This research is the Master’s Thesis of the “Masters in Vincentian Studies” program of Sister María Isabel Vergara Arnedillo, current Visitatrix of the Spain-East Province of the Daughters of Charity. Due to its length we will publish it weekly in four posts.

Part Two:
The Synodal Dimension in the First Three Vincentian Foundations

Neither St. Vincent nor St. Louise ever used the word synodality, although they did live, almost in anticipation, many of the intuitions about the Church as communion that in the twentieth century, beginning with the Second Vatican Council, were to become focal points for the life of the universal church.

Our Founders lived during the ecclesial moment of the Council of Trent, which promoted diocesan and provincial synods whose purpose, according to the culture of the time, was not to establish active co-responsibility of all the People of God, but to transmit and put into practice norms and dispositions. Due to the Protestant reform that criticized ecclesiastical authority, a hierarchical Church was accentuated as a perfect society of unequals in which the Pastors were the ones who taught while the remainder of the People of God were those who learned, thus establishing a very great distance between the pastors and their people.

Our Founders were people of their time, but they knew how to let themselves be led by the Holy Spirit and in this way, they initiated, within that ecclesial framework, a new way of following Jesus Christ which, with the poor as its compass, enabled them to discover new ways of giving themselves to God and of organizing themselves in order to serve and evangelize the poor and marginalized.

We are going to look at the three institutions they set up: the Confraternities of Charity, the Congregation of the Mission and the Company of the Daughters of Charity. We will look at their way of carrying out the mission and at some of their concrete practices, highlighting how they lived these elements of communion, participation and mission. We will examine their regulations, rules and foundational documents from a synodal perspective, and finally, we will highlight, from the perspective of more recent documents, how they want to bring these elements today.

The Confraternities of Charity

The first of the Confraternities of Charity was founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1617 in Chatillon. It was the need of a poor family in the village that set many of the village’s neighbors in motion, after being moved by the sermon that their parish priest, Monsieur Vincent, gave at Sunday Mass.

St. Vincent seemed to understand that in order for charity to be effective, it had to be well organized. That is why he gathered all these women together in what was the first “Vincentian” group of Charity, and this in itself constituted a synodal way of proceeding. These confraternities depended on simple women, even though at that time neither the laity nor the women had much participation in the life of the Church. After Chatillon, there were many places where, after a popular mission was preached by the Missionaries, a confraternity was formed to care for the sick and poor of the place.

The regulations of these confraternities outlined the manner in which the members of the confraternity, wives, widows and unmarried women[1] together with the parish priest and the treasurer … the manner in which these individuals were to function and work together. Over time there were also confraternities formed by men and others formed by both men and women, although those composed mostly of women always predominated.

These Confraternities had a very well defined mission: (1) To honor the love Our Lord has for those who are poor (2) To assist poor persons corporally and spiritually (CCD:XIIIb:1). In this way the members carry out the mission of the Church: to proclaim the Kingdom of God which is above all for the poor.

On the other hand, Vincent took care to make very explicit the participation and co-responsibility of all the members by establishing “ministries” for the good functioning: pastor, superioress, treasurer, supervisor of furnishings, assistants… all of them temporary services and elected by vote: They are appointed the first time by the pastor, and then, every six months by a plurality of votes (CCD:XIIIb:1).  Each officer has his/her responsibilities well-defined: the superioress, among other things, would be the one who received the poor man or woman into the group, the treasurer receives, keeps and administers the money of the confraternity, giving regular reports with total transparency. The supervisor of furnishings will advise the superioress and in addition to other tasks, as its name indicates, will maintain an inventory of the furniture that later will be lent to the poor. The assistants were the ones who directly served the sick with a rigorous system of shifts.

Communion among the members of the confraternity existed and the regulations made explicit how to foster it:  They will cherish one another as persons whom Our Lord has united and bound together by His love; they will visit and console one another in their afflictions and illnesses; will go as a body to the funeral of the members who die, receive Communion for their intention, and have a high Mass sung for each. They will do the same for the Pastor and for their Procurator when they die. Likewise, they will go as a body to the funerals of the sick poor whom they have helped, and have a low Mass” said for the repose of their souls. None of this, however, obliges under pain of mortal or venial sin (CCD:XIIIb:7).

Also from the beginning, “meetings” were established to discuss the spiritual progress and what concern the general welfare of the community (CCD:XIIIb:15). The regulations state the order to be followed during these meetings:  The order to be followed at the meetings will be to chant the Litany of Our Lord Jesus or of the Blessed Virgin before each work, and then say the prayers that follow. Next, the Pastor or his assistant will give the short exhortation aimed at the spiritual growth of the entire Company and the preservation and progress of the confraternity. After that he will propose what is to be done for the welfare of the sick poor, and will conclude by a plurality of votes, which he will collect for this purpose, beginning with the Servant of the Charity who was the last one received into the confraternity, and coutinuing by order of reception up to the Procurator, then the Treasurer and the Prioress. Lastly, he will cast his own vote, which will have deliberative weight, as that of the Servants of the Poor will have (CCD:XIIIb)15).

In 1629 St. Vincent entrusted the Confraternities to Louise de Marillac, another woman, a laywoman, widow, who wanted to live her faith and make it concrete by helping the poor.  He wrote to her saying: Father de Gondi sent me word to come by coach to see him in Montmirail. That will perhaps prevent me from having the honor of seeing you, because I am leaving tomorrow morning. Do you feel like corning, Mademoiselle? If so, you would have to leave next Wednesday on the coach to Châlons, in Champagne. It is stabled at the Cardinal, opposite Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs. And we shall have the happiness of seeing you in Montmirail (CCD:I:63-64). She thinks it over and accepts her Director’s proposal and he appoints her visitor of the charities and from that moment on she begins to visit those close to Paris and those far away. The purpose of her visits was to encourage the members of the confraternity in their work, to form them, to help them correct what deviated them from their purpose. After each visit she wrote a report which she sent to Monsieur Vincent explaining the state of the confraternity.

As we can see, this first foundation of St. Vincent was based on the fundamental aspects of synodality: mission, communion and participation.

With this foundation, a new way of being Church in the 17th century was beginning. This is how Mezzadri expresses it: “In the face of the Renaissance individualism underlaid in humanism, the underlining of the community in solidarity; in the face of viewing the parish as a place of worship and administration, its relevance as a focus of charity; in the face of the tendency to marginalize the poor, the will to share with them; in the face of a Church dazzled by its influence and power, the Church of charity; in the face of the undervaluing of women, they become valued in society and in the Church; in the face of the neglect of the poor and occasional almsgiving, closeness to them and organized charity.”[2]

Over time, what were the Confraternities of Charity became what is today the International Association of Charities (AIC). Its Statutes and Documents clearly reflect these same aspects, updated to today’s reality on both the ecclesial and social levels.

If synodality supposes a “walking together”, then the A.I.C. has a very synodal motto: acting together against poverty. Those words reflect what has been its manner of being and doing from the time of St. Vincent’s intuition until today.

In their Charter, they set out the meaning of their action: commitment to the poor from a sense of fraternity, in the following of Christ in the style of Vincent de Paul.[3] They also clearly define their mission: Following the example of St. Vincent and the teachings of the Church: [1] To fight against all forms of poverty and exclusion, through transformative initiatives and projects; [2] To work with our brothers and sisters living in situations of poverty, encouraging the discovery of everyone’s individual strengths, supporting education and promoting a decent life; [3]To denounce injustice and put pressure on civil society structures and decision-makers to fight the causes of poverty.[4]

The same document also refers to the “participation” of the people who are the beneficiaries of its activity: The participation of beneficiaries is an essential element in the development of empowering projects. How is this done? By valuing people’s strengths and their own abilities to respond to the challenges they encounter, so as to be able to dream and act together to change the situation of poverty, adopting a ‘facilitator’ attitude[5].

St. Louise stated: “They shall cherish one another as Sisters who profess to honor the spirit Our Lord.[6] “. This is what the Charter[7] reflects when it expresses the importance of the group and of living in communion: The group, a community of faith, communion, work, sharing and friendship,[8]  all to pool forces around the common project: the poor, their care and evangelization.

The Congregation of the Mission

The synodal Church is the Church listening to what the Holy Spirit wants from her and for her. St. Vincent in his time was a man of listening; little by little in his life he allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to him through events, especially those that made him hear the cry of the poor.

This is what happened at the founding of the Congregation of the Mission. Vincent listened to the dying man in Gannes and in him to all the poor of the countryside who were condemned by ignorance of the faith, caused among other things by the poor preparation of the clergy and their lack of dedication to the people of the countryside. On the other hand, he also heard a laywoman, Marguerite de Silly, who, after being aware of this, said to him: “Oh, M. Vincent, how many souls are going to be lost! What can we do about it?“[9] God spoke to him through these cries and Vincent knew how to confront this reality.

The “walking together” of synodality was something that St. Vincent lived from the moment he set out on the road to the foundation of the Mission. He began his missionary work on the lands of the de Gondi family and in 1618 he preached three popular missions: those of Villepreux, Joigny and Montmirail, all of them part of the de Gondi estate. On the occasion of each of these missions, he was accompanied by some ecclesiastics, whose names JM Román records in his biography of the saint[10] : Jean Coqueret, a doctor in theology of the college of Navarre, together with Berger and Gontiére who were ecclesiastical councillors to the Parlement of Paris. Others followed, and with the passage of time, it became clearer that there was need to establish the Congregation of the Mission.

It was also Madame de Gondi, together with her husband, Philippe Emmanuel de Gondi, who urged Monsieur Vincent to establish the new community. Later, Vincent would involve other priests in this ministry: Anthony Portail, Francis de Coudray and John de la Salle, as recorded in the Act of Association of the First Missionaries (CCD:XIIIa:222-223). This is how the Congregation of the Mission was born.

Its mission is very clearly defined in the Common Rules: The whole purpose of the Congregation is: (1) to have a genuine commitment to grow in holiness, patterning ourselves, as far as possible, on the virtues which the great Master Himself graciously taught us in what He said and did; (2) to preach the good news of salvation to poor people, especially in rural areas; (3) to help seminarians and priests to grow in knowledge and virtue, so that they can be effective in their ministry (Common Rules. I;1). In the same way, the current Constitutions state: The purpose of the Congregation of the Mission is to follow Christ evangelizing the poor. This purpose is achieved when, faithful to St. Vincent, the members individually and collectively: 1] make every effort to put on the spirit of Christ himself (CR I, 3) in order to acquire a holiness appropriate to their vocation (CR XII, 13); 2] work at evangelizing the poor, especially the more abandoned; 3] help the clergy and laity in their formation and lead them to a fuller participation in the evangelization of the poor (Constitutions, #1).

As we can see mission entails participation in the Congregation of the Mission and it could not be otherwise, the missionaries are in the Church to clothe themselves with Jesus Christ (CCD:XI:311) and to continue the mission that they received from the Father: Missioners profess to be like Jesus Christ, committed to the poor. So our vocation is a continuation of His (CCD:XII:71). In this sense, from the perspective of Jesus who not only called the twelve but at another time appointed seventy-two other disciples to evangelize (Luke 10:1) but who also was accompanied by women who provided for Jesus and the disciples out of their resources (Luke 8:3), the Congregation of the Mission seeks to involve, engage and form everyone: priests, brothers, seminarians and laity. In this way all are joined together in the search for ways to respond to God’s plan and are united and in communion to work on behalf of building the Kingdom of God, knowing that this kingdom is, above all, for the poor.

A clear example of participation is the popular missions, a fundamental project from the time of the foundation of the Congregation of the Mission.

During the popular missions, the missionaries relied on the bishop and later on, the local parish priests. It was important that these members of the local clergy welcomed and supported the work of the missionaries and it was very important for the missionaries to form the local clergy to ensure the continuity of the mission once they departed from the parish. The fruits of the mission depended, to a great extent, on the continuity of the mission. The same reality applied to the catechists/teachers in those places.

On the other hand, the confreres also relied on the people from the various towns, mostly women, who wanted to establish the Confraternity of Charity to assist the people of the parish who had bodily and/or spiritual needs. In this way the mission acquired the twofold aspect of evangelization: providing for the spiritual and material salvation of the poor.

The popular missions understood that in the Church we all walk together, we all reach out to others each one exercising his/her own function and seeking to make present in every place the kingdom initiated by Jesus Christ, a kingdom that places the poor at the center.

Regarding communion among the members of the Congregation, the Rules again look to the example of Jesus Christ: Christ our Savior formed Apostles and disciples into a community and gave them guidelines for getting along with each other. Here are some of them: love one another; wash each other’s feet; seek reconciliation with a companion immediately after a disagreement; travel in pairs; and finally, anyone who wants to be the more prominent should keep in the background (Common Rules, VIII:1). The following means were placed before the confreres: there should be great mutual respect, and we should get along as good friends, always living in community (Common Rules, VIII:2); during recreation and at other customary meetings which take place from time to time, we should try to bring up for discussion, among other topics of conversation, mainly those which help our commitment to our vocation or our growth in holiness (Common Rules, VIII:8). The current Constitutions of the Congregation of the Mission give fundamental importance to community life, essential to the life and mission of the missionary:  The Church finds the ultimate source of its life and action in the Trinity. The Congregation, within the Church, does the same. [1] Gathered in community to announce the Father’s love for all, we express that same love in our own life. [2] We follow Christ who called apostles and disciples and shared a fraternal life with them to evangelize the poor. [3] Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we build up a unity among ourselves to achieve our mission, and so offer credible witness to Christ the Savior (Constitutions, #20).

The Company of the Daughters of Charity

The Company was born in a simple and unexpected way. This is how St. Vincent expressed it on more than one occasion: Who would ever have thought that there would be Daughters of Charity? … I did not think of it…. God thought of it for you (CCD:IX:93). So it was, God made it possible for a series of events to take care of his preferred ones, the poor, which led to the foundation of this community, but above all God brought about the meeting of different people who began to “walk together” to respond to the poverty of their time, “walking together” in following Christ, evangelizer and servant of the poor.

The first two Vincentian foundations were already underway. St. Vincent, their founder, coordinated the action of their members and in both instances he was assisted by Louise de Marillac.

At first, Vincent thought that the Confraternities would be established only in the villages, but according to his first biographer Abelly, this was not the case: M. Vincent planned originally to set up these confraternities in the villages of the countryside, for the care of the sick poor where the need was usually most pressing. However, some noble ladies with lands in the diocese of Paris or elsewhere, and who had hosted the missions, saw the Confraternities of Charity established with happy results for the sick poor. They realized that many similar cases existed in Paris, and believed these same Confraternities of Charity should be formed in the parishes of Paris and in the outlying districts … These women spoke to the pastors, and they in turn consulted M. Vincent. He agreed to help in setting up these confraternities in the parishes which needed them.[11]

The first Confraternity of Paris was established in 1630 and little by little others were established in practically all the parishes of the city and the suburbs of Paris.[12] Louise was establishing the regulations for each parish.

Difficulties soon arose, as is normal, especially when trying to transfer a rural confraternity model to the city. However, what most concerned St. Vincent was expressed in a conference to that he gave to the Sisters: Around that time, because the Ladies of Charity of Saint-Sauveur were women of quality, they were looking for a young woman who would be willing to carry the soup pot to the sick (CCD:IX:473). For him it was fundamental to have personal contact with the poor. The possibility of other people doing it threatened to bring about the demise of the confraternities. He shared this thoughts with Louise:

If you now relieve each one at the Charity of the obligation of getting the meat cooked, you will never again be able to restore this practice. If you have it cooked elsewhere and some· one undertakes to do it out of charity right now, it will become a burden to her in a short time. If you hire someone to do it, it will cost a lot. Then, with time, the ladies of the Charity will say that the woman who prepares the food should carry the pot to the sick, and in this way your Charity will be reduced to failure (CCD:I:70).  This is what led to the establishment of the Company of the Daughters of Charity.

As we said above, it was the meeting of different people at different times that led to the founding of the Daughters. Up to this point we have spoken of St. Vincent, St. Louise, the Ladies of Charity, the parish priests of the parishes of Paris…. but another young laywoman, Marguerite Naseau de Suresnes, is fundamental when speaking about the Daughters. Marguerite was told that there was a confraternity in Paris whose members cared for the sick poor. She went there with the desire to engaged in that work. The Founders always spoke of her as the first Daughter of Charity (CCD:IX:66) although she died before the Company was established. The example of her life attracted many other young women who followed in her footsteps. Thus, in 1633, Vincent and Louise decided to gather in community a group of young girls in order to initiate a new way of life, one in which these women would offer themselves entirely to Jesus Christ in order to serve Him in the poor.

The identity of the vocation of the Daughters of Charity was the result of Louise, Vincent, Marguerite Naseau and the first members of the group, all of whom, moved by the Spirit, understood that to be a Christian is to go through this world doing what Jesus did: to serve and evangelize the poor.

But the specificity of this way of consecrating oneself to God was based on the experience that these young women were living. The first Common Rules of the Company were formulated from the intuition of the Founders, as well as from listening to the first Daughters of Charity who shared their experience. Is this not walking in the spirit of synodality?

To affirm this, we base ourselves on the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul to the Daughters of Charity. In themselves, the Conferences were a time for participation. St. Vincent presided over them, accompanied by Father Portail or another priest of the Mission who, in his absence, substituted for him.

