Sr. Louise Sullivan, D.C. writes of Blessed Rosalie Rendu’s “reputation at all levels of society, from her ‘beloved poor’ of the Mouffetard district to the circles of the rich and powerful of the capital…”

In his 1959 history of Saint-Médard parish, Marcel Broginard, pastor at the time, speaks of this phenomenon in the chapter he dedicates to Sister Rosalie:

In recounting the life and actions of Sister Rosalie, we have the history of the quarter during this period…. After 1848, Sister Rosalie’s reputation was astonishing. During the last years of her life, the little parlor on rue de l’Épée-de-Bois was never empty. A crowd of people came to her from all over [Paris] because they needed assistance or consolation. And it was not only persons who were poor. She used to say, “A Daughter of Saint Vincent de Paul is a milestone on which those who are tired have the right to lay down their burden.”*

…The poor of the parish of Saint-Médard remained the beneficiaries of this vast influence because the number of persons who owed her gratitude knew to whom and how to repay their debt. Sister Rosalie had become a universal minister of charity.

*Marcel Broginard, La Paroisse de Saint-Médard (Paris, 1951), 135-136.

– From Chapter XIII of Sister Rosalie Rendu: A Daughter of Charity On Fire with Love for the Poor by Louise Sullivan, D.C.

Learn more about Blessed Rosalie in this SlideShare presentation.