pauvreté.
De même saint François
d’Assise a été plus éloquent en se dépouillant de ses vêtements que s’il avait
fait paraître une revue périodique sur le détachement des biens terrestres. Et
Charles de Foucauld a plus apporté par son sourire et sa bonté au milieu des
pauvres qu’en publiant son autobiographie de jeune officier converti ayant
choisi d’être à la dernière place et parmi les pauvres. On pourrait rappeler
aussi que mon très vénéré prédécesseur Paul VI, abandonnant sa tiare, a posé un
geste qui n’a pas fini de porter ses fruits dans l’Eglise.
Vous entendez enfin vos
deux modèles de vie vous presser de ne point laisser s’évanouir l’esprit de
dépendance, alors que la tendance actuelle est de se réserver un espace libre
où l’on ne dépend de personne, pour mieux se livrer à son imagination et à sa
fantaisie. L’obéissance religieuse, vous le savez, est sans doute le plus aigu
des trois clous d’or qui attachent à la volonté de Jésus-Christ ses imitateurs
et ses imitatrices. Est-il possible de regarder la croix du Seigneur Jésus,
sans se conformer à son mystère d’obéissance au Père? Que les supérieurs
religieux soient humains et compréhensifs, c’est leur devoir! Mais que les
sujets soient eux-mêmes toujours plus adultes et responsables, au point
d’approfondir et de vivre la valeur oblative de l’obéissance!
En un mot, vos fondateurs
vous disent à vous et à toutes vos compagnes: “Soyez dans le monde, sans jamais
vous laisser contaminer par l’esprit du monde dont parle saint Jean”. Vous
savez que le sel, une fois dilué, s’affadit. Ce qui rayonne, c’est la pureté du
cristal!
A vous ma révérende Mère,
qui venez d’être réélue, je suis particulièrement heureux d’adresser mes
souhaits de fructueux service de la Compagnie. Aux Capitulantes que je remercie
de leur visite, et à toutes les Filles de la Charité qui servent le Christ dans
ses pauvres à travers le monde entier - sans oublier leur service très apprécié
au Vatican - je donne mon affectueuse Bénédiction Apostolique.
[1] Luc. 4, 18.
© Copyright 1980 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SAINTE
LOUISE de MARILLAC
Louise de Marillac perdit sa mère dès sa première enfance et son père à l'âge
de treize ans. Son attrait pour la piété et la pénitence la portait vers la vie
cloîtrée des Clarisses. Mais la faiblesse de sa santé la retint dans le monde.
Son isolement et les instances de sa famille l'engagèrent dans les liens du
mariage.
Devenue veuve au bout de quelques années, elle put enfin suivre entièrement les
aspirations à la vie d'oraison, d'austérité, et de dévouement qui ne l'avaient
jamais quittée.
Sous la direction de saint Vincent de Paul, elle fut chargée d'abord de
visiter, d'activer et de multiplier les Confréries de Charité qu'il avait
établies à Paris et aux alentours. Mais l'action passagère de ces Confréries ne
suffisait pas à guérir des misères continuelles.
Louise de Marillac, de concert avec son sage et zélé directeur, s'adjoignit
donc quelques filles dévouées qui se consacrèrent entièrement au service des
pauvres et des malades, ainsi qu'à l'instruction chrétienne de l'enfance.
C'était le grain de sénevé qui deviendrait un grand arbre, sous le nom de
Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, et qui étendrait ses rameaux sur toutes les
misères humaines. Aussi le saint directeur disait-il un jour à Louise de
Marillac et à ses filles: "Courage, mes filles, si vous êtes fidèles à
Dieu, Il vous fera la grâce de faire de grandes choses dont on n'a jamais ouï
parler. Ne le voyez-vous pas déjà? Avait-on jamais entendu dire que des filles
allassent servir de pauvres criminels? Avait-on vu des filles se donner au
service des pauvres enfants abandonnés? A-t-on jamais ouï dire que des filles
se soient données à Dieu pour servir des fous...? Avez-vous jamais ouï dire,
écrivait-il un autre jour à Louise de Marillac, que des filles aient été aux
armées pour soigner les blessés ?"
Toutes ces oeuvres extérieures de charité, inouïes jusqu'alors, ne pouvaient
procéder que d'une intense charité intérieure, comme cette charité elle-même ne
pouvait naître que d'une foi extraordinairement vive chez Louise de Marillac.
C'est là, en effet, ce qui soutenait ses forces corporelles, toujours
chancelantes.
Aussi le Pape Pie XI déclarait-il, en proclamant les miracles de notre sainte,
que les plus grands de tous étaient ceux de sa vie, de ses oeuvres, et de sa
postérité, composée aujourd'hui de quarante mille religieuses.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame,
1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_louise_de_marillac.html
_%C3%A9glise_Saint-Paterne%2C_statue_Sainte_Louise_de_Marillac.JPG)
Statue
de Sainte Louise de Marillac, église Saint-Paterne, Thibouville (Eure, France)
Sainte Louise de Marillac
Fondatrice des filles de la Charité
(+ 1660)
Lettre à Saint Vincent de Paul
Le petit chapelet est la dévotion que j’ai demandé la permission à votre
charité de faire, il y a trois ans et que je fais en mon particulier. J’ai dans
une petite cassette quantité de ces petits chapelets, avec les pensées écrites
sur ce sujet, pour laisser à toutes nos sœurs après ma mort, si votre charité
le permet ; pas une ne le sait. C’est pour honorer la vie cachée de
Notre-Seigneur dans l’état d’emprisonnement aux entrailles de la Sainte Vierge,
et la congratuler de son bonheur durant ces neuf mois, et les trois petits
grains pour la saluer de ses beaux titres de Fille du Père, Mère du Fils,
Epouse du Saint-Esprit. Voilà le principal de cette dévotion que, par la grâce
de Dieu, très indigne que je suis, je n’ai point discontinuée, depuis le temps
marqué, et que j’espère quitter, aidée de la même grâce de Dieu, si votre
charité me l’ordonne. Et ce petit exercice, en mon intention, est pour demander
à Dieu, par l’Incarnation de son Fils et les prières de la Sainte Vierge, la
pureté nécessaire à la Compagnie des sœurs de la Charité et la fermeté d’icelle
Compagnie selon son bon plaisir.
Sainte Louise de Marillac
Sainte Louise de Marillac, nièce du chancelier Michel de Marillac[1] et du
maréchal Louis de Marillac[2], naquit le 12 août 1591, à Ferrières-en-Brie[3]
où elle fut baptisée avant que son père dont elle était la fille naturelle[4],
ne s'installât à Paris. Après que son père se fut remarié[5], avec Antoinette
La Camus[6] (12 janvier 1595), elle fut mise quelques temps en pension chez les
Dominicaines du monastère royal Saint-Louis de Poissy où Louis de Marillac
avait une tante religieuse[7] (1602) ; elle fut ensuite confiée à un petit
pensionnat, chez une bonne fille dévote, avec d’autres demoiselles, où elle fut
initiée aux travaux ménagers et à la peinture. Une des premières Filles de la
Charité rapporta que Louise de Marillac lui avait dit que : « La maîtresse
étant pauvre, elle lui proposa de prendre de l’ouvrage des marchands, et
travaillait pour elle, encourageant ses compagnes à en faire autant. Elle se
chargeait même des bas ouvrages de la maison, comme serrer le bois et
s’acquitter de tâches ménagères confiées d’ordinaire aux domestiques. »
Après la mort de son père (25 juillet 1604), Louise de Marillac avait songé à
devenir capucine[8], mais elle fut refusée par le provincial des Capucins,
Honoré de Champigny. Le 6 février 1613, on lui fit épouser, à la paroisse
Saint-Gervais de Paris, un secrétaire des commandements de Marie de Médicis,
Antoine Le Gras[9], écuyer, homme de bonne vie, fort craignant Dieu et exact à
se rendre irréprochable, dont, le 18 octobre 1613, lui naîtra un fils,
Pierre-Antoine, qu'elle élèvera, à partir de 1619, avec les sept enfants d'une
de ses cousines défunte[10].
Mélancolique, inquiète et scrupuleuse, Louise de Marillac était sans cesse
agitée par le doute sur elle-même que Jean-Pierre Camus, son directeur
spirituel, même aidé de saint François de Sales qui la visita chez elle, avait
beaucoup de mal à apaiser. Son angoisse grandit encore lorsque son mari tomba malade
d’un mal que l’on jugeait incurable et dont elle se croyait la cause pour
n’être pas entrée en religion. Le jour de la Pentecôte (4 juin 1623), elle
était à la messe, à Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, lorsque, en un instant, elle fut
libérée de ses doutes : « Je fus avertie que je devais demeurer avec mon mari
et qu’un temps viendrait où je serai en état de faire vœu de pauvreté, chasteté
et obéissance, et que ce serait avec des personnes dont quelques-unes feraient
le semblable. Je fus encore assurée que je devais demeurer en repos pour mon
directeur, et que Dieu m’en donnerait un qu’il me fit voir alors, ce me semble,
et je sentis répugnance de l’accepter. Nénmoins, j’acquiesçai, mais il me
sembla que ce n’était pas pour devoir faire encore ce changement. Ma troisième
peine me fut ôtée par l’assurance que je sentis en mon esprit que c’était Dieu
qui m’enseignait ce que je venais de comprendre. puisqu’il y avait un Dieu, je
ne devais pas douter du reste. » Jean-Pierre Camus était absent, il n’y avait
guère d’apparence qu’il revînt de sitôt, il lui conseilla de passer sous la
direction de Vincent de Paul, celui-là même que Dieu lui avait fait voir et
pour qui elle sentait de la répugnance. Vers la fin de 1624, elle se mit sous
la direction de saint Vincent de Paul qui s’était fait longtemps prier pour
accepter[11]. Après la mort de son mari (21 décembre 1625), elle fit vœu de
viduité et mena dans le monde une vie toute religieuse où elle conjuguait, avec
un règlement très strict, la prière et le secours des pauvres, sans cesser
d'être attentive à l'éducation de son fils. Elle s’installa rue Saint-Victor,
tout près du collège des Bons-Enfants que Mme. de Gondi venait de donner à
Vincent de Paul qui l’employait dans les Charités, ces groupements de dames et
de filles pour l’assistance des malades dans les paroisses et les visites à
domicile. En 1628, lorsque son fils fut entré au séminaire
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, elle disposa de davantage de temps pour se
consacrer aux œuvres et Vincent de Paul la chargea de surveiller les
Charités[12], de modifier leur règlement et de visiter celles des provinces.
Elle n’eut aucun mal à persuader Vincent de Paul que les Dames associées ne
pouvaient rendre aux malades les services pénibles qu’exigeait leur état, et
qu’il fallait songer à réunir des personnes zélées pour se dévouer entièrement
à l’œuvre sans autres devoirs et préoccupations au dehors. C’est ainsi que
naquirent les Filles de la Charité.
Jusqu'à sa mort (15 mars 1660), elle gouverna les Filles de la Charité[13] pour
qui elle rédigea trois règlements successifs. La cause de Louise de Marillac
fut introduite sous Léon XIII (18 juin 1896) et l’héroïcité de ses vertus fut
proclamée sous Pie X (1911) ; elle fut béatifiée par Benoît XV (9 mai 1920) et
canonisée par Pie XI (11 mars 1934) ; Jean XXIII la proclama patronne de tous
ceux qui s'adonnent aux œuvres sociales chrétiennes (1960).
[1] Frère de son père.
[2] Demi-frère de son père.
[3] Gobillon, premier biographe de Louise de Marillac, dit qu’el¬le naquit à
Paris, mais le curé de Ferrières-en-Brie, en dres¬sant son acte de Baptême
écrivit qu’elle naquit à Ferrières-en-Brie.
[4] Nul ne sait qui fut sa mère dont aucun acte ne donne le nom.
[5] Louis de Marillac, coseigneur de Ferrières-en-Brie, puis de Farinvilliers, enseigne
d’une compagnie de gendarmes aux ordonnances du roi, avait épousé, en premières
noces (1584), Marie de la Rozière qui mourut en 1588 ou 1589, sans lui avoir
donné d’enfant.
[6] Le mariage fut célébré à l’église parisienne de Saint-Paul ; Antoinette Le
Camus, veuve de Louis Thiboust, était mère de trois garçons et d’une fille ;
elle était la tante du fameux Jean-Pierre Camus, futur évêque de Belley et ami
de saint François de Sales dont il répandit les œuvres. Du mariage de Louis de
Marillac et d’Antoinette Le Camus, naquit Innocente (17 décembre 1601).
[7] Cette cousine, aussi nommé Louise de Marillac, était une religieuse pieuse
et cultivée qui avait traduit en vers français l’Office de la Sainte Vierge et
les sept psaumes de la Pénitence ; elle vait aussi composé des méditations sur
toutes les fêtes de l’année et un commentaire du Cantique des cantiques.
[8] Le 2 août 1606, la duchesse de Mercœur établit un cou¬vent de Capucines au
faubourg Saint-Honoré : les Filles de la Passion.
[9] Antoine Le Gras n’étant pas noble, Louise de Marillac ne portera pas le
titre de Madame, mais, comme une bourgeoise de ces temps-là, sera toujours
appelée Mademoiselle.
[10] Valence, sœur du maréchal de Marillac et demi-sœur du père de Louise de
Marillac, avait épousé Octavien Doni d’Attichy, surintendant des Finances de
Marie de Médicis, qui mourut en 1614. Valence mourut en 1617.
