CATHOLIC NOBLES BECOME SAINTS AND HEROES

"A GENERATION OF SAINTS "* INSPIRE FRANCE'S CATHOLIC REVIVAL OF THE EARLY 17TH CENTURY...

* Chapter title in "Parisians in the Age of Absolutism" by Orest Ranum, Fr. ed. 1973

...Saint François de Sales, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Louise de Marillac, Saint Jeanne de Chantal, Sainte Marie de l'Incarnation and others who are not canonized.

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Between roughly 1600 and 1640 about 60 convents appear in the countryside around Paris. The leaders are aristocrats except for the most famous: Vincent de Paul, of peasant origin.

• As well, he had been chaplain to galley slaves and captured by pirates, had been a slave in Tunis until ransomed after a year: So he knew what it was like count as nothing.  

• His message: "The street is your cloister, a hospital your monastery."

Church of Saint-Nicolas in the fields, Paris

     Saint Vincent de Paul restores galley slaves' faith by Jean-Jules-Antoine du Nouÿ, 1876

Church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet, Paris  / zoom

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A disciple, Louise de Marillac creates a similar order for women,

the Daughters of Charity:

Zoom

"Servants of the poor, like servants of Jésus-Christ."

-- Vincent de Paul 

 

Church of Saint-Nicolas des Champs

A gap in her biography

A powerful leader of this Catholic revival was Louise's uncle, Michel de Marillac. He opposed Cardinal Richelieu's policy of grandeur through war which would tax the poor more heavily yet, and proposed reforms to reduce those charges. When Queen Marie de Medici thought she had won a showdown, she appointed him as the next Prime Minister. (In 1630)

But the king opted for Richelieu, who had Marillac arrested; he died in prison two years later. As well, Richelieu had Marillac's brother, who was the captain of the royal guards, executed on a trumped-up charge to warn adversaries that their actions might impact their families.

At a time when family position was determining, those destinies had to affect Louise. They may explain her difficulties with women of the nobility and why her main assistant was a peasant, Marguerite Naseau:

Margarite Naseau Teaching Reading in Suresnes in 1624, Cœur-Immaculé-de-Marie Church (Suresnes) / zoom

A biography setting her in the context of a time when politics and religion were inseparable would help understand the courage of this woman and her circle. But the hagiographies one finds on the Internet skip what is not directly connected with faith.

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The church of Saint-Laurent* and the headquarters of the Sisters of Charity were a few steps from the clos Saint-Lazare. 

*Now at 68, boulevard de Magenta 

To the left of the entry: Vincent de Paul blessing Louise de Marcillac.

Left, Saint Vincent; center. the venerable Marguerite Naseau; right, Saint Louise. Window, Vincent blessing Louise. In front of the painting, Easter flowers.

Louise de Marillac and the Daughters of Charity Distribute Alms to the poor at the Church of Saint- Laurent in Paris.

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Louise would not recognize the church's facade, which was renovated in the neo-Gothic manner: For an explanation of the omnipresent 19th-cent style, please click.

The painting shows the 17th-century facade.

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Those messengers of the Gospel

lessened the misery and violence of the time. 

But they were not renewed.

The Church remained a pillar of monarchy,

whose authoritarian, formalistic faith 

was punitive toward the poor.

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Headdresses that communicate