As Mezzadri says, It is important to keep all this in mind in order to understand the peculiar literary genre of the conferences. They contain the words of St. Vincent, but they are not exclusively his work. They are jointly authored by the community, the Founder, the Foundress, the various editors and the choir of the other Sisters. Although she tries to conceal herself, St. Louise reveals herself in the quality of her responses. In her interventions, one can perceive a sovereign mastery of the subject matter. She lives her spirituality and succeeds in translating it into profound and clear concepts.”[13]

It seems that in choosing the theme Saint. Vincent took his cue from events, the needs of the Company, and the suggestions of Saint Louise de Marillac (CCD:IX:xi). The method that was followed was simple: a note was sent to the different houses in Paris and the surrounding area indicating the theme, the points of the conference, the day and the hour.

When the time came, St. Vincent invoked the presence of the Holy Spirit and the meeting began. It was not a monologue on the part of Monsieur Vincent, but the Sisters would ask questions, make observations, humble themselves about their faults. On many occasions these were touching group manifestations of good will, which the saint prompted by his questions (CCD:IX:xii).

On April 26, 1643, St. Vincent inaugurated a new method. He said to the Sisters: In preceding conferences, I noticed that you needed some help in finding motives or reasons for what had been suggested to you. That’s why I felt it would be better to change the method in order to make it easier for you to understand what you will be taught, and this will be a big help to you in making your meditation. I’ll use questions and answers, as is done for catechism lessons (CCD:IX:78). Some of the first Sisters knew how to read, and so they wrote down their reflections to share them, but many of them were illiterate (in France at that time, illiteracy among women was 86%) and did not know how to express themselves. This method that the Founder inaugurated facilitated dialogue since he would explain the topic and then ask questions directly, “So, Sister… and you, Sister, what did you think? (CCD:IX:79). It was not a difficult interrogation to endure, and the Sisters expressed themselves with simplicity and spontaneity.  The saint approved, congratulated the sisters and was edified, as he expressed it on one occasion: Blessed be God, Sisters! You see, you really must make the effort to reflect attentively on the subject proposed to you for the conferences so that they’ll be helpful to you. The last one I attended greatly consoled me; each Sister shared her thoughts sincerely, and it seemed to me that they were like sparks igniting a huge fire-like one candle that was lighting the others. How useful it would be for you, Sisters, if you acted like that! (CCD:IX:186).

At present, 120 conferences of St. Vincent to the Sisters are preserved, and this was also possible thanks to the shared work of St. Louise and some of the Sisters, for example Sister Hellot. During the conference, Louise and those Sisters who knew how to write, would take notes. At the end of the conference, they hurried to reproduce it as faithfully as possible. They also collected the written notes of those who had been asked questions by St. Vincent, and he himself gave them his outlines. On some occasions, once the conference had been reproduced, they would give it to M. Vincent so that he could make the appropriate corrections. This is how he expressed it in one of his letters: Enclosed is a summary of the conference of our dear Sisters, written out by dear Sister Hellot. I have just read part of it and must confess that I shed a few tears in two or three places. If you are not coming soon, send it back to us after you have read it (CCD:III:28).

The Conferences demonstrate this synodal sense that our founders had. They contain the words of St. Vincent, but as we have already said, they are not exclusively his work. They are jointly authored by the community, the Founder, the Foundress, the various editors and the choir of the other Sisters, and from the determination of the theme to the final editing, it is a shared work that today constitutes one of the greatest spiritual treasures that the Daughters of Charity have.

Through the reading of the Conferences we can see how the Company grew little by little and with the participation of all. In them we can also clearly discover the mission of the Daughters of Charity as well as the sense of communion from which they desired to live from the beginning.

At present, the Company wishes to pursue, energetically and in hope, its commitment to synodality in line with the synodal process set in motion in the Church. It is an invitation dialogue in order to discern together at all levels.[14]

The Daughters of Charity currently have their mission well defined in Chapter II of their Constitutions entitled Vocation and Mission of the Company. Article #7 states: “The Daughters of Charity, in fidelity to their baptism and in response to a divine call, give themselves entirely and in community to the service of Christ in their brothers and sisters who are poor, in an evangelical spirit of humility, simplicity and charity.

The Founders always saw community life as an irreplaceable support for the mission. Today, as in the past, the Sisters want to live in fraternity and communion, in this way, the community becomes a communion where each one gives and receives and where each Sister places all that she is and all that she has at the service of others (Constitutions, #32b) and wants to model the image of the Most Holy Trinity, as desired by the Founders, who wanted the Sisters to be one in heart and to act in one same spirit (Constitutions, #32a).