[11] Tâchez à vivre contente parmi vos sujets de mécontentement et honorez
toujours le non-faire et l'état inconnu du Fils de Dieu. C'est là votre centre
et ce qu'il demande de vous pour le présent et pour l'avenir, pour toujours. Si
sa divine Majesté ne vous fait connaître, de la manière qui ne peut tromper,
qu'il veut quelque autre chose de vous, ne pensez point et n'occupez point votre
esprit en cette chose-là (Lettre de saint Vincent de Paul à Louise de
Marillac). Au nom de Dieu, Mademoiselle, corrigez cette faute et apprenez une
fois pour toutes que les pensées amères procèdent du démon, les douces et
aimables de Notre-Seigneur là (Lettre de saint Vincent de Paul à Louise de
Marillac).
[12] Fondées le 8 décembre 1617.
[13] Louise de Marillac réunit chez elle (au n° 21 de l’actuelle rue Monge) une
douzaine de bonne filles de village (29 novembre 1633).
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/03/15.php
Mgr
Louis Baunard (1828-19190, Louise de Marillac, fondatrice des filles de la
Charité, Paris, J. de Gigord, 3e édition, 1921.
Sainte Louise de Marillac
Chaque fois que vous l’avez fait à l’un de ces petits, qui sont mes frères,
c’est à moi que vous l’avez fait.
(Mt 25, 40)
Ce n’est pas assez d’aller et de donner, mais il faut un cœur épuré de tout
intérêt, (…) il nous faut avoir, continuellement devant les yeux notre modèle,
qui est la vie exemplaire de Jésus-Christ à l’imitation de laquelle nous sommes
appelées, non seulement comme chrétiennes, (…) pour le servir en la personne
des pauvres.
(Sainte Louise, L.217)
Louise de Marillac est née au XVIème siècle. Pourtant, sa vie nous rejoint dans
nos préoccupations les plus quotidiennes. Au milieu des vicissitudes de sa vie,
elle a ouvert progressivement son cœur à la lumière de Dieu.
1591, 12 août naissance de Louise
1604, 25 juillet mort de son père
1613, 5 février mariage avec Antoine Legras
1613, 18 octobre naissance de Michel Legras
1623, 4 juin « Lumière » en l’Eglise Saint Nicolas des Champs à Paris
1625, 21 décembre mort de son mari ; premiers entretiens avec Vincent de Paul
1629 début des visites de Confréries de la Charité
1630 venue à Paris de Marguerite Naseau ; première fille travaillant pour les Confréries
de la Charité
1633, février mort de Marguerite Naseau
1633, 29 novembre fondation de la Compagnie des Filles de la Charité
1638 commencement de l’œuvre des Enfants Trouvés
1650, 18 janvier mariage de son Fils, Michel
1651 naissance de Louise-Renée, petite fille de Louise de Marillac
1652 fondation des Filles de la Charité en Pologne ; recrudescence des troubles
de la Fronde ; a Paris, soupes populaires, accueil des réfugiés
1653 – 1658 envoi de Filles de la Charité sur les champs de bataille
1660 15 mars, mort de Louise de Marillac
1920 béatification par le Pape Benoît XV
1934 canonisation par le Pape Pie XI
1960 déclarée patronne des œuvres sociales chrétiennes
15 mars le jour de sa fête
Louise de Marillac est née le 12 août 1591 dans une famille de la noblesse.
Plusieurs membres de cette famille ont des postes importants auprès du roi
Louis XIII. Son oncle Michel connaît une forte ascension, il devient Garde des
sceaux en 1629. Il est à la base de la journée des Dupes de novembre 1630, qui
avait pour objectif de chasser le premier ministre Richelieu. La tentative
échoue, Michel est arrêté et finit sa vie emprisonné au château de Châteaudun.
Il meurt en1632.
Louise est née de mère inconnue. Son père était veuf à sa naissance. Il se remarie
quand elle a trois ans. Elle est confiée très tôt aux religieuses dominicaines
du Monastère royal de Poissy, où sont élevés d’autres enfants. L’enseignement
dispensé lui offre une solide éducation intellectuelle et religieuse. A la mort
de son père, elle a 13 ans et son oncle Michel devient son tuteur. Il lui fait
quitter Poissy et elle rejoint une pension pour jeunes filles. Elle y apprend
la vie simple et pauvre. C’est pour elle un lieu de formation aux tâches
domestiques.
A 15 ans, elle rêve de devenir religieuse dans un ordre austère, les Capucines.
Le Père, directeur spirituel du couvent, la refuse à cause de sa santé trop
délicate. Louise est vivement déçue mais se soumet à cette décision. Plus tard,
elle obéit aussi à sa famille qui lui présente Antoine Legras, simple écuyer,
un des secrétaires des Commandements de la Reine. Le mariage a lieu en 1613,
elle a 22 ans et porte maintenant, le nom de Melle Legras, le titre de madame
étant réservé à la noblesse. Elle devient maman dans l’année d’un petit Michel.
Elle s’épanouit dans son mariage et vit heureuse jusqu’en 1622, année où son
mari tombe malade, son caractère s’aigrit. Louise se culpabilise : elle n’a pas
respecté sa promesse faite à Dieu, de devenir religieuse et voici que son mari
Antoine est malade, n’est-ce pas sa faute ? Elle traverse une période de
dépression. Elle est angoissée et envahie par des doutes au sujet de sa foi.
Elle a envie de tout quitter. En 1623, à la fête de la Pentecôte, Dieu illumine
son cœur, ses doutes disparaissent. Elle comprend que sa place est auprès de
son époux, que Dieu est présent auprès d’elle et de son mari. Elle réalise
qu’elle pourra un jour vivre en communauté au service du prochain, « allant et
venant », expression incompréhensible, dans un temps où les religieuses sont
toutes cloîtrées.
Louise entoure son mari de tous ses soins jusqu’à sa mort en décembre 1625.
Veuve, les moyens financiers lui manquent, elle doit déménager. Près de son
nouveau logement habite M. Vincent de Paul. Il devient son accompagnateur
spirituel. L’un et l’autre ne sont pas très enthousiastes de se rencontrer,
tant leurs personnalités les éloignent, du moins en apparence ! Ils apprennent
à se connaître et Vincent aidera Louise à réaliser sa vocation. Il lui propose
de visiter les « Confrérie de la charité » pour encourager les Dames dans leurs
services auprès des plus pauvres. Louise va sortir d’elle-même et va prendre
conscience des réalités vécues par les pauvres. Elle découvre les difficultés
pour les Dames de se mettre au service de ces personnes, elles ne peuvent
effectuer elles-mêmes toutes les humbles tâches.
Vers 1630, une simple paysanne, Marguerite Naseau, propose ses services pour
aider les Dames. D’autres paysannes arrivent à sa suite. Vincent confie à
Louise la formation pratique et spirituelle de ces jeunes femmes. Louise
s’interroge et discerne progressivement que ces filles pourraient s’assembler
en une confrérie. Vincent, au début, ne comprends pas Louise. Après un long
temps de réflexion et de prière, la Compagnie des Filles de la Charité naît le
29 novembre 1633.
Plusieurs communautés de Filles de la Charité sont fondées autour de Paris, et
progressivement, elles s’éloignent de la capitale…En 1638, des sœurs partent
pour la Touraine à Richelieu. Suivent de nombreuses implantations en France.
Les sœurs se mettent au service des plus pauvres : les malades à domicile ou
dans les hôpitaux, les enfants abandonnés, les élevant et assurant leur
éducation dans de petites écoles, les blessés de guerre, les galériens…Louise a
le souci de la formation humaine et spirituelle des sœurs. Chacune apprend les
meilleures techniques de son temps dans les domaines des soins et de
l’éducation, pour les transmettre aux personnes les plus défavorisées. Chacune
approfondit sa relation à Dieu, en reconnaissant dans les pauvres qu’elles
servent, le visage de Jésus-Christ. Les sœurs vivent ensemble en petites
communautés. L’objectif est de les former pour qu’elles deviennent autonomes et
subviennent elles mêmes, à leurs besoins.
Les graves troubles de la Fronde qui atteignent la France de 1644 à1649
entraînent de très nombreuses pauvretés : famine, maladie, violence. Louise et
Vincent envoient des Filles de la charité sur tous les fronts. Les sœurs se
déplacent de village en village pour secourir et encourager les habitants.
Cette mobilité est une grande nouveauté dans une époque où les femmes
consacrées restent dans leur monastère.
Cette communauté naissante traverse une crise dans les années 1644-1649. Des
sœurs quittent la Compagnie (le service des pauvres est jugé trop difficile, la
vie communautaire trop exigeante, des sœurs perdent le goût de la prière), des
projets se soldent par des échecs. De plus Louise est inquiète pour son fils,
qui ne sait pas ce qu’il veut faire dans sa vie. Prêtrise ? Mariage ? Son
avenir semble confus…Louise pense avoir failli à son éducation et la
culpabilité la reprend. Avec l’aide de M. Vincent, elle va traverser cette
crise et retrouver la paix en 1650. Son fils se marie la même année. Louise
devient grand-mère l’année suivante.
Louise suit le chemin du Christ qu’elle aime tant, le Seigneur de Charité qui
s’est fait homme pour donner la vie aux hommes. Elle se fait proche des plus
pauvres et de ses sœurs, avec attention, douceur, cordialité, compassion. Elle
sait s’adapter à chacun pour leur donner la force de trouver à leur tour le
chemin de la relation au Christ.
Louise et Vincent n’ont eu de cesse de soulager la misère des plus pauvres pour
l’amour de Jésus-Christ. Louise a collaboré intensément avec Vincent pour que
la Compagnie des Filles de la Charité reste une communauté « allant et venant
», permettant aux sœurs de rejoindre les plus pauvres là où ils vivent.
Ils ont des personnalités très différentes. Au cours des trente cinq années de
travail en commun, ils apprennent à apprécier, non sans période de tension, ce
qui les distingue et ce qui les rapproche. Une profonde amitié naît avec le
temps, où chacun respecte le caractère unique de l’autre. Ils mettent leur
énergie au service de l’œuvre qui les réunit : le service du Christ dans les
pauvres.
Louise est morte le 15 mars 1660, quelques mois avant Vincent, entourée de sa
famille et de ses sœurs. Les difficultés, les doutes et les angoisses ne l’ont
pas épargnée. Dans sa fragilité, elle a accueilli la force de l’Esprit et a
suivi le chemin du Christ prenant chair de notre chair et se faisant proche des
hommes. Elle a répondu, à sa suite, aux besoins des plus pauvres, pour que
chacun, retrouve sa dignité humaine et découvre qu’il est enfant de Dieu.
Aujourd’hui, la famille vincentienne s’inspire de la vie de cette femme qui
s’est laissée habiter par la lumière de son Seigneur.
Pour aller plus loin :
Lectures :
• Petite vie de Louise de Marillac, Elisabeth Charpy, Desclée de Brouwer,
1991
• Spiritualité de Louise de Marillac, itinéraire d’une femme, Elisabeth
Charpy, Desclée de Brouwer, 1995
• Prier 15 jours avec Louise de Marillac, Elisabeth Charpy, Nouvelle Cité,
2006
Liens internet :
• http://www.famvin.org/
• http://stvincentimages.cdm.depaul.edu/default.aspx
SOURCE : http://filles-de-la-charite.org/fr/history/our-founders/francais-sainte-louise-de-marillac
Chapelle
de la rue du Bac, Paris
A travers ombres et
lumières
Durant de longues années, Louise de Marillac est une femme habitée
par l'anxiété, la culpabilité. Du fait de sa naissance illégitime, hors
mariage, elle est rejetée par sa famille, placée dans des institutions : chez
les religieuses Dominicaines de Poissy, puis dans un foyer pour jeunes filles à
Paris. Louise n'a qu'un désir, s'enfermer dans un cloître, loin du monde et par
la prière et les mortifications. « vaincre la justice de Dieu ». Mais son
tuteur lui refuse l'entrée au monastère des religieuses Capucines, à cause de
sa faible santé. Le mariage lui est imposé. Il est célébré le 5 février 1613.
Elle devient Mademoiselle Le Gras. La découverte de l'amour humain et de la
maternité l'apaise et lui procure un début de bien-être. La maladie de son mari
vers 1622 ravive ses angoisses. Elle s'imagine que Dieu la punit pour n'avoir
pas répondu à son appel d'être religieuse. De nouveau, longues prières, jeûnes,
mortifications corporelles se multiplient en vain. Nuit de l'âme et état
dépressif la plongent dans le noir. Une lumière le jour de la Pentecôte 1623
vient éclairer ses ténèbres. Elle perçoit un avenir dans une communauté où elle
pourra se consacrer à Dieu, elle entrevoit son nouveau directeur spirituel et
elle comprend surtout qu'elle doit rester près de son mari et son fils qu'elle
voulait quitter pour retrouver la paix. Le 21 décembre 1625, elle devient veuve
avec la charge d'un enfant de 12 ans. Assez désemparée, elle accepte la
direction de Vincent de Paul malgré sa « répugnance » (terme employé par elle
dans le récit de sa lumière de Pentecôte)
Au-delà de l'aspect maladif et tourmenté de cette femme, Vincent découvre peu à
peu la richesse enfouie de cette personnalité. Il la conduit vers une relation
à Dieu plus sereine, et surtout il l'oriente vers la rencontre du pauvre à
travers l'œuvre des Confréries de la Charité.
Une profonde évolution s'amorce. Louise se décentre d'elle-même, son regard
découvre plus pauvre qu'elle. Sa prière ne s'arrête plus sur un Dieu austère,
lointain, mais découvre la personne de Jésus-Christ. Dieu a voulu faire
connaître son amour de l'homme en envoyant son Fils sur terre. Elle admire la
totale disponibilité et l'humilité de la Vierge Marie qui donne au Fils de Dieu
son humanité. Elle réalise que Dieu a besoin des hommes et des femmes pour
perpétuer son œuvre. Avec Vincent de Paul, elle ose proposer aux paysannes,
femmes peu reconnues par la société dirigeante de l'époque, de vivre une vie
religieuse, sans cloître, sans voile, vie consacrée au service des rejetés de
la société.
La méditation de la vie de Jésus est soutien et orientation de ce service. Seul
un « amour fort » de Dieu permet d'avoir un « amour suave », compatissant et
doux, envers les pauvres. Toute relation aux pauvres que Jésus reconnait comme
ses frères a besoin d'être empreinte d'un amour plein de tendresse et d'un vrai
respect. L'un ne peut aller sans l'autre.
Louise n'hésite pas à regarder ce service comme une suite de l'œuvre
rédemptrice du Christ. C'est une joie et une lourde responsabilité de « coopérer
avec Dieu au salut du monde ». L'Eucharistie devient pour toutes les servantes
des pauvres, source de vie. « Cette admirable invention incompréhensible aux
sens humains » manifeste le fort désir de Jésus non seulement de demeurer
présent, mais de partager son amour par une forte union. La communion est un
moment inoubliable pour Louise.
Cependant Louise de Marillac reste une femme fragile. Elle connaît des périodes
difficiles, notamment lorsque des Sœurs quittent la Compagnie. Elle s'avoue
responsable de leur abandon. Il lui faudra du temps pour découvrir la
miséricorde de Dieu envers elle, cette miséricorde qui pardonne au-delà de ce
que l'homme peut espérer.
Après des années obscures, Louise a compris que seul l'amour de Dieu et du
prochain pouvait guider sa vie. Elle peut maintenant aller sereinement à la
rencontre de son Seigneur. De sa chambre de malade, Vincent de Paul lui envoie
ce message. « Vous partez la première, j'espère, si Dieu m'en fait la grâce,
vous rejoindre bientôt. » Louise meurt le 15 mars 1660, entourée de son fils
avec sa femme et sa petite fille et de nombreuses Filles de la Charité.
Elisabeth Charpy, fille de la charité
Auteur du livre Prier quinze jours avec Louise de Marillac, Nouvelle Cité
n° 105
SOURCE : http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/la-vie-spirituelle/saintete-et-saints/saints/sainte-louise-de-marillac-1591-1660.html
.jpg)
Statue
de Louise de Marillac au Musée des
Instruments de Médecine des Hôpitaux de Toulouse.
Sainte Louise de
Marillac (1591-1660)
Fête le 15 mars
Louise de Marillac est une parisienne née en 1591. Elle épouse Antoine Le Gras,
à Saint-Gervais, en 1613. A Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, sa paroisse, elle reçoit
à la Pentecôte 1623, une grâce de l’illumination spirituelle qui la libère de
ses troubles de conscience. Puis, veuve, elle quitte son hôtel du Marais pour
habiter rive gauche, sur la paroisse Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, à proximité
du Collège des Bons-Enfants. C’est là qu’en 1633, avec l’assentiment de
Monsieur Vincent, devenu son directeur de conscience, elle groupe, dans sa
maison de la rue des Fossés-Saint-Victor (actuelle rue du Cardinal Lemoine),
les premières Servantes des Pauvres - ou Filles de la Charité -, cheville
ouvrière des Confréries de charité fondées par Monsieur Vincent au cours de ses
missions. L’afflux des vocations impose le transfert de la communauté en 1636
au village de la Chapelle, puis en 1641 au faubourg Saint-Denis, et le 15 mars
1660 sur la paroisse Saint-Laurent.
Elle est canonisée par Pie XI en 1934 et Jean XXIII la déclare « patronne de
tous ceux qui s’adonnent aux œuvres sociales chrétiennes » en 1960.
La fondation de Louise irrigue une capitale d’un demi million d’habitants. Elle
a la charge du vétuste et énorme Hôtel-Dieu, puis dès sa création en 1657, de
l’hôpital général de la Salpêtrière, qui reçoit le flot des pauvres que la
Fronde a multiplié. Louise fonde également avec Monsieur Vincent, l’œuvre des
Enfants Trouvés en 1638, installée plus tard dans le château de Bicêtre.
Chapelle de la Médaille Miraculeuse
140, rue du Bac, 7e arr. - M° Sèvres-Babylone
Depuis 1815, son corps repose rue du Bac, dans la chapelle où la Vierge apparut
à sainte Catherine Labouré.
43, rue du Cardinal Lemoine
5e arr. - M° Cardinal Lemoine
Dans cette maison, Louise de Marillac s’installe avec cinq filles de la
Charité. Ce fut l’embryon de la congrégation des Filles de la Charité. Elles y
demeurent jusqu’en 1636, date à laquelle elles émigrent au village de La
Chapelle.
Église Saint-Laurent
68, boulevard Magenta, 10e arr. - M° Gare de l’Est
Le corps de Louise de Marillac y est inhumé et y repose pendant
quatre-vingt-cinq ans, comme le rappelle une inscription dans la chapelle
Saint-François-de-Sales.
Église Saint-Nicolas des Champs
252 bis, rue Saint-Martin, 3e arr. - M° Arts et Métiers
C’est l’église paroissiale de sainte Louise de Marillac de 1623 à 1626 et c’est
dans cette église, à la Pentecôte 1623, le 4 juin, qu’elle est délivrée de ses
doutes et reçoit la grâce qui illumine son âme.
SOURCE : http://www.paris.catholique.fr/15-mars-Sainte-Louise-de-Marillac
.jpg)
Église
Saint-Aubin de Criel-sur-Mer, Seine-Maritime
Also
known as
Louise de Marillac Le
Gras
Luisa….
9 May on
some calendars
Profile
Though she considered a
religious vocation from an early age, her ill
health kept any house from taking her. She married Antony
LeGras, an official to the queen,
in 1611. Widowed in 1625.
Spiritual student of Saint Vincent
de Paul. With Saint Vincent,
she founded the Daughters of Charity in 1642,
receiving Vatican approval in 1655.
Founded the Sisters of Charity, took her vows in the order, and served as
its superior until her death.
Spiritual guide for groups of lay women.
Born
12 August 1591 at
Meux, France
15 March 1660 at Paris, France of
natural causes
body incorrupt
9 May 1920 by Pope Benedict
XV
people
rejected by religious orders
social
workers (proclaimed on 12
February 1960 by Pope John
XXIII)
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by Father Lawrence
George Lovasik, S.V.D.
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Heroine
of Charity, by Katheleen
O’Meara
Roman Martyrology
Saint
Louise de Marillac, by Sister Teresa Rowe, Australian Catholic Truth
Society
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Dictionary of Patron Saints’
Names, by Thomas W. Sheehan
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Saints to Remember, by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart
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Readings
Be diligent in serving
the poor.
Love the poor,
honour them, my children, as you would honor Christ Himself. – Saint Louise
MLA
Citation
“Saint Louise de Marillac“. CatholicSaints.Info.
14 June 2023. Web. 25 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-louise-de-marillac/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-louise-de-marillac/
Sainte Louise de Marillac
Note: This article was written in 1910. St. Louise de Marillac Le Gras was
canonized in 1934 by Pope Pius XI.
Foundress of the Sisters
of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, born at Paris,
12 August, 1591, daughter of Louis de Marillac, Lord of
Ferri res, and Marguerite Le Camus; died there, 15 March, 1660. Her mother
having died soon after the birth of Louise, the education of
the latter devolved upon her father, a man of blameless life. In her
earlier years she was confided to the care of her aunt,
a religious at Poissy. Afterwards she studied under a
preceptress, devoting much time to the cultivation of the
arts. Her father's serious disposition was reflected in the daughter's taste
for philosophy and kindred subjects. When about sixteen
years old, Louise developed a strong desire to enter the Capuchinesses (Daughter
of the Passion). Her spiritual
director dissuaded her, however, and her father having died, it
became necessary to
decide her vocation. Interpreting her director's advice, she
accepted the hand of Antoine* Le Gras, a young secretary
under Maria de' Medici. A son was born of this marriage on 13
October, 1613, and to his education Mlle Le
Gras devoted herself during the years of his childhood. Of works
of charity she never wearied. In 1619 she became acquainted with St.
Francis de Sales, who was then in Paris,
and Mgr. Le Campus, Bishop of Belley,
became her spiritual
adviser. Troubled by the thought that she had rejected a call to
the religious state, she vowed in 1623
not remarry should her husband die before her.
M. Le Gras died on
21 December, 1625, after a long illness. In the meantime his wife had made the
acquaintance of a priest known
as M. Vincent (St. Vincent de Paul), who had been appointed
superior of theVisitation Monastery by St.
Francis of Sales. She placed herself under his direction, probably
early in 1625. His influence led her to associate herself with his work among
the poor of Paris,
and especially in the extension of the Confrérie de la Charité, an
association which he had founded for the relief of the sick poor. It was
this labour which decided her life's work, the founding of the Sisters of
Charity. The history of the evolution of this institute,
which Mlle Le Gras plays so prominent a part, has been given elsewhere
(see Charity, Sister of); it suffices here to say that, with
formal ecclesiastical and
state recognition, Mlle Le Gras' life-work received its assurance of
success. Her death occurred in 1660, a few month before the death of St.
Vincent, with whose labours she had been so closely united. The process of
her beatification has
been inaugurated at Rome.
Glass,
Joseph. "Ven. Louise de Marillac Le Gras." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 28
Feb. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09133b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Claudia C. Neira.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09133b.htm
.JPG)
Sainte Louise de Marillac Chapel at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
St. Louise de Marillac
St. Louise de Marillac,
born near Meux, France, lost her mother when she was still a child, her beloved
father when she was but 15. Her desire to become a nun was discouraged by her
confessor, and a marriage was arranged. One son was born of this union. But she
soon found herself nursing her beloved husband through a long illness that
finally led to his death.
Louise was fortunate to have a wise and sympathetic
counselor, St. Francis de Sales, and then his friend, the Bishop of Belley,
France. Both of these men were available to her only periodically. But from an
interior illumination she understood that she was to undertake a great work
under the guidance of another person she had not yet met. This was the holy
priest M. Vincent, later to be known as St. Vincent de Paul.
At first he was reluctant to be her confessor, busy as he was with his
“Confraternities of Charity.” Members were aristocratic ladies of charity who
were helping him nurse the poor and look after neglected children, a real need
of the day. But the ladies were busy with many of their own concerns and
duties. His work needed many more helpers, especially ones who were peasants
themselves and therefore close to the poor and could win their hearts. He also
needed someone who could teach them and organize them.
Only over a long period of time, as Vincent de Paul became more acquainted with
Louise, did he come to realize that she was the answer to his prayers. She was
intelligent, self-effacing and had physical strength and endurance that belied
her continuing feeble health. The missions he sent her on eventually led to
four simple young women joining her. Her rented home in Paris became the
training center for those accepted for the service of the sick and poor. Growth
was rapid and soon there was need of a so-called rule of life, which Louise
herself, under the guidance of Vincent, drew up for the Sisters of Charity of
St. Vincent de Paul (though he preferred “Daughters” of Charity).
He had always been slow and prudent in his dealings with Louise and the new
group. He said that he had never had any idea of starting a new community, that
it was God who did everything. “Your convent,” he said, “will be the house of
the sick; your cell, a hired room; your chapel, the parish church; your
cloister, the streets of the city or the wards of the hospital.” Their dress
was to be that of the peasant women. It was not until years later that Vincent
de Paul would finally permit four of the women to take annual vows of poverty,
chastity and obedience. It was still more years before the company would be
formally approved by Rome and placed under the direction of Vincent’s own
congregation of priests.
Many of the young women were illiterate and it was with reluctance that the new
community undertook the care of neglected children. Louise was busy helping
wherever needed despite her poor health. She traveled throughout France,
establishing her community members in hospitals, orphanages and other institutions.
At her death on March 15, 1660, the congregation had more than 40 houses in
France. Six months later St. Vincent de Paul followed her in death.
Louise de Marillac was canonized in 1934 and declared patroness of social
workers in 1960.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-louise-de-marillac/
Cosmopolitan-San Fernando Memorial Chapel (Tandang Sora, Quezon City) Interior and exterior of the Santuario de San Vicente de Paul Parish and Shrine of the Poor, 2018 Saint Vincent Seminary Compound Complex in #18 St. Martin Street, Rosalia Village II Tandang Sora Avenue, 1116 Quezon City under the jurisdiction of the Congregation of the Mission CM, Vincentians, Lazarists; (Note: Judge Florentino Floro, the owner, to repeat, Donor Florentino Floro of all these photos hereby donate gratuitously, freely and unconditionally all these photos to and for Wikimedia Commons, exclusively, for public use of the public domain, and again without any condition whatsoever).
Louise de Marillac, Widow
(RM)
Born in Ferrières-en-Brie (near Meaux), Auvergne, France, on August 12, 1591;
died in Paris, France, March 15, 1660; beatified in 1920; canonized by Pope
Pius XI in 1934; declared patroness of social workers by Pope John XXIII in
1960.
Saint Vincent de Paul, when he held missions conducted by his priests, made
efforts to create the lay apostolate of the (female) Servants of the Poor and
of the (male) Helpers of the Poor for the services of the poor and sick in all
his parishes. His manifold occupations made it impossible for the saint
personally to supervise and direct these numerous charitable groups.
Saint Vincent found in the person of Louise de Marillac his best instrument for
the direction of the women. Louise was a woman of the highest social status--a
paternal uncle was marshal of France, another was garde des sceaux--and well-educated
by the Dominican nuns of Poissy after her mother's early death. Her father died
when she was 15. On the advice of her confessor, Louise had decided not to join
the Capuchin nuns, and in 1613, at the age of 22, married Antoine Le Gras,
secretary to Marie de Medici. Her husband, a pious and high-minded man, allowed
her to do all the good to which her kind heart prompted her in slums and in
tenements of want, and protected her in those circles of society that felt
outraged by her activities. After his death in 1625, she devoted herself to the
education of their son, who eventually married and had children.
