‘Your convent 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; your enclosure, obedience; your grating, the fear of God; your veil, holy modesty.”
This is how Saint Vincent de Paul regarded the community of women who served the poor, uncloistered, but religious.
Letting go
The would-be-saint was born on August 12, 1591, in Ferrieres-en-Brie near Le Meux France. Louise de Marillac never knew her, mother, but aristocrat Louis de Marillac, Lord of Ferrires, claimed her as daughter.
When Louis married Antoinette Le Camus, she refused to accept Louise as member of the household. Her father sent her to a Dominican convent, the Royal Monastery of Poissy, near Paris, where an aunt, a nun, lives. Her intellectual and introspective skills were developed, since she was an intelligent girl.
When her father died, with limited resources, she transferred to a boarding house where she learned organizational, domestic skills and herbal medicine.
At 22, she married Antoine to Le Gzas, secretary to the Queen Mother of France, which paved her opportunity to socialize with the aristocrats of France.
However, she also mingled with the poor and the sick with leadership functions in the Ladies of Charity in the church.
During a civil unrest, two uncles with high-ranking positions in the government died, one in prison and another by execution. Her husband became sick and she cared for him for two years.
In 1625 he died, and Louise let go of her depression, became of good health in body and mind.
In 1655 Saint Vincent de Paul established the Congregation of the Mission to help in the apostolate care for the poor and the needy. Louise became the prominent organizational mover of the Mission.
In prayer, Louise had a vision of herself serving poor people and living in evangelical counsels. A priest who was her confidant and collaborator was so distinct in the vision. But she did not know him. She wrote of the “Pentecost Experience” in a parchment and carried it with her as a reminder that God was guiding her life and she would be a shepherd of one she has not yet met,” narrated the Franciscan Media.
‘Honor Christ’
The Vincentian Encyclopedia narrated how Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac merged their efforts to “honor Christ by being diligent in serving the poor.”
In 1629 de Paul invited Louise to assist the Charities group in France. Louise accepted the offer, aware that busyness for a spiritual cause is a therapeutic blessing. Her involvement in charity work skills she learned in Poissy, and management skills in the boarding house, were harnessed to the fullest.
She was able to assess how to respond to the different needs of the destitute. Sensitive to the longings of the poor, she was determined to equal the challenges needed to alleviate the sufferings of abandoned children, prisoners, the sick and old people, in nursing homes and hospitals. De Paul and Louise were complimentary spiritualy.
De Paul told the sisters: “The poor are your masters and you are their servants.” Louise reminded them: “Be diligent in serving the poor…. Love the poor, honor them…as you would honor Christ Himself.”
On November 29, 1633, Louise made her home a training center to address the needs of the poor better by mentoring women in spiritual life, teaching them skills to be effective missionaries. These young women became the nucleus of the Daughters of Charity Congregation.
Saint Louise de Marillac died on March 15, 1660. De Paul could not come because he, too, was old and sick. But he sent word that they will be reunited soon in heaven.
She was canonized on March 11, 1934, by Pope Pius XI. On February 10, 1960, she was declared Patroness of Christian Social Workers by the same pope.
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Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons