October 17 is the anniversary of Louise de Marillac’s consecration of the “Little Company” (the Daughters of Charity) to the Blessed Mother at Chartres, in 1644.
Devotion to the Blessed Mother had always been prominent in Louise’s personal spirituality and she wished it to be so in that of her Sisters. From March 25, 1634, the feast of the Annunciation on which she gave herself entirely to God to serve the Company of the Daughters of Charity, until her agony and death on March 15, 1660, Louise encouraged her Daughters to love, imitate and honor Our Lady.
It was she who took the initiative of going on pilgrimage to Chartres in October 1644 to offer the Company to God and to recommend to the Blessed Virgin its guardianship and its needs. In the account she rendered to Vincent of the days she had spent at Chartres, she told him that the intentions of her prayers on Monday, October 17, were “to offer to God the designs of His Providence for the Company of the Daughters of Charity; giving the entire Company to Him and asking for its destruction should it undertake anything contrary to His Will; asking for it, through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, Mother and Guardian of the aforesaid Company, the purity which it needs.” (Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac, p. 122)
– Source: An Expression of Gratitude to Saint Louise de Marillac by Margaret Flinton, D.C.
Vincentian Heritage Journal: Vol. 4: Iss. 2, Article 2.
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