When he had outgrown her guardianship, she lived entirely for works of
Christian charity. Louise had met St. Vincent prior to her husband's death, and
he had agreed to become her confessor. He had been trying to organize devout,
wealthy women to help the poor and sick in often appalling conditions. It soon
became clear that many of these ladies, although well-intentioned, were unfit
to face the ugliness and suffering of poverty and illness. The practical work
of nursing the sick in their own homes, caring for neglected children, and
dealing with often rough husbands and fathers was best accomplished by women of
similar social status to the principal sufferers. Louise, he realized, was made
of sterner stuff.
The aristocratic ladies were better suited to the equally necessary task of
fund raising and dealing with correspondence. Louise was the exception. In her
Vincent saw a woman of a clear mind, great courage, endurance, and
self-effacement. In 1629, in order to test his assessment, he sent Louise to
make a visitation of the "Charity" of Montmirail he had founded. She
passed the test and, despite unstable health, Louise made many more such
missions.
Vincent chose Louise to train and organize girls and widows, mainly of the
peasant and artisan classes. In the home Louise rented on the rue des
Fossé-Saint-Victor in Paris, beginning in 1633 with four country girls, she
trained groups of women for ambulatory care of the sick. Louise wanted to draw
up a rule of life, but St. Vincent convinced her to wait for a sign from God.
Vincent had not intended to start a religious order. The sisters, he said,
should consider themselves simply as Christians devoted to the sick and poor:
"your convent will be the house of the sick, your cell a hired room, your
chapel the parish church, your grill the fear of God, your veil modesty."
Finally assured of Louise's dedication, Vincent permitted her to draft a rule
in 1634; essentially, this rule that was formally approved in 1655 is the rule
still used today. Vows are taken only for one year and renewed. Louise made her
vows in 1634, and in 1642, the first four candidates were professes as Sisters
of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1638. Vincent himself preferred the
name, Daughters of Charity. Formal approval placed the community under Vincent
and his Congregation of the Mission with Louise as their superioress until her
death.
This sisterhood, according to the wishes of Saint Vincent, was to realize the
idea that had animated his friend, Saint Francis de Sales, in creating this
foundation--the idea of an uncloistered religious community for all the
evangelical tasks in the world, especially on behalf of the poor, the sick, and
the little children.
St. Vincent opened an orphanage, and the sisters taught the children. They also
took charge of the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. Louise established other orphanages and
hospitals, nursed plague victims herself in Paris, reformed a neglected
hospital in Angers, and oversaw all the activity of the order despite her
fragile health. She traveled all over France founding more than 40 daughter
houses (including one in Madagascar and another in Poland) and charities. Just
before her death, she exhorted her sisters to be diligent in serving the poor
"and to honor them like Christ Himself." At the time of her death the
sick poor were tended in their homes in 26 Parisian parishes, hundreds of women
were given shelter, and other good done. These sisters of charity accomplished
immeasurable good in every part of the world through their self-sacrificing
love for their fellow men. (Attwater, Benedictines, Calvet, Encyclopedia,
Farmer, Schamoni, White).
In art, Saint Louise is depicted in the original habit of the order--a gray
wool tunic with a large headdress or cornette of white linen, the usual dress
of the peasant women of Brittany in the 17th century. She is the patron saint
of social workers (White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0315.shtml
The shrine of St. Louise de Marillac in the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Although Saint Louise de
Marillac was canonized in 1934, there are but few people in Australia who know
anything about her.
This short work will be
an attempt to condense a life, which, for the frail and delicate woman she was,
abounded amazingly in good works.
Pope Pius XII compared
her work in the world with that of Saint Teresa in the cloister.
Pope Pius XI stressed the
miracle of her life, the miracle of her works, and the miracle of her
posterity; while Pope Saint Pius X, when proclaiming the heroicity of her
virtues, announced, “We have found the valiant woman of France.”
In the eyes of the world
she was simply a young widow with wretched health and a troublesome boy; yet,
under the guidance of Saint Vincent de Paul, she inaugurated a thing hitherto
unheard of in the Church of God the doing of works of charity in the world, by
women, who, though not Religious, aimed at the full perfection of the Religious
life.
BORN IN PARIS
When the fortunes of
France were at their lowest ebb, and the horrors of Civil War made life
unbearable for rich and poor alike, Louise de Marillac was born in Paris, on 12
August 1591, out of wedlock.
Monsieur de Marillac
worshipped his tiny daughter and tried to be both father and mother to her;
but, when she was only four, he married again and little Louise soon found that
her stepmother, a widow with three children of her own, had no room in her
heart for the motherless babe.
Reluctantly Monsieur de
Marillac sent his little daughter to a high-class Dominican boarding school at
Poissy, where she was loved and understood and where she received an education
rarely given to girls at that time. Besides literature and painting, she
studied Latin and philosophy and read the Holy Scriptures.
Louise was happy at
Poissy. She loved the peace and quiet of Convent life. She loved the nuns who
mothered her; and so she was loath to leave, when, at the age of twelve, her
father withdrew her and placed her in a less expensive school in Paris.
Even then, there was to
be no home life for her.
In her new school, she
learned domestic science and housecraft. As her father wished her to keep up
her Latin, painting and philosophy, she saw much more of him, for he
superintended these extras.
Still it was not home
and, although she found the simple life she now led more congenial, she often
felt very lonely and unwanted.
Fortunately, she loved
God too much to doubt His Goodness. Her loneliness drew her closer to Him and
she developed a tender devotion to the Passion of Our Lord.
When her father died, two
years later, her sensitive heart was crushed. He was all she had and she had
lost him. Her stepmother ignored her. And, although in his will, Louis de
Marillac wrote, “My daughter Louise has been my greatest consolation in life;
she was given to me by God to comfort my soul in my many afflictions,” he
merely settled a life-income on her and named his brother, Michel, her
guardian. The de Marillac family estates were inherited by her little
half-sister, Innocente.
LONGED FOR CONVENT
For Louise, at sixteen
years of age, the world held little or no attraction. Her guardian, Uncle
Michel, with whom she lived after leaving school, was a most unworldly man, and
his example and guidance influenced her considerably, seconding her already
ardent piety and her craving for a life of penance and discipline.
She soon grew to love him
for his goodness and his charity to the poor and he became her first spiritual
guide. She longed to enter the Convent of Capuchin nuns and made a vow to do so
when she would be of age; but her delicate health made this impossible. She was
heart-broken when her Confessor released her from her promise, but he consoled
her by saying: “God has other designs on you.”
Uncle Michel sympathized
with Louise and wisely counselled her to think of something else. To get
married was the only other thing a girl of the seventeenth century could do and
Louise felt no attraction for it. Meantime she busied herself with the poor of
her district, and with her favourite hobbies, painting and reading. She noticed
that her cousins and friends, one by one, selected for themselves either the
cloister or marriage. If they chose the cloister, then its doors closed behind
them, because there were no un-cloistered active orders in those days. Many
married ladies of her acquaintance were living in the world without being of
it; so, finally she took her uncle’s advice and married Antoine le Gras, the
Queen’s secretary, on 5 February 1613. She was then twenty-two.
In the designs of
Providence, she was destined to be a model for Catholic wives and mothers.
Her husband’s position
entitled them to share in the festivities of the Court, but, though Louise
acquitted herself of her duty and appeared at Court when custom required it,
her heart was not in it.
At home with her husband,
she was very happy. Antoine was about ten years older than Louise, completely
devoted to her and sympathetic with regard to her work among the poor.
Mademoiselle le Gras, as Louis was now called, always recalled the anniversary
of her wedding with gratitude.
Towards the end of the
year, Michel Junior, was born. Louise’s cup of happiness was full. All the
pent-up love of her motherly heart was showered on this mite. What she had
missed in her own infancy she was determined to give him – full measure and
flowing over – even at the risk of spoiling him. Years later Saint Vincent de
Paul gently scolded her for this: “I never knew a mother who was so much a
mother as you. Stop worrying about your boy. God loves him better than you do,
He will take care of him.”
Even then, divine
Providence intervened to save young Michel, by causing him to share his
mother’s love with others. In 1617, Louise’s widowed aunt Valence died. She had
been little Michel’s godmother. On her death-bed, she begged Louise to mother
her seven children. Louise’s small family suddenly became a large household;
but so well did she manage it that the poor were by no means neglected and her
servants often gossiped in the kitchen about the marvellous way she served
them. How self-sacrificing she was, regardless of fatigue, inconvenience and
even dirt!
BY THE WAY OF THE CROSS
Sorrow pressed hard upon
joy in Louise’s life. “God made known to me from my earliest years that it was
His Will that I should go to Him by the way of the Cross,” was her own summary
of her life.
Loneliness in childhood,
the grief of her father’s death, and her disappointment in her vocation were
followed by a few happy years of married life.
Then came one of her
greatest sufferings – a gnawing doubt which undermined her health and
happiness. Had she done wrong in getting married? Had she failed God? Ought she
to leave her husband and try again to fulfil her vow of entering a Convent? Her
uncle tried to allay her scruples, then introduced her to Saint Francis de
Sales, who gave her some consolation. However, in twelve months, he was dead,
but not without having asked his friend, Monsignor Camus, Bishop of Belley, who
was Louise’s cousin, to take over the direction of her soul. He had known her
for years and understood her needs. He taught her to turn aside from thinking
of her faults and fix her mind on Jesus Christ. He encouraged her work among
the poor, as it made her forget herself, and he allowed her to make a vow not
to re-marry if her husband died before her. After that, she had peace for three
weeks. It was only a truce. Her temptations returned with new force and she was
inclined to doubt even the immortality of her soul. She prayed in her anguish
to Saint Francis de Sales, confident that he would help her, and he did. On
Pentecost Sunday, 4 June, she was at Mass, utterly miserable, when suddenly her
mind was enlightened and all her doubts disappeared. She was made to understand
that a time would come when she would take vows of Poverty, Chastity and
Obedience. She saw herself in a place with others attending to the poor: but
she could not understand how this could be a Convent because there was so much
coming and going.
Then came another cross.
Antoine le Gras’s health had failed. He was attacked with an incurable disease.
Louise hid her spiritual trials from her husband and nursed him devotedly for
more than two years. Resigned and conscious to the end, he died on 21 December
1625.
Immediately the “dark
night of the soul” descended upon poor Louise. Was her husband’s death a
punishment for her infidelity in the matter of her vow? Was God angry with her?
Bishop Camus was away from Paris. She was desolate!
Another cross that
weighed upon Louise constantly was her son, Michel. He was spoilt and she knew
that she was responsible. He was now thirteen and getting nowhere with his
studies because of his laziness and utter lack of ambition.
NEW SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
Fortunately, there was
someone at hand to guide, enlighten and console her. Monsignor Camus, perhaps
it was, who arranged for Vincent de Paul, a humble priest in Paris, to direct
her. He established the Congregation of the Mission in 1625 and Louise had
heard a lot about him. She had probably met him while visiting her poor, and
she was interested in him, but she felt some repugnance in accepting him as
director. Nevertheless, she acquiesced and never regretted it.
After unburdening her
soul to Monsieur Vincent, she begged him to enlighten her as to her future.
What did God want her to do next? He invited her to join other pious widows in
making, mending and painting vestments for the parish church – to continue her
work among the poor and, so as to be freer for this, to send her son away to a
boarding school.
She drew up for herself a
rule of life, a strict Order of the Day, and submitted it to her Director.
To rise at five o’clock,
to hear Mass daily and to receive Holy Communion as often as permitted, to make
mental prayer morning and evening, say the Office of Our Lady and the Rosary,
make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and have set times for reading sacred
Scripture, examinations of conscience, meals and recreation and labour.
He had to modify her
tendency to excessive mortification and suggested that, instead of austerities
for which her frail constitution was unfit, she could restrain her too great
tenderness for her son. “In nothing else are you so eminently feminine,” he
told her.
Louise made two retreats
of eight days each in the year. Saint Vincent bade her pray for guidance for
both of them, and for four years kept her waiting in this new and strange
novitiate until God manifested His Will in her regard.
SERVICE OF POOR
Honouring the hidden life
of the Son of God during these years, Louise occupied herself making clothes
for the poor. She helped ecclesiastical students from abroad who needed
clothing, books, Mass outfits or travelling expenses, and she trained young girls
sent to her occasionally by Saint Vincent. Remembering Our Lord’s words:
“Whatsoever you do to the least of Mine, that you do unto Me,” she looked upon
the poor as her lords and masters and served them as she would serve the Lord
of Charity Himself. Our Lady was her model in all things. Carefully she
prepared for and celebrated her feasts; especially the Immaculate Conception
and the Assumption.
Saint Vincent visited her
or wrote when missions kept him out of Paris, and all the while prayed that God
would solve the mystery of her vocation. When he was absent for any length of
time she worried and wrote to Monsignor Camus, who made light of her distress
and reminded her mischievously that Monsieur Vincent could not be expected to
abandon his other duties for her sake. And his duties were legion.
When he was parish priest
of Chatillon in 1617, he had erected the first Confraternity of Charity. So
successful was the venture that in a short time, the organization was
recognized by Church and State; and in 1629, there were about 130 branches in
country districts and small towns. There were set rules for the members, who
dedicated themselves to the service of the needy and took turns in attending to
the sick. To keep them up to the mark, Saint Vincent or one of his priests
visited them from time to time and sometimes found that certain members had
fallen away from their first fervour.
Saint Vincent realized
that for the women members, a lady organizer with a spiritual outlook was
needed. Who could fill this role? Who indeed but Louise de Marillac with her
common sense, tact and easy flow of language.
SOCIAL SERVICE WORK
Having explained the
organization to her and supplied her with letters of introduction, he sent her
off in high spirits, little dreaming that the social service work begun that
day would one day spread over the entire world.
Travelling by open
stage-coach, she visited the churches at each stopping-place, to confide to the
Lord of Charity, as she loved to call Him, the work she had come to do for Him.
Then she looked for lodgings and took whatever was offered.
She held meetings of the
Confraternities, examined their organizations, visited the sick in each town or
village according to instructions, and then returned to Saint Vincent with her
report. For the next four years, we find her setting off in summer and autumn,
sometimes penetrating far into the country. She was appalled by the wretched
condition of the peasants, and more so by their utter ignorance of God. What
mattered it, if, to reach them, she travelled in springless carts, on
horseback, or struggled many miles on foot? They were suffering members of the
Mystical Body of our crucified Lord, and she loved them. From time to time, her
health gave way and she had to rest, but as soon as she was allowed up, she was
off again.
To the members of the
Charities in each town and village she gave simple instructions on their duties
and responsibilities, taught them home nursing, and what precautions to take
against contagion. Her simple eloquence attracted the men who sometimes
concealed themselves in the meeting room to listen to her.
APPRECIATED AND WELCOMED
She compiled a little
Catechism and gathered the children around her wherever she went. To find good
school mistresses was a great anxiety. She endeavoured to leave one in every
town, and here her lady friends helped her considerably. Besides visiting and
encouraging the Confraternities already functioning, Louise erected many more.
In some places, she met with opposition, but generally she was appreciated and
welcomed.
At Beauvais, in 1633, her
visit ended in a public manifestation of gratitude. The Bishop, priests and
people gathered to see her off. When she was leaving, a small boy fell under
the wheels of the clumsy vehicle in which she was travelling and was thought to
be dead. Louise sprang out of the carriage and, kneeling beside the seemingly
lifeless little body, prayed so fervently that, to everyone’s astonishment, he
arose perfectly uninjured.
Before five years were up
the Court and every parish of importance had its Confraternity of Charity.
Abuses crept in sometimes. A few of the Ladies of Charity got their maids to
prepare the food and then sent them to the poor sick instead of serving them
personally.
Saint Vincent strongly
disapproved: “They hadn’t the touch, these paid servants.”
Then came an epidemic of
plague. Many Ladies of Charity were forbidden, by their husbands or by their
parents, to run the risk of contagion. In fact, those who could, fled from
Paris, while Louise calmly continued her charitable works and visited even the
plague-stricken.
To fill the gaps left by
the frightened Ladies of Charity, Vincent and Louise decided to invite some of
the good country girls they had met in the villages, who, without wishing to be
nuns, would willingly give themselves to God to serve Him in the poor. More
than a dozen came eagerly. Louise gave them a hurried course of instructions,
placed them in hired rooms under the care of the Lady President of each parish
Confraternity and hoped for the best. She got it!
Although some proved
unsuitable and were sent home, others were excellent and soon Saint Vincent was
in admiration at their devotedness.
To give just one example: Marguerite Nasseau, who had taught herself to read while minding her sheep and then braved the ridicule of her elders by teaching other girls; who had skimped her own meagre fare to save money enough to help penniless young students to follow their vocation. She came to Saint Vincent and offered her services to nurse the sick. “Everyone loved her because there was nothing in her that was not lovable,” he said.
After serving satisfactorily in three different parishes, she caught the plague
from a poor woman whom she brought to her little room and put into her own bed.
Then she walked to the hospital, where Louise found her, dying – the
first Daughter of Charity.
BIRTH OF COMMUNITY
Scattered as they were in
different parishes of Paris, with very little experience, and left to their own
resources except for orders received from the Lady of Charity placed over each,
these young peasant girls could never persevere if something were not done to
stabilize the venture. Louise de Marillac was quick to realize this and offered
to receive a certain number into her house and to educate and train them for
the service of the poor.
Saint Vincent, too,
judged it necessary to unite these girls in a Community under the guidance of a
superior – and here was one at hand of consummate prudence, exemplary piety and
of an ardent and indefatigable zeal.
The Community of the
Daughters of Charity dates its birth from 29 November 1633 when Saint Louise
welcomed the first four, whose names, unfortunately, are unknown to us.
To suit them, she changed
somewhat her Order of the Day. There was to be no Office, but half an hour’s
mental prayer morning and evening, examinations of conscience, periods of
recollection and acts of the Presence of God, vocal prayers in common, daily
Mass in the parish church, frequent Holy Communion, and the Rosary said
privately.
She joined them at meals,
recreation and housework; she instructed them in all phases of their life and
took them with her to visit the homes of the sick.
Saint Vincent watched and
approved. He was most devoted to the interests of the “Little Company”, and
came at least once a fortnight to give them encouragement and instruction.
After the second of these Conferences, notes were taken, at first by Saint
Louise’ herself and later by one or other of the Sisters capable of doing so.
With Saint Vincent’s
permission, Louise made a vow on 25 March 1634 to consecrate herself to the
service of the poor, at the same time renewing her vow of Chastity. By this
time, there were twelve girls under instruction.
TRUE VOCATION
From the start, Saint
Vincent insisted, in his humility, that God alone could be truly called the
Founder of the Community. He never thought of it, neither did Mademoiselle.
She, in her turn, realized that she had at last found her true vocation – a
religious life, hitherto quite unforeseen, living in Community, yet working in
the midst of the world, with much “coming and going” in succouring the poor,
the ignorant and the afflicted.
For fear of the Sisters
being considered nuns, which would mean enclosure and no more service of the
poor in their own homes, all terminology associated with the cloister was
avoided. Instead of Convent it was to be HOUSE; instead of Reverend Mother,
SISTER SERVANT. The Novitiate was to be the SEMINARY; and the Mistress of
Novices, SISTER DIRECTRESS.
The little Sisters were
not to wear a veil like nuns; the simple grey costume and white head-dress of
the peasant women of the time suited nicely and was made uniform.
Until his death in 1660,
Saint Vincent continued the Conferences. If he happened to be out of Paris, his
faithful friend and first disciple, Father Portail, supplied for him, but this
was rare.
As for Louise, she was
there always, by her example giving herself to the formation of these young
Sisters, whom she dearly loved, with a spiritual energy that was almost
miraculous.
TEACHING AND SERVICE
When she was satisfied,
after some months, that they understood all that such a vocation required, two
or three were sent to live in the town, near the little schoolroom where they
taught peasant children and shepherdesses. Often they had only a hired room for
lodging and, after hearing Mass in the parish church, they sallied forth to
school or to serve the poor in their homes. After school, there were household
chores – sewing, mending, washing and chopping firewood. Some made preserves
for the poor, others attended to the doctor’s orders for the next day’s round
of visits. Those who were illiterate were given extra time to learn how to
read. Louise insisted on daily study, saying: “You must prepare yourselves in
every way to become better Servants of the Poor. We are all they have and
nothing is too good for our lords and masters.”
Their religious formation
went on constantly. Every fortnight they gathered either in Louise’s house or
in Saint Lazare, for Monsieur Vincent’s Conferences, and their numbers steadily
increased.
Louise de Marillac, with
other Ladies of Charity, visited the Hotel-Dieu, an immense hospital where
there were almost 3000 patients; not that they had so many beds, for we are
told there were sometimes six in a bed! It is difficult nowadays, to imagine a
hospital in such dire straits as to have insufficient sheets for changing.
Soon four Sisters were
regularly at work there, and the work was colossal, for so many other
essentials were lacking too: besides corporal assistance, the Ladies of Charity
instructed the patients and prepared them for the Sacraments.
During this first year
nearly 800 infidels, heretics, and even Turks, were reconciled to God. Louise
was so devoted to this work that Saint Vincent had to restrain her zeal.
By 1636, it was necessary
to move to a larger house, which was found in La Chapelle, a northern suburb of
Paris. This became the Mother House. A few visiting Sisters were left to carry
on their work in the city house.
Hardly were they
installed in their country house, enjoying the pure fresh air, than war
threatened. They were on the direct route of the invading and defending armies.
Thousands of refugees poured into the village. Louise found herself and her
Sisters in a dangerous position, but she held her ground, trusting in the
protection of God, and took in a number of girls who were among the refugees.
To help them materially and to protect them were not sufficient for her zeal;
she arranged for one of the Missionaries to give them a retreat before they
left.
PLIGHT OF FOUNDLINGS
The foundlings next
attracted her attention. She heard of poor unfortunate abandoned babies
deserted in the streets of Paris – 300 or 400 a year, and her motherly heart
went out to them. She went to see “La Couche”, a house to which these waifs
were taken. It was kept by a woman with two servants who treated the children
so badly that most of them died un-baptized. The survivors were sold to any
beggar for a few pence, who maimed them to excite compassion. . . . Louise was
heartbroken and immediately begged Saint Vincent to let her take as many as she
could accommodate. The Sisters of La Chapelle received them gladly, and we hear
of a sister sitting up all night with a baby in each arm because all the cots
were full.
Their numbers increased
so rapidly during the war that a foundling hospital was opened and run by the
Sisters in Paris for some, while others were boarded out with foster-mothers.
Providing for these
little ones was, for years, one of Saint Louise’s greatest difficulties. As
they grew up, she also had to educate them. To meet the growing demand for
teachers, she sent some of the Sisters to the Ursuline Nuns, who initiated them
into their method of teaching.
The Ladies of Charity
were of great assistance to Saint Louise. In fact, she could not have done
without them a fraction of what she did.
DEATH OF MADAME GOUSSAULT
Her charitable
enterprises required enormous sums of money. This was contributed almost
entirely by the good Ladies of Charity, who also devoted themselves
whole-heartedly to her works. Foundations were made on their country estates
and financed by them. Madame Goussault was a wonderful example to the others,
always ready to help either in visiting the Hotel-Dieu and the prisons or in
the care of the foundlings. Her premature death in 1639 was a sore trial to
Louise, who had relied so much on her. It was some consolation to know that to
Saint Vincent she said, the day before she died: “All night I have seen the
Daughters of Charity before the Throne of God. Ah, how greatly they will be
multiplied; what good they will do and what happiness will be theirs.”
Some of the Ladies of
Charity expressed a wish to make a spiritual retreat under Louise’s direction.
At Saint Vincent’s suggestion she readily complied, all the more so as this
gave her an opportunity to make them some return.
Saint Louise never
neglected what she deemed her first duty, the training of the Sisters who now
formed a numerous Community. They were taught to have “no cell but a hired
room, no cloister but the streets of the city or the wards of a hospital, no
enclosure but obedience, no grating but the fear of God, and no veil but holy
modesty.” But at the same time they were to equal cloistered religious in all
the virtues of the religious life, adding thereto a great love for and absolute
devotedness to the poor. The secret of her success in training her young girls
was that “she gave them daily heroic example of every precept she explained.”
NURSING THE
PLAGUE-STRICKEN
Madame Goussault’s dying
wish was to see the Sisters take over and run the Hospital of Angers, her
native town, for which she left a large sum of money. This was the first
long-distance foundation. Seventy-five miles from Paris was a considerable
journey in those days, partly by coach and partly by canal-boat. Louise picked
her Sisters carefully and decided to accompany them. She also made an effort to
discard her widow’s weeds and adopt the head-dress worn by her companions, but
she caught cold and had to revert to her black veil. It was a disappointment to
her and she humbly thought that she was unworthy of it. The journey to Angers
took fourteen days and, when they arrived, Louise was seriously ill.
Nevertheless, she attended to all the business of the Foundation and
established the Association of the Ladies of Charity. The plague was raging,
but the Sisters fearlessly nursed the plague-stricken and God preserved them
from contagion.
Six years later the
administrators of another large hospital asked for Sisters to assume charge.
This was in Nantes, farther off than Angers. Again, Louise installed her
Sisters personally. Before long, difficulties crowded in from all sides, and
several times the Sisters’ Council in Paris was on the point of withdrawing
them. Eventually their patience and charity won, though it took several years.
RULES ARE WRITTEN
In 1642, there were
nearly one hundred members in the little Company. Some of the Sisters begged
Saint Vincent to allow them to make vows. After much deliberation he consented
that they make vows of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience and the Service of the Poor,
which would became, and remain, annual, although each one’s intention must be
to renew them every year until death.
Those so privileged
pronounced their first Holy Vows on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March,
and Louise renewed hers at the same time.
She kept reminding Saint
Vincent that so far the Sisters had no written rule. Her Order of the Day and
little regulations, but above all her example had sufficed. Being overwhelmed
with problems of his own at the time, he put her off; but early in 1645 he was
frightened into action when Louise collapsed and her life was despaired of.
Eventually she recovered and then he became dangerously ill, even unconscious
for several days. As soon as he was able, he asked Louise to draw up Rules for
the future guidance of the Community. This she did with such wisdom and
foresight that he had very few alterations to make, and these Rules have stood
the test of time and are still faithfully observed by thousands of Daughters of
Charity in all parts of the world.
In the Conferences that
followed, Saint Vincent explained these Rules minutely and loved to repeat:
“Keep your Rules and your Rules will keep you.”
It was now five years
since Louise had transferred her Seminary and Secretariat to a larger house
near the parish church of Saint Laurent. Saint Vincent was nearer. The Ladies
of Charity held their meetings there, and Retreats for the Sisters and for the
Laity were there conducted. Louise was the life and soul of the house. In spite
of her continual infirmities, and sometimes overpowering anxieties, she was
constantly cheerful, and would laugh heartily at recreation with the Sisters.