Participation is understood as a sharing that extends not only to material conditions but also to spiritual and apostolic commitments. In dialogue, experiences are shared, differences are minimized, and decisions are sought together (Constitutions, #34).

Shared mission from the beginning

We have seen how synodality was lived in the three foundations set up by our Founders. We are now going to see another aspect that was lived from the beginning, that of the “shared mission”.

Number 32 of Lumen Gentium says: If, therefore, everyone in the Church does not proceed by the same path, nevertheless, all are called to sanctity and have received an equal privilege of faith through the justice of God … all share a true equality with regard to the dignity and to the activity common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ. This sense of equality, dignity and common action in all people — laity, priests and consecrated — was very clear to St. Vincent. For him the important thing was to care for the poor and for this he relied on all those who joined in his initiatives and he associated himself with others who belonged to other congregations or ecclesial entities for the same purpose. In this sense, we can say that the Vincentian charism was born in a synodal way, in a shared mission.  As an example of this, we are going to look at two concrete situations in caring for the poor that took place during the time of the founders: caring for sick at the Hotel Dieu and the activity on behalf of the victims of wars. Briefly, we will see how these two services were organized to respond to specific needs.

Care for the sick at Hotel Dieu

In 1634, Confraternities were already established in Paris in some parishes and also the Daughters of Charity had been founded.

It was in this year that Madame Goussault, a lady of Charity who was visiting the sick at the Hôtel-Dieu, seeing the calamitous state they were in, had the idea of creating a Confraternity of Charity dedicated expressly to the care of this Hospital, and turned to St. Vincent to promote and direct the enterprise.

The situation of this hospital was deplorable. Every day between 50 and 100 poor people were received and, according to Abelly, between twenty and twenty-five thousand people were treated annually.[15]

The spiritual assistance was the responsibility of the chapter of the nearby cathedral, entrusting it every year to two of its members. The Company of the Blessed Sacrament also participated, sending since 1632 a priest and a layman every day for spiritual care, and also within the hospital one experienced the presence of the community of Augustinian nuns.

In 1634, according to Azcarate,[16] Genoveva Fayette, Madame Goussault, who had been an active member of the Confraternity of Charity in her own parish and who had been visiting the Hôtel-Dieu for some time and lamenting its state, approached St. Vincent to suggest the foundation of another type of Confraternity that would make charity present among the poor. Vincent, however, did not want to interfere in what was the responsibility of the canons of Notre Dame, so he rejected the proposal. The persistent lady continued in her endeavor and went to Jean-François de Gondi, Archbishop of Paris, to lay out her plan. “Let me see what I can do,” replied the prelate, “I will speak with M. Vincent and, if necessary, I will order him to establish the confraternity of which you speak to me. Following his usual criteria, St. Vincent saw in this decision of the archbishop the expression of God’s will and set to work”.

After two meetings with some Ladies and some other women who joined them, this Confraternity was constituted with St. Vincent as perpetual director and Madame Goussault as president. An assistant and a treasurer were also elected. The administrators of the Hotel, knowing that the bishop was in favor of this work, authorized the visits of the ladies. They also collaborated financially to cover all the expenses arising from this service.

Among the members of this Confraternity were queens, princesses, ladies of the high society of Paris, including four foundresses of congregations. The positions were temporary and the election for them was carried out during the celebration of an assembly.

They visited the sick every day, four at a time, and after praying they presented themselves to the nuns of the hospital to offer them their services.

From the beginning, they relied on the collaboration of the Daughters of Charity for the direct care of the sick. St. Vincent himself had written to St. Louise that we shall need you and your Daughters (CCD:I:231). They soon began to serve in the Hospital, coming and going (CCD:I:290). Already in December 1636, the Daughters had settled in a house next to the Hôtel Dieu, a house that was rented for them by the Ladies of Charity. Vincent wrote to Louise and stated: God bless you, Mademoiselle, for having gone to station your Sisters at the Hôtel Dieu and for all that has ensued! (CCD:I:363).

In 1636, the group of fourteen, composed exclusively of widowed or married ladies, was instituted. With the mission of preparing the sick for a general confession, each one of these ladies had to dedicate a few hours a week to the sick (between two and five in the afternoon). They would go in pairs (having prepared them spiritually by going to Mass and receiving communion in the morning and then make a visit to the hospital chapel when they arrived) and one of the Augustinian sisters would point out to them which individuals were the sickest. After the visit, they returned to the chapel to give thanks. For the confessions they were assisted by the priests of the Mission and others.

