Could not this uncompromising wording “dependence on the Archbishop” be harmful to us in the future by the liberty it gives to draw us away from the direction of the Superior General of the Mission” [Letter 898, Archives of the Daughters of Charity, original autograph letter]

Thus wrote St. Louise, commenting on the Act of Establishment of the Daughters of Charity in 1645. She didn’t like it. By 1651, the always careful and organized St. Louise de Marillac  had “lost” the document.

I have found no document pertaining to the foundation. However, I recall that one day you read to us the petition you had presented to the Most reverend Archbishop of Paris…. I believe that the reason we never received it was because there were still modifications made in it. [Letter 333, Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac: Correspondence and Thoughts (1991, New City Press, ed. Louise Sullivan, D.C.]

Never received? Lost? Misplaced? Whatever, Louise got what she wanted, and the question was definitively settled by Pope leo XIII in 1882.

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