When death snatched one of them from her, she wept bitterly, so much did she
love them.
Louise’s humility was her
outstanding virtue. She did the meanest work of the house and never allowed
anything new to be bought for her. Secondhand clothing she considered quite
good enough.
Her spirit of obedience
made her seek advice from Saint Vincent on every point and obey him implicitly.
The secrets of her
interior life are revealed in her instructions given so regularly to the
Daughters. These were taken down by her secretary verbatim, and we have them
today as inspiring as the day she spoke. Full of common sense and
forthrightness, one feels that she has had personal experience of the crosses
and snares for which she sought to prepare them.
Her devotion to the
Sacred Heart was remarkable. She lived before Saint Margaret Mary, who was born
in 1647; yet a large picture painted by her represents the Lord of Charity
standing in the attitude we are now so accustomed to see on pictures of the
apparition to Saint Margaret, which occurred many years later. Her second
characteristic devotion was to the Immaculate Conception; in which she firmly believed
long before it was declared an article of faith. To her Guardian Angel she was
most devout; and always saluted the angels of the inhabitants of the towns and
villages she passed through on her journeys; and she recommended the Sisters to
pray to the good angels of those whom they strove to instruct or convert.
Her devotion to the
Sacred Passion and to the Blessed Sacrament sustained her all through life amid
innumerable trials, sorrows and sufferings of body and soul. These devotions
are now incorporated into the spiritual exercises of the Daughters of Charity.
GOD’S WATCHFUL CARE
Louise had great
confidence in Divine Providence. She told the Sisters that if they were not
already called Daughters of Charity, they might well be called Daughters of
Providence – so often had the good God shown His watchful care of them.
In 1644, she narrowly
escaped death from a falling ceiling in the Community room, when a joist broke,
immediately after she had left it.
On another occasion, a
Sister was climbing the stairs of a tenement house with food for a sick woman,
when the house collapsed, killing thirty-six people; the corner of the landing
on which she stood was the only part left intact. After carefully lowering her
soup-pot at the end of a rope, she jumped from the window into blankets held
out to catch her and then went on her way to the poor with her basket still on
her arm!
When Saint Vincent
pleaded the cause of his beloved galley slaves, the condemned criminals, Louise
sent Sisters to nurse them, with detailed instructions, warning them of the
risks they ran, on account of the evil character of these poor men. “Be like the
sun whose rays fall on the dung-heap without suffering any ill effects from
it.”
A large dilapidated
castle, “Bicetre”, was placed at her disposal by the Ladies of Charity in 1647.
The foundlings were housed there and a wine-press and bakery were started, but
civil war broke out. As in 1636, the Sisters and children were in danger and,
two years later, all had to return to Paris.
These foundlings caused
Louise more worry than enough. The number of children to be fed, housed and
clothed was out of all proportion to the funds collected for them.
Between 1638 and 1643,
1,200 infants had been cared for and they kept coming at an average of one a
day. The Sisters at the Foundling Hospital reduced their own fare to one meal a
day. So much else was there to worry about, that the Ladies of Charity’s
enthusiasm for them flagged and Louise tearfully told Saint Vincent that she
feared they would have to give up the care of these little ones.
Saint Vincent called a
meeting and made his famous appeal: “. . . Ladies, if you continue to support
these little ones, they will live. If you abandon them, they will die.
Pronounce sentence. Their life and death are in your hands. What is your
verdict?”
Of course, the Ladies of
Charity promised to continue, and even sold their jewellery to raise funds; but
with the outbreak of war, many of the Ladies of Charity fled to the country,
and the fortunes of the few remaining were so reduced that they were unable to
redeem their promises. Louise was left alone to shoulder the burden of hundreds
of little hungry children. Debts mounted. Credit was refused. The little ones
were dying of hunger and poor Louise felt personally responsible for their
deaths. To make matters worse, Saint Vincent was away for five or six months,
but he answered her sad little letters, reminding her of the confidence she
owed God. The work was His. He would see it through. And so He did, through His
worthy instrument, Saint Vincent, who, on his return, managed to procure food,
paid all debts, and averted the dreaded disaster within a few months.
NURSING WAR-WOUNDED
There came a sip of
happiness to Louise in 1650. Her wayward son, now thirty-seven years of age,
who found it so hard to settle down anywhere or at any job, met and married
Gabrielle le Clerc, an excellent young lady, under whose influence he became
steady and reliable. They had one daughter, Louise, who was a great joy to her
grandmother.
Three days after his
marriage, France was again plunged into a senseless war of tragic suffering.
Country districts were laid waste by the marching and counter-marching of
troops. The horrors perpetrated by bandits admitted into the Queen’s army were
unimaginable.
Louise was deluged with
appeals for help; Sisters were wanted everywhere. Famine was widespread.
Sorrowfully she saw four Sisters depart for the battlefield at the Queen’s
request, to nurse the wounded. Three of them died. Soon there was “fighting in
the very capital”. Soldiers lay dead at the door of the Mother House, while the
Sisters inside fasted and prayed for peace.
Prayer succeeded where
all political efforts failed. The Archbishop appealed for prayer and penance,
and peace came with the return of the young King Louis XIV at the end of 1652.
At the same time, Poland
was at war with Sweden. The Queen of Poland, who had been a Lady of Charity in
Paris, asked for Sisters to nurse the wounded soldiers in her adopted country.
Three were sent in 1652 and more in 1657. Two died of plague and Louise was
asked for reinforcements. In all, she sent twenty Sisters to Poland, envying
them their opportunities for sacrifice.
As a result of the war,
and long before it was over, begging in the streets of Paris became a menace.
There were about 100,000 professional beggars. Many edicts had been issued against
them, and the weapon of force had been resorted to, but all in vain.
In 1656, King Louis XIV
erected a general hospital, which before long housed 6,000 mendicants, all
learning a trade. Street begging was again forbidden by law. It was remarkable
how many maimed and blind beggars were cured overnight and either came willingly
to learn a trade or disappeared into the country. A Paris merchant donated
100,000 livres for work, which was to be administered by Saint Vincent, Saint
Louise and the Daughters.
CARE OF LUNATICS
In the year of 1653, the
Holy Name of Jesus Hospice was founded for the sick and aged of the capital.
Two years later, this
valiant woman, now worn out with age and infirmities, welcomed yet another
major appointment, the care of lunatics in an asylum which had been rather
badly managed. Saint Vincent inspired the Sisters with such an exalted idea of
the grace God bestowed on them by giving them this charitable work that they
all longed to devote themselves to it in spite of its special difficulties.
In 1658, the River Seine
overflowed its banks – Paris was inundated. Louise harboured 800 refugees in
the Mother House and fed 1,500 poor at the door each day. Saint Vincent
organized a huge emporium of food, clothing and furniture, and medical
supplies, while several Sisters helped the priests and brothers who were sent
to relieve distress, in the country districts.
And so, these last years
of Louis’s life were no less fruitful in good works than the preceding ones,
and like them, bore the stamp of the Cross. Trials of all kinds came her way –
ill health, disappointments, losses, but with them all came ever-increasing
sanctity. Her will was anchored to the Will of God and, consequently, she
enjoyed that peace which Our Lord promised “no man can take from you.”
A fall, which injured one
arm permanently in 1659, aggravated her sufferings and necessitated a Sister
secretary. From her sick room she sent Sisters to Calais to nurse the wounded
and others attacked by plague. Two died and twenty volunteered to replace them.
PREPARES FOR END
During these last years
of her life, Louise had an Assistant, to whom she left most of the
administration of the Mother House. No longer able to cope with it all, she
spent more time in prayer and preparation for the end, which she felt was
drawing near. The prayers and sacrifices of their Mother certainly obtained
extraordinary graces for her children.
Her last foundation was
that of Narbonne in 1659, where the Archbishop asked for three teaching
Sisters.
Louise was no longer able
to assist at daily Mass and was suffering intensely. Twelve years before, Saint
Vincent had written of her to Father Portail in Rome: “I regard Mademoiselle as
naturally dead for the last ten years . . . only God knows the strength of her
soul.”
January and February were
anxious months for her Daughters. Their Mother lay between life and death. On 4
February, the Last Sacraments were administered; but she rallied sufficiently
to put all her affairs in order. On the 14th news of the death of Father
Portail saddened her. He had been the Sisters’ Spiritual Director for eighteen
years.
Early in March, her fever
returned and gangrene declared itself in her injured shoulder. She was in
danger and on the 12th, she again received the Last Sacraments. Three days of
increasing pain followed, but her patience was uncompromising. “It is just,”
she whispered, “that where sin has abounded, suffering should also abound.”
Saint Vincent, now over
eighty, was practically an invalid. His ulcerated leg made it impossible for
him to walk any distance. He was quite unable to assist her.
She asked for a few
written words of encouragement, but, knowing her detachment, he sent an oral
message instead: “You are going before me, Mademoiselle, but I hope to see you
soon in heaven.”
At eleven o’clock on the
15th, feeling that her last hour had come, she spoke her dying words to the
sobbing Sisters who surrounded her bed: “Take great care of the poor, . . .
live together in great union and cordiality . . . pray much to the Blessed Virgin,
she is your only Mother.”
At noon, her beautiful
soul passed peacefully to God.
It was Monday of Passion
Week, 15 March 1660.
She left 350 Daughters of
Charity in seventy foundations in France and Poland.
SAINT VINCENT’S WORDS
A few weeks after her
death, Saint Vincent, somewhat improved in health, held a Conference with her
Daughters. After listening to them tell of her virtues and her tender devotion
to the poor, he said: “Address yourselves with confidence to your Mother in
heaven. She can help you more now and she will, provided you are faithful to
God.”
Fourteen years before,
when sending her a draft copy of the memorandum of the establishment of the
Daughters, which he intended to send to the Archbishop of Paris, he wrote: “I
have omitted many things I might have said about yourself. Let us leave it to
Our Lord to say it to the whole world one day, and let us hide ourselves in the
meantime.”
Surely, that day has come
and Our Lord is calling the attention of the whole world to Saint LOUISE DE
MARILLAC in this great century.
Her Cause was not
introduced until 1895.
In 1911, Pope Saint Pius
X declared her Venerable.
In 1920, Pope Benedict XV
beatified her.
In 1934, Pope Pius XI
canonized her.
In 1954, her statue was
erected in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
And now, 14 March 1960,
Pope John XXIII declared her to be the PATRONESS OF ALL CHRISTIAN SOCIAL
WORKERS.
Did she not inaugurate,
more than 300 years ago, just those works which now claim the time and zeal of
our modern Social Workers?
“Mothers, Fathers,
Catholic Youth, Religious and lay Teachers and Nurses, and members of every
branch of Social Work, Saint Louise de Marillac is your MODEL. Look to her for
inspiration. Put your efforts under her guidance and protection, and pray that
your work may resemble hers, especially in this – that in all she did for the
needy and oppressed she sought only the GLORY OF GOD and the SALVATION OF
SOULS.”
The Daughters of Charity
in Australia.
The Vice-Province of the
Daughters of Charity in Australia forms a branch of the British Province, which
was founded from the Mother House, Paris, in 1855.
From the Central House,
Mill Hill, London, came the pioneers of the Australian Branch in 1926.
Others came in after
years – in all, the British Province sent thirty Sisters to the Vice-Province.
The first four
Australians who applied for admission to the Community of Saint Vincent de Paul
and Saint Louise de Marillac, were obliged to go overseas for their training;
but, in 1937, a temporary Seminary was opened in Mayfield, which was
transferred in 1939 to the newly-built Central House in Eastwood (Marsfield in
Sydney).
Since then, approximately
one hundred Australians have completed their twelve months’ training here,
after six months’ postulancy, and have been sent out to one or other of the
eighteen houses.
– Australian Catholic
Truth Society No. 1351a (1960). Thanks to Saint Paul’s School for the Blind and
Visually Handicapped, Kew, Victoria.
Santa Luisa de Marillac Vedova
e religiosa
Ferrieres, Francia, 1591
- Parigi, Francia, 15 marzo 1660
Luisa (Ludovica) nasce
nel 1591 a Ferrieres e ha un'infanzia agiata. Dopo il 1604, morto il padre,
viene tolta dal regio collegio e affidata a una «signorina povera» (forse sua
madre), che l'avvia al lavoro. In questo periodo matura il proposito di farsi religiosa.
Ma i parenti la danno in sposa nel 1613 allo scudiero e segretario di Maria de'
Medici, Antonio Le Gras. I frequenti colloqui con Francesco di Sales,
incontrato la prima volta a Parigi nel 1618, aiutano Ludovica a superare le
proprie sofferenze. Poi nel 1624, grazie all'incontro con Vincenzo de' Paoli,
diventa cofondatrice dell'Istituto delle Figlie della Carità. Poco dopo, nel
dicembre 1625, morto il marito ed entrato in seminario il figlio Michele,
accoglie in casa sua le prime giovani venute dal contado per mettersi al
servizio dei poveri, in collaborazione con le Dame della Carità. Era il primo
nucleo della nuova congregazione, dai lei guidata fino alla morte, avvenuta nel
1660. (Avvenire)
Patronato: Assistenti
Sociali
Martirologio Romano: A
Parigi in Francia, santa Luisa de Marillac, vedova, che guidò con il suo
esempio l’Istituto delle Figlie della Carità nell’assistenza ai bisognosi,
portando a pieno compimento l’opera avviata da san Vincenzo de’ Paoli.
Si racconta che Napoleone, in un giorno di quiete, si trovò ad ascoltare un gruppo di persone qualificate culturalmente che cominciarono a discettare di filosofia, di politica, di scienza e con entusiasmo esaltavano l’Illuminismo che aveva prodotto nella società un sentimento filantropico. L’imperatore li ascoltava ma si mostrava sempre più impaziente e anche infastidito da tutte quelle parole.