The Regulations for the Company of the Ladies of the Hôtel-Dieu (CCD:XIIIb:443-447) clearly describe the purpose of this confraternity, its members, the functions of each one and its functioning in general. We can see that this involved a shared mission in a synodal style as the members ministered to the corporal and spiritual needs of the sick poor of Paris.

Action in the service of war victims

The Thirty Years War plunged France into a spiral of disasters that for many years and for many innocent people brought hunger, poverty, humiliation, death…

Between 1636 and 1643, one of the main theaters of war was the Duchy of Lorraine. Between 1635 and 1643, up to 150,000 soldiers from different armies camped in this frontier territory in search of sustenance and committed the most atrocious outrages. Churches were desecrated, crops were pillaged and entire villages burned. Pestilence and famine were on the rise.

According to Román[17] the first news about the desolation of Lorraine was received by Vincent from the Missionaries in the house at Toul (founded in 1635). Without waiting for orders, they had put themselves at the service of the victims. They converted part of their house into a hospital, housing 40 to 60 sick people. In another placed, they cared for another 100 to 150 individuals.

After trying in vain to get Richelieu to stop the war, Vincent set to work to try to help as much as possible. He quickly realized that it was necessary to have money that he did not have and organized the following:

• Fundraising: the Ladies of Charity took charge and raised substantial amounts from their own pockets and from the high authorities to whom they went to ask, for example the king. Vincent estimated that 2,500 pounds a month were needed and the work of the Ladies made it possible to raise these amounts.
• The distribution of relief supplies was the work of the Missionaries. To those stationed in Toul, Vincent added twelve of his best priests and clerics, accompanied by Brothers skilled in surgery and medicine. These were established at seven strategic points and he appointed an individual to supervise their work. The basic aid consisted of food, bread and soup, above all, medicines and clothing. Thousands of people came every day to receive assistance.

Hunger multiplied the number of sick people. Many of the sick were taken in by the Missionaries in their residences in Toul and Nancy. In other places, such as Barle-Duc and Nancy itself, they were taken in at the hospital, to which the Missionaries sent clothing, medicine and food. Those who stayed at home were not neglected either.

They also cared for young women who were at risk of being raped, as well as cloistered nuns (who ran the same risk). The latter were left penniless due to the lack of alms, but St. Vincent was very interested in helping them by sending them financial and other types of aid.

The Missionaries also provided spiritual assistance. They dedicated long hours to preaching, catechesis and the administration of the sacraments, and even preached some missions.

• Communication: The reports on the needs of the war-torn areas motivated people who sent money and supplies to St. Lazare. Vincent had ordered the Missionaries to ask for receipts when they distributed the alms. He also received letters of thanks and recognition for the work the confreres were doing. Although he did not like all this, he decided to take advantage of it by taking up a greater collection. Every month he would read to the Ladies in Paris the amount of the funds distributed, thus encouraging them to persevere in their efforts. He sent to various places the most impressive letters to arouse the compassion of the rich with the account of so many miseries and continually informed the benefactors about the effects of their alms. The letters went from hand to hand, which in turn, multiplied the contributions to the war relief efforts.
• The liaison: This work was carried out by Brother Matthew Regnard nicknamed “the fox” because of his great cunning. St. Vincent asked him to transport money from Paris to the war zones. He had to overcome many dangers on his fifty-four journeys, but with audacity he overcame them all. According to Román,[18] he managed to transport and distribute up to one and a half million pounds that made possible the relief of so many people affected by the war.

The war also gave created many exiles. At La Chapelle, at the gates of Paris and not far from St. Lazarus, a refugee camp was set up. Vincent had his priests and those of the Tuesday Conferences preach three missions to them: in 1639, 1641 and 1642.

During the years 1650-1659 the war devastated the areas of Picardy and Champagne. There too, M. Vincent organized relief as he had done in Lorraine. The Ladies of Charity continued with their financial contributions and Vincent replicated the manner of informing people with regard to what was happening … this time publishing informative pamphlets that reached all of Paris and motivated people to contribute to these relief efforts. He sent the Missionaries to these regions for the distribution of material supplies and to provide spiritual assistance. The confreres were helped by the Daughters of Charity, other volunteers and people paid to do so. [19]

The confreres also organized relief on behalf of the sick and wounded and in this they relied on the help of the Daughters of Charity. They also began another work, unusual at the time: health care in military hospitals. At the Queen’s request, they took charge of the hospitals in Châlons, Sainte Menehould, Sedan, La Fère, Stenay and, after the Battle of the Dunes, the hospital in Calais.

