II.3.6. TOWARD THE HORIZON

 MENU: 2.3.6. Toward the horizon

THE ROUTE CROSSED THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE

Religious establishments or prisons grew up along it.

Gone from the web

Adapted from a Google map

In brief

• Lepers on the trade route...

• Catholic nobles become saints and heroes

• Coiffes

• The congregations prosper, leave and return

• Vanished jails

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Next,

Lepers on the trade route...

LEPERS ON THE TRADE ROUTE...

OFFER MERCHANTS AND PILGRIMS PRAYERS IN EXCHANGE FOR ALMS IN CLOS* SAINT-LAZARE

(FROM ABOUT 1150)

*Cultivated land that walls surround.

 

Leper, end of the 15th century, source not said / zoom

   Paris in 1530, zoom

The premises's archives were pillaged at the start of the Revolution, so little of its early history is known.

   Anonymous engraving / zoom (includes an account of the Lazarists and the pillaging, in French)

"Some of the armed people went to the Lazarists' establishment to ask for supplies. When refused they broke down the doors, committed various acts of excess, pillaging all they could, and after freeing the prisoners, triumphantly brought a great deal of flour into town."  

The "armed people" are mobilized by the call to arms at Palais-Royal, 

# # #

The disease gradually vanishes: The end of the Crusades removes a source of infection, and tuberculosis that comes with urban growth kills enfeebled lepers.

-- Leprosy's decline caused by the rise of TB (summary)

by John Pickrell, New Scientist, 2005

Catholics respond to Protestants partly by evangelizing and succoring the poor, and the king cedes the site to a charitable congregation.*

(In 1632) 

*Congregations ressemble monastic orders, but are involved in the life around them. 

Web site of the Françoise Sagan media library

 The Lazarist establishment at the time of the royal cession.

The congregation makes 

Clos Saint-Lazare its headquarters

and takes the name "Lazarist."  

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Next,

Catholic nobles become saints and heroes

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.

# # #

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.

• He had been chaplain to galley slaves and captured by pirates, had been a slave in Tunis: He knew what it was like to count as nothing.  

  Saint Vincent de Paul ramène des galériens à la foi par Jean-Jules-Antoine du Nouÿ, 1876 / zoom

 Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet church, Paris

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

Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs church, Paris 

# # #

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 that 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, 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.

# # #

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

# # #

Louise would not recognize the church's facade, which was renovated in the neo-Gothic manner: 

The painting shows the 17th-century facade.

For the style's omnipresence in Paris after the insurrection of 1848, please click.

• The movement remains close to monarchy

Saint Vincent presents the first Sisters of Charity to queen Anne of Austria, 18th century, in Paris's Saint Margarite church / zoom

# # #

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,

with an authoritarian, formalistic faith 

that was punitive toward the poor.

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Next,

Coiffes

COIFFES

 

SECULAR WIMPLES INSPIRE THE SPECTACULAR HEADDRESSES OF THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY

Portrait of a woman with a winged bonnet by Roger van der Weyden, toward 1440, zoom

 

 At the church of Saint-Nicolas des Champs, in the alcove devoted to saint Louise

Vincent de Paul designs them. They...

• Appear from the start.

    Painting at the museum of Sedan (in eastern France) / zoom

"Saint Vincent and the Blessed Louise de Marillac send the first two Daughters of Charity to Sedan in February 1641 and four others in July 1654 to direct the hospital endowed by Turenne [a famous general].

• Are shown on images of nuns regardless of order.

Les Mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue, best-selling novel, 1848

Church of Saint-Bernard-la-Chapelle, toward 1860

Franco-Prussian war, 1870

A headline-grabbing story, 1901

• Are excellent communication: Today we would say part of a brand.

J. Niepse, 1950 (Pinterest)

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Next,

The congregations prosper, leave and return

THE CONGREGATIONS PROSPER, LEAVE AND RETURN

ALL GOES WELL UNTIL THE REVOLUTION

The Fathers build these houses to rent along the route, and own

22 streets in Paris and 20 villages nearby: 

Ns° 99, 101, 103 et 105 of the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis 

But during the Terror* religious groups are forbidden. Many congregation members leave France.

*The time of mass executions during the Revolution (September 5, 1793 - July 27, 1794)

      Zoom

"What a happy day for us, my sisters, yes, the gentle names of mother and wife are far preferable to that of nun... ."

Because their charitable work is needed the Daughters of Charity are left alone — unless they reject the reorganization of the Church that leaves out the Pope.*

*Priests become functionaries elected by the whole population, Protestants, Jews and atheists included, and swear loyalty to the Constitution, not to the Pope or God: almost half (46%) decline to take the oath.

Four sisters are executed for refusing it.*

*An opera by François Poulenc, Le Dialogue des Carmélites, and movie with Jeanne Moreau are about a similar event.

The Sainted Daughters of Charity, Martyrs of  the French Revolution  / zoom

They sing as they march up the scaffold steps to the guillotine, one by one, the Abbess last, still singing. 

# # #

They return at the Restauration:*

*The attempt to return to the pre-Revolutionary regime (in 1815-1830) after Napoleon's defeat  

• Headquarters of the Daughters of Charity (140 rue du Bac, 7th)

Zoom

• Headquarters of the Lazarists (95 rue de Sèvres, 7th)

Those headquarters in the prosperous west

are in nobles' traditional territory,

because on the way to Versailles. 

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Next, 

Vanished jails