Ad un certo punto li interruppe dicendo: “Tutto questo è bello e buono, ma non farà mai una Suora Grigia!”. Si chiamavano così le Figlie della Carità, fondate, nel 1633, da Vincenzo de’ Paoli e da Luisa de Marrillac, da più di un secolo già famosissime e stimatissime in Francia per la loro opera di carità verso i più bisognosi e per i poveri rottami della società, che pure si fregiava dell’appellativo di illuminista, cioè illuminata dal lume della ragione.
Una seconda curiosità. Verso la metà del 1600, quando ormai le Suore Grigie operavano già da qualche decennio, alleviando tante sofferenze e salvando tante vite umane, viveva a Parigi, nella quiete e nella sicurezza, il filosofo inglese Thomas Hobbes.
Di lui è rimasta la teorizzazione filosofica dell’assolutismo dello Stato (il Dio mortale sulla terra) nella sua opera Il Leviathan (1651). Tutto doveva essere sottomesso allo Stato (anche l’autorità religiosa). Uno Stato assoluto con poteri assoluti sui singoli individui era necessario per evitare che gli uomini si sbranassero a vicenda alla ricerca inevitabile dei propri diritti. Sua è la famosa frase: “Homo homini lupus”, l’uomo è un lupo per l’altro uomo, pronto, pur di affermare i propri diritti alla sopravvivenza, a sbranarlo.
Le Figlie della Carità o Suore Grigie, sapendo che lo Stato non è tutto, erano dei veri angeli, che alleviavano il dolore in ogni angolo dove l’autorità politica e civile non entrava o ne ignorava il bisogno. E in questa loro opera così importante e socialmente così utile e illuminata seguivano le orme e gli esempi dei loro fondatori: San Vincenzo de’ Paoli e Santa Luisa de Marillac. Due grandi figure che hanno illuminato con la loro santità operante socialmente quel secolo francese grande anche per altre figure come Pascal e Cartesio, Richielieu e Mazzarino, Moliere e Corneille, card. De Berulle e Jacques Bossuet, San Giovanni Eudes e altri.
Avendo già parlato nel mese di settembre 2007 di San Vincenzo de’ Paoli, ora
tocca a Santa Luisa, che per più di trenta anni lavorò con lui con lo stesso
obiettivo: mostrare il volto misericordioso e buono di Dio verso i bisognosi,
specialmente quelli più abbandonati e soli, e in questo erano ambedue mossi
dallo stesso e unico grande amore a Gesù Cristo.
Il matrimonio sbagliato e per interesse
Louise de Marillac nacque nel 1591. Non ebbe come si dice un’infanzia e
un’adolescenza serena. Il padre apparteneva ad una delle più importanti
famiglie della Francia. Della madre non si sa niente: era quindi una figlia
naturale, riconosciuta premurosamente dal padre ed anche aiutata da lui con una
rendita che le assicurasse una certa sicurezza. Era una bambina intelligente e saggia.
I suoi primi studi furono fatti nel convento delle domenicane di Poissy.
L’atmosfera raccolta, devota e culturalmente stimolante le piacque da subito.
Ma, forse, la spesa era eccessiva per lei. Venne infatti ritirata e affidata ad
una maestra abile anche nell’insegnarle i lavori tipici femminili.
Perdette il padre all’età di 11 anni, e, fatto che complicò ancora il suo stato di orfana, la famiglia della matrigna e gli altri parenti (sembra) non si preoccuparono eccessivamente di lei e del suo destino.
La ragazza cresceva molto devota e aveva fatto voto di consacrarsi al Signore: all’età di 18 anni Luisa si preparava quindi ad entrare in un convento. Fu però sconsigliata e respinta in questo suo proposito a causa della sua salute non robusta. Se non poteva diventare suora allora bisognava maritarla. E così fu. Ecco quindi un matrimonio non voluto da lei ma combinato da altri, quindi solo di interesse.
Era il 1613 e Luisa aveva 22 anni. Il nome del marito Antoine Le Gras, senza alcun titolo nobiliare. Nacque ben presto anche un figlio. Luisa conduceva una vita di devota nel bel mondo che la portava a frequentare prelati, signori dell’ambiente dei Marillac e di Madame Acarie, il tutto mentre si prendeva cura del figlio, debole di salute. Sembrava tutto facile. Ma Luisa cresceva negli scrupoli, nei rimorsi per non essere potuta entrare in convento sempre oppressa da quelli che lei credeva peccati. Era in crisi, insomma. Aveva una buona formazione intellettuale e spirituale, ed una vita cristiana buona. E purtroppo il matrimonio non era diventato un sostegno per lei ma fonte di difficoltà e di ansietà. Cercava quindi la salvezza nell’ascesi, nell’umiltà, nell’abnegazione. Spesso anche in maniera esagerata. E in più aveva sviluppato un attaccamento verso suo figlio che qualche autore chiama addirittura di natura nevrotica. Era un’anima in difficoltà spirituale, in grande pena e dalla psicologia ferita profondamente.
Ebbe anche la possibilità di incontrare addirittura due santi (e anche grandi): il vescovo di Ginevra, Francesco di Sales, e specialmente Vincenzo de’ Paoli. Avrà con quest’ultimo l’incontro decisivo e provvidenziale per la sua vita.
E veniamo all’anno 1623, anno importante per Luisa. Quello dell’illuminazione. Scrisse lei stessa: “Compresi che... sarebbe venuto un tempo in cui sarei stata nella condizione di fare i tre voti di povertà, castità e obbedienza, e questo assieme ad altre persone... Compresi che doveva essere in un luogo per soccorrere il prossimo, ma non riuscivo a capire come ciò si potesse fare, per il fatto che doveva esserci un andare e venire...”. Un segno dall’alto di avere un po’ di pazienza per coronare il suo sogno di diventare religiosa.
Luisa capì il messaggio e infatti cominciò ad aderire, con umiltà e serenità e
nella pace interiore, alle circostanze della vita, che in quel momento
significava stare a fianco del marito (dal quale pensava di separarsi). La
malattia del marito intanto continuava e Luisa lo assistette con molta più
dedizione e tenerezza di prima, per altri due anni, rimanendogli accanto fino
alla morte santa (1626), della quale lei parlava come di una grande grazia del
Signore.
L’incontro con Vincenzo de’ Paoli
Fu certamente la Provvidenza, che non lascia niente al caso per realizzare i
propri progetti di salvezza, a far incontrare Luisa con Vincenzo (intravisto,
senza capire di chi si trattasse, in quella famosa illuminazione del 1623).
Avvenne nel 1624, durante gli ultimi due anni della malattia del marito. Lei 33 anni, lui 43, famoso in tutta la Francia, che trattava con re, regine, ministri e grandi personaggi. Una coppia che avrebbe funzionato molto bene per il Regno di Dio e che sarebbe rimasta unita indissolubilmente e animata visibilmente dall’unico e indistruttibile e comune amore per il Signore Gesù.
Luisa sarebbe diventata la vera compagna di Vincenzo per le opere di carità sociale. Le fu vicino con molta discrezione, con molta saggezza e anche tenerezza spirituale, rasserenando il suo spirito col richiamo continuo all’amore di Dio per ciascuno di noi e quindi anche per lei (per farle vincere il suo moralismo, gli scrupoli e il ricordo dei propri errori). La invitava sempre ad esser lieta, semplice ed umile, le ricordava continuamente l’importanza della “santa indifferenza” davanti a quello che Dio avrebbe voluto per lei. Lei stessa avrebbe trovata la strada e la missione che Dio voleva. Un po’ di pazienza. Anche Dio ha i suoi tempi per agire e per far capire il suo progetto.
Il Cristo non era vissuto trent’anni nell’oscurità di Nazaret prima della missione? Anche Luisa poteva e doveva aspettare.
Intanto conosceva sempre di più l’opera e la metodologia di Vincenzo con i poveri. E il miracolo avvenne. Arrivò proprio il giorno in cui Luisa intuì il proprio compito o meglio la missione nella Chiesa.
Lei, Luisa de Marillac, di madre sconosciuta, orfana a 11 anni del padre, una suora mancata, una giovane donna maritata per interesse, madre di un figlio che dava e aveva problemi... sarebbe diventata la “Madre dei poveri”. Grazie a Dio (e a Vincenzo, mandato da Dio) una trasformazione totale. Naturalmente comunicò l’intuizione a Vincenzo. Era proprio quello che aspettava. Le rispose: “Sì che acconsento, mia cara damigella, acconsento sicuramente. Perché non dovrei volerlo io pure, se Nostro Signore vi ha dato questo santo sentimento?... Possiate essere sempre un bell’albero di vita che produce frutti d’amore!”. E così sarà veramente per Luisa, per tutta la vita e per tanti poveracci che incontrerà e aiuterà.
L’opera maggiore (che continua ancora oggi) che questa santa “coppia di Dio” ha fatto insieme è stata la fondazione delle Figlie della Carità, nel 1633. Un Istituto religioso, diretto da loro due insieme per 27 anni fino al 1660, quando morirono entrambi a poca distanza di mesi.
Fu una vera rivoluzione per la Chiesa (uscire fuori dai conventi e per di più donne), perché andava al di là dai soliti schemi mentali e gabbie organizzative ecclesiali vigenti fino a quel tempo. Vincenzo e Luisa a tutti chiedevano quello che potevano dare: ai re e regine, ai borghesi e alle dame dell’alta società francese, ai nobili ricchi e ai ricchi non nobili. Alle figlie chiedevano di essere “serve dei poveri”, come se essi fossero i veri padroni. Ma tutto questo Luisa lo chiedeva dicendo o scrivendo “In nome di Dio, sorelle... siate molto affabili e dolci con i vostri poveri. Sappiate che sono i nostri padroni...”. E questi poveri erano i derelitti, gli abbandonati, i senza dimora, i malati, i pazzi, i galeotti, bambini trovatelli, feriti di guerra e altre categorie affini a forte disagio sociale.
Era un’assistenza piena di amore e di carità, che nessuna ideologia o anche filosofia illuminista poteva inventare o giustificare ma solo l’amore di Dio. Ed era un lavoro che le Figlie della Carità, quelle suore grigie che Napoleone “sognava”, facevano, e sempre faranno, “in nome di Dio”.
Autore: Mario Scudu sdb
Note: Il
Martyrologium Romanum ha posto la data di culto al 15 marzo, mentre la
Congregazione della Missione (Lazzaristi) e la Compagnia delle Figlie della
Carità la celebrano il 9 maggio.
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/31600
Vitrail,
Santa Luisa, Cathédrale Lima Miraflores, Miraflores/Lima, Peru.
Luisa de Marillac
(1591-1660)
Beatificazione:
- 09 maggio 1920
- Papa Benedetto XV
Canonizzazione:
- 11 marzo 1934
- Papa Pio XI
- Basilica Vaticana
Ricorrenza:
- 15 marzo (9 maggio)
Vedova, che a Parigi
guidò con il suo esempio l’Istituto delle Figlie della Carità nell’assistenza
ai bisognosi, portando a pieno compimento l’opera avviata da san Vincenzo de’
Paoli
“Non abbiate occhi e
cuore che per i poveri”
Nata in Francia nel 1591
da Luigi de Marillac, signore di Ferrières e consigliere al Parlamento, la
piccola Luisa non conoscerà mai la sua vera madre. Nel 1595, il padre si sposa
in seconde nozze e la piccola, a soli 4 anni, viene affidata alle Suore domenicane
del Convento di Poissy, dove trova un ambiente amorevole e riceve una buona
educazione non solo umanistica, ma anche spirituale. Infatti, raggiunta la
maggiore età, Luisa avverte la chiamata vocazionale e chiede di poter
abbracciare la vita monastica. La sua richiesta, tuttavia, viene respinta,
poiché la giovane è cagionevole di salute.
Non le resta, quindi, che
il matrimonio: la scelta dello sposo, dettata dalle convenzioni sociali
dell’epoca, cade su Antonio Le Gras, segretario della famiglia de’ Medici. Le
nozze vengono celebrate nel 1613, Luisa ha 22 anni e poco dopo diventa madre
del piccolo Michele. Ma la futura Santa avverte, nel cuore, una profonda crisi:
non è quella la sua vera vocazione e il suo animo ne soffre. Nonostante ciò,
come moglie e madre devota, si dedica alla famiglia con abnegazione e spirito
di sacrificio, curando con dedizione il marito, colpito da una grave malattia
che lo porterà alla tomba nel 1626.
Il giorno di Pentecoste
del 1623, mentre è raccolta in preghiera, Luisa ha una sorta di illuminazione:
“Compresi – scrive – che sarebbe venuto un tempo in cui sarei stata nella
condizione di fare i tre voti di povertà, castità e obbedienza. Compresi che
doveva essere in un luogo per soccorrere il prossimo”. L’anno successivo, la futura
Santa incontra chi le permetterà di mettere in pratica quello spirito di carità
ardente, quel donarsi totalmente all’amore di Dio che la sospinge: Luisa
conosce Vincenzo de’ Paoli. Da quel momento in poi, questa “coppia di Dio”
rimane indissolubilmente legata in nome dell’apostolato e del servizio agli
ultimi, agli esclusi, agli emarginati.
Vincenzo, infatti,
sacerdote dinamico e creativo, organizza a Parigi e nei villaggi circostanti le
“Confraternite della Carità”, composte da generose volontarie desiderose di
aiutare i più bisognosi. E proprio a Luisa Vincenzo affida tali giovani,
affinché siano formate e accompagnate nel loro servizio materiale e spirituale.
Luisa dice “sì” a questo progetto così innovativo e il 29 novembre 1633
prendono vita ufficialmente le “Figlie della Carità”, ovvero monache senza
chiostro, ma che – nelle parole del de’ Paoli – “hanno per monastero le case
dei malati, per cella una stanza d’affitto, per cappella la chiesa
parrocchiale, per chiostro le vie della città”. E per maestra e testimone la de
Marillac, la quale si dedica totalmente alla missione di far comprendere alle
giovani come servire il povero equivalga a servire Cristo, perché il povero e
Cristo sono la stessa realtà.
Lo stile delle “Figlie
della Carità” sarà, dunque, quello di un servizio umile, cordiale,
compassionevole. Un servizio che arriva ovunque: con la gerla in spalla piena
di viveri, abiti e medicinali, le giovani caritatevoli vanno per le strade
parigine, nei sobborghi, negli ospedali, nelle carceri, sui campi di battaglia
e nelle scuole in cui i più piccoli imparano non solo a scrivere e a far di
conto, ma anche a conoscere e amare Dio.
D’altronde, Luisa non si
risparmia mai: in ogni suo gesto, in ogni sua preghiera mette così tanta
devozione che Vincenzo de’ Paoli esclama: “Solo Dio conosce quale forza d’animo
ella possieda!”. Ma gli anni passano e le forze della de Marillac, già
precarie, cominciano a venir meno. All’inizio del 1660, la futura Santa avverte
che la fine è vicina, ma neanche allora cessa di incoraggiare le sue Figlie:
“Non abbiate occhi e cuore che per i poveri”, raccomanda. Il suo cuore,
stremato dalla fatica, cessa di battere il 15 marzo 1660. Tuttavia, la sua
opera non si ferma ed attualmente la Compagnia delle “Figlie della Carità”
conta circa 3 mila Case ed oltre 27 mila Suore in tutti e cinque i continenti.
Beatificata da Benedetto
XV il 9 maggio 1920 e canonizzata da Pio XI l’11 marzo 1934, Luisa de Marillac
è stata proclamata da Giovanni XXIII “Patrona delle opere sociali” il 10
febbraio 1960. Le sue spoglie riposano nella cappella della Casa Madre delle
“Figlie della Carità” a Parigi, ma una statua in sua memoria è custodita nella
Basilica di San Pietro.
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/luisa-de-marillac.html
_-_Foto_G_Dall'Orto.jpg)
Giovanni Pandiani, "Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac" (1858/1860). Relief in Saint Vincent's chapel in the church of San Carlo al Corso church in Milan. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, June 22 2007.
_-_Foto_G_Dall'Orto.jpg)
Giovanni Pandiani, "Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac" (1858/1860). Relief in Saint Vincent's chapel in the church of San Carlo al Corso church in Milan. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, June 22 2007.
11 gennaio 1980
Reverenda madre, sorelle.
Immaginate con me che san
Vincenzo de’ Paoli e santa Luisa di Marillac, i due vostri fondatori così uniti
nella loro passione evangelica di servire i poveri e che ritornarono al Signore
a qualche mese di distanza or sono già più di tre secoli, siano presenti a
questo incontro di famiglia! Ma essi sono con noi in modo misterioso.
Permettetemi di lasciar loro la parola, facendomi solamente loro interprete.
Quando voi proseguirete i
lavori dell’assemblea generale della Compagnia, coloro che voi venerate come vostro
padre e vostra madre vogliono in primo luogo confermarvi nell’attualità della
vostra vocazione. Il calore della carità è proprio ciò di cui la persona umana
ha il più grande bisogno oggi come sempre. Certo, le miserie sociali del XVII
secolo e dell’epoca della Fronda sono ben lontane. Ma “i poveri sono sempre in
mezzo a noi”! Chi ci potrà fornire delle statistiche precise sulla povertà
reale in ciascun paese e su scala mondiale? Vengono spesso pubblicate delle
cifre che concernono il commercio, l’agricoltura, l’industria, le banche, gli
armamenti, ecc... Ma, all’epoca degli ordinatori, sappiamo il numero preciso di
analfabeti, di bambini abbandonati, di sotto-alimentati, di ciechi, di infermi,
di focolari smembrati, di prigionieri, di emarginati, di prostitute, di
disoccupati, di persone viventi nelle bidonvilles del mondo intero!... Care
sorelle non abbiate occhi e cuore che per i poveri, come il signor Vincenzo e
la signorina Legras! E per stimolarvi ancora - se ce ne fosse bisogno - vi
dicono: Contemplate nostro Signore Gesù Cristo, ascoltatelo ripetervi il senso
della sua missione: “Lo Spirito del Signore è su di me... Egli mi ha inviato a
portare la buona novella ai poveri, ad annunciare la liberazione ai prigionieri
e ai ciechi il ritorno alla vista, rendere la libertà agli oppressi...” (Lc
4,18). È vero, il Vangelo ci presenta quasi sempre il Cristo tra i poveri. È il
centro della sua vita.
Mi sembra ugualmente che
questi due grandi santi della carità vi supplicano con tenerezza e fermezza di
difendere e di sviluppare la vostra appartenenza radicale a Gesù Cristo,
secondo le promesse che voi rinnovate ogni anno il 25 marzo. La castità, a
causa del Cristo e del Vangelo, ne è il segno più profondo. E lungi dall’essere
un’alienazione della persona è una sorprendente promozione della capacità e del
bisogno di maternità di ogni donna! Voi siete madri. Voi collaborate alla
protezione, all’orientamento, al rasserenamento, alla guarigione, alla fine
pacifica di tante vite umane, sul piano fisico, morale e religioso! Vedete
sempre il vostro celibato consacrato come un cammino di vita per gli altri, e
rivelate questo segreto ai giovani che esitano ad intraprendere la via che voi
avete seguito. Vogliate non solamente amare i poveri ma desiderare voi stesse
di essere povere, nello spirito e negli atti. San Vincenzo de’ Paoli e santa
Luisa di Marillac hanno detto molto di più con il loro servizio concreto dei
poveri - di giorno e di notte - che con lunghi trattati sulla povertà.
Ugualmente san Francesco di Assisi è stato più eloquente spogliandosi dei suoi
vestiti che se avesse fatto pubblicare una rivista periodica sul distacco dai
beni terreni. E Charles de Foucauld ci ha dato di più col suo sorriso e la sua
bontà in mezzo ai poveri che pubblicando la sua autobiografia di giovane
ufficiale convertito che ha scelto di essere all’ultimo posto e tra i poveri.
Si potrebbe così ricordare che il mio molto venerato predecessore Paolo VI,
abbandonando la sua tiara, ha posto un gesto che non ha ancora smesso di
portare i suoi frutti nella Chiesa.
Ascoltate infine i vostri
due modelli di vita sollecitarvi di non lasciar svanire lo spirito della
dipendenza, quando la tendenza attuale è di riservarsi uno spazio libero in cui
non si dipenda da nessuno, per meglio abbandonarsi alla propria immaginazione e
alla propria fantasia. L’ubbidienza religiosa, voi lo sapete, è senza dubbio il
più acuto dei tre chiodi d’oro che attaccano alla volontà di Gesù Cristo i suoi
imitatori e le sue imitatrici. È possibile guardare la croce del Signore Gesù
senza conformarsi al suo mistero di obbedienza al Padre? Che i superiori
religiosi siano umani e comprensivi, è il loro dovere! Ma che i soggetti siano
essi stessi sempre più adulti e responsabili, al punto di approfondire e di
vivere il valore oblativo dell’obbedienza!
In una parola, i vostri
fondatori dicono a voi e a tutti i vostri compagni: “Siate nel mondo, senza mai
lasciarvi contaminare dallo spirito del mondo di cui parla san Giovanni”. Voi
sapete che il sale, una volta diluito, diventa insipido. Ciò che risplende, è
la purezza del cristallo!
A voi, mia reverenda
madre, che siete stata appena rieletta, io sono particolarmente felice di
indirizzare i miei auguri di un fruttuoso servizio della Compagnia. Ai membri
del capitolo che io ringrazio della loro visita, e a tutte le Figlie della
Carità che servono Cristo attraverso il mondo intero - senza dimenticare il
loro servizio molto apprezzato al Vaticano - io do la mia affettuosa
benedizione apostolica.
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Reverenda madre,
hermanas mías:
¡Imaginaos conmigo que
San Vicente de Paúl y Santa Luisa de Marillac, vuestros dos fundadores, que tan
unidos estuvieron en su pasión evangélica de servir a los pobres y que
regresaron hacia el Señor con algunos meses de diferencia hace ya más de tres
siglos, estuvieran presentes en este encuentro familiar! Pues ellos están con
nosotros misteriosamente. Permitidme dejarles la palabra, siendo tan sólo su
intérprete.
Mientras proseguís los
trabajos de la asamblea general de la Compañía, aquellos que veneráis como
vuestro Padre y vuestra Madre, quieren en primer lugar confirmaros en la
actualidad de vuestra vocación. El calor de la caridad es algo de lo que los
seres humanos tienen una imperiosa necesidad hoy como siempre. Es cierto que
las miserias sociales del siglo XVII y la época de la Fronde están muy lejanas.
Pero "los pobres están siempre entre nosotros". ¿Quién será capaz de
darnos las estadísticas precisas de la pobreza real de cada país y a escala
mundial? A menudo se publican números referidos al comercio, la agricultura, la
industria, los bancos, el armamento, etc. Pero ¡en la época de los ordenadores
sabemos el número exacto de analfabetos, de niños abandonados, de
subalimentados, de ciegos, de enfermos, de hogares desquiciados, de
prisioneros, de marginados, de prostitutas, de parados, de gentes que viven en
los suburbios del mundo entero!... Queridas hermanas, tened sólo ojos y corazón
para los pobres, como "monsieur Vincent" y "mademoiselle
Legras". Para estimularos aún —si es que esto fuese necesario— os dicen:
Escuchad a Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, escuchadle repetir el sentido de su
misión: "El Espíritu del Señor está sobre mí... me ungió para evangelizar
a los pobres; me envió a predicar a los cautivos la libertad, a los ciegos la
recuperación de la vista; para poner en libertad a los oprimidos..." (Lc 4,
18). Así es, el Evangelio nos presenta casi siempre a Cristo en medio de los
pobres. Es su medio de vida.
Del mismo modo me parece
que estos dos grandes Santos de la caridad os exigen con ternura y firmeza
defender y desarrollar vuestra pertenencia radical a Jesucristo, según las
promesas que renováis cada año el 25 de marzo. La castidad por Cristo y el
Evangelio es el signo más profundo de esta pertenencia. Lejos de ser una
alienación de la persona, supone una asombrosa promoción de las capacidades y
de las necesidades de maternidad de toda mujer. Vosotras sois madres.
¡Colaboráis en la protección, la orientación, la apertura, el cuidado y el
final apacible de tantas vidas humanas, tanto en el plano físico como en el
moral y religioso! Ved siempre vuestro celibato consagrado como un camino de
vida para los demás, y revelad este secreto a las jóvenes que vacilan en tomar
el camino que vosotras habéis seguido. Amad no sólo a los pobres, sino también
el ser pobres vosotras mismas en espíritu y de hecho. San Vicente de Paúl y
Santa Luisa de Marillac dijeron más sobre esto con su servicio concreto a los
pobres día y noche, que con largos tratados sobre la pobreza. También San
Francisco de Asís fue más elocuente al despojarse de sus vestiduras que si
hubiera sacado una publicación periódica sobre el desasimiento de los bienes
terrenos. Y Carlos de Foucauld aportó más con su sonrisa y su bondad en medio
de los pobres que publicando su autobiografía de joven oficial convertido, que
eligió el último lugar en medio de los pobres. Podríamos recordar también a mi
veneradísimo predecesor Pablo VI, al abandonar la tiara, realizó un gesto que
aún no ha terminado de dar sus frutos en la Iglesia.
Finalmente escucháis a
vuestros dos modelos de vida que os apremian a no dejar en absoluto desaparecer
el espíritu de dependencia, mientras que la tendencia actual es reservarse un
espacio libre en que uno no dependa de nadie, para abandonarse mejor a la propia
imaginación y la propia fantasía. Sabéis que la obediencia religiosa es el más
agudo de los tres clavos de oro que os ligan a Cristo a sus imitadores e
imitadoras. ¿Es posible mirar a la cruz del Señor Jesús, sin conformarse a su
misterio de obediencia al Padre? ¡Que los superiores religiosos sean humanos y
comprensivos, pues es su deber! ¡Pero que los súbditos sean por su parte cada
vez más adultos y responsables, hasta el punto de profundizar y de vivir el
valor oblativo de la obediencia!
En una palabra, vuestros
fundadores os dicen a vosotras y a todas vuestras compañeras: "Permaneced
en el mundo sin dejaros contaminar jamás por el espíritu del mundo de que habla
San Juan". Sabéis que la sal, una vez diluida, se vuelve sosa. ¡Lo que
brilla es la pureza del cristal!
A usted, reverenda madre,
que acaba de ser reelegida, le deseo con particular gozo un fructífero servicio
a la Compañía. A las capitulares, cuya visita agradezco, y a todas las Hijas de
la Caridad que sirven a Cristo en sus pobres en todo el mundo —sin olvidar su
muy apreciado servicio al Vaticano— imparto mi afectuosa bendición apostólica.
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Voir aussi : https://filles-de-la-charite.org/fr/
http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Chroniques/Chroniques-des-Saints/De-G-a-L/Sainte-Louise-de-Marillac-1591-1660
http://www.cassicia.com/FR/La-vie-de-sainte-Louise-de-Marillac-Fete-le-15-mars-No_513.htm
A Heroine
of Charity, by Kathleen O’Meara : https://catholicsaints.info/a-heroine-of-charity/