All of this activity on behalf of the victims of war enables us to understand the organizational genius of St. Vincent and how he was able to involve so many countless individuals in his efforts to provide the victims of war with both material and spiritual assistance. These efforts also reveal how it is possible to walk together, in a shared mission, each person acting in accord with his/her own vocation but making ones gifts available to all … thus make visible the Kingdom of God in the midst of the poor.

Sr Mª Isabel Vergara Arnedillo, D.C.

Footnotes:

[1] CCD:XIIIb:1. Vincent de Paul, Correspondence, Conference, Documents, translators: Helen Marie Law, DC (Vol. 1), Marie Poole, DC (Vol. 1-14), James King, CM (Vol. 1-2), Francis Germovnik, CM (Vol. 1-8, 13a-13b [Latin]), Esther Cavanagh, DC (Vol. 2), Ann Mary Dougherty, DC (Vol. 12); Evelyne Franc, DC (Vol. 13a-13b), Thomas Davitt, CM (Vol. 13a-13b [Latin]), Glennon E. Figge, CM (Vol. 13a-13b [Latin]), John G. Nugent, CM (Vol. 13a-13b [Latin]), Andrew Spellman, CM (Vol. 13a-13b [Latin]); edited: Jacqueline Kilar, DC (Vol. 1-2), Marie Poole, DC (Vol. 2-13b), Julia Denton, DC [editor-in-chief] (Vol. 3-10, 13a-13b), Paule Freeburg, DC (Vol. 3), Mirian Hamway, DC (Vol. 3), Elinor Hartman, DC (Vol. 4-10, 13a-13b), Ellen Van Zandt, DC (Vol. 9-13b), Ann Mary Dougherty (Vol. 11-12 and 14); annotated: John W. Carven, CM (Vol. 1-13b); New City Press, Brooklyn and Hyde Park, 1985-2014. Recently, John Rybolt, CM has published four volumes online of previously unpublished letters, conferences, and documents of Vincent de Paul. These can be found and downloaded from Saint Vincent de Paul / Correspondence, Conferences, Documents (English Translation) | Correspondence, Conferences, and Documents of St. Vincent de Paul | DePaul University. Future references to this work will use the initials [CCD] followed by the volume number, followed by the page number, and will be inserted in the text.

[2] Luigi Mezzadri, San Vicente de Paúl: el santo de la caridad [St. Vincent de Paul: The saint of charity], Editorial CEME, Salamanca, 2012, p. 70-71.

[3] International Association of Charities, Charter (2023 Edition), p. 8 and 9. https://www.aic-international.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/2023_AIC-Charter-complete-EN.pdf

[4] Ibid., p. 12.

[5] Ibid., p. 21.

[6] SWLM:709:A46. Louise de Marillac, Spiritual Writing of Louise de Marillac, edited and translated from the French by Sister Louise Sullivan, DC, New City Press, Brooklyn, New York, 1991.  Future references to this work will be inserted into the text using the initials [SWLM] followed by the page number, followed by number of the letter or the number of the writing and or manuscript.

[7] Charter (2023 Edition), p.13.

[8] Ibid., p. 10.

[9] José María Román, St. Vincent de Paul: A Biography, translated by Sr. Joyce Howard, DC, Melisende, London, 1999, p. 114.

[10] Ibid., 137.

[11] Louis Abelly, The Life of the Venerable Servant of God Vincent de Paul: Founder and First Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission, 3 volumes, edited by John E. Rybolt, CM, translated by William Quinn, FSC, notes by Edward R. Udovic, CM and John E. Rybolt, CM, introduction by Stafford Poole, CM, New City Press, New Rochelle, New York, 1993, II:287.

[12] Ibid., I:131.

[13] L. Mezzadri, Las Conferencias de San Vicente a las Hermanas [The Conferences of St. Vincent to the Sisters] in https://vincentians.com/es/las-conferencias-de-san-vicente-a-las-hermanas/

[14] Inter-Assembly Document of the Daughters of Charity (2021-2027), p. 10.

[15] ABELLY, op.cit., I:154.

[16] S. Azcárte, “La sangre azul de la caridad” [The Blue Blood of Charity]” in Vicente de Paúl, un gran innovador [Vincent de Paul, a Great Innovator] Salamanca 2012, 355-405.

[17] Román, op.cit., pp. 509-524 and 569-590.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

Click on the following image to access all the information on the Second Vincentian Family Convocation, November 14–17, 2024 in Rome, Italy: