“Women had innovative role in early church writes Rev. Edward St-Godard describing the pioneering role of the Daughters of Charity.Last week I wrote an article about an interesting group of medieval women, the Beguines.
In the early years of organized religious life, the only possibility for a woman in the church was to be a cloistered nun. Like their male counterparts, the nuns lived behind cloistered walls in a monastery.
But the women could not leave the monastery. The reason advanced for this difference was the safety and protection of the women. These were tough days; barbarians abounded. Women were not safe. Come to think about it, not much different than today, but I digress. If a male monk needed to go out, he could get permission from his abbot. For a female, no such permission was granted unless for a medical emergency.
Even the abbess could leave the cloister only with permission of the bishop.
As time went on there were a few attempts to establish religious orders, similar to the monastic life but with a bit more freedom.
One example would be St. Angela Merici and her Ursulines.She wanted a group of nuns who had the choice either to live in community or to live at home with their families, or even live alone. The Ursulines wore no habit, took no vows but were obliged by rule to live lives of poverty, chastity and obedience.
They were established in 1535 but not accepted by the church until 1544 after they agreed to accept a habit , take vows and live in community. Many years later another group was established, this time by St. Vincent de Paul in 1633. These were the Daughters of Charity, whom we might remember by the winged cornet they wore in place of a veil.
The origins of this group, which was co-founded by St. Louise de Marillac was in an earlier group of Ladies of Charity which St. Vincent had founded in 1617 and which he dubbed as the “Servants of the Poor.” He gave this group a simple rule of life. This took place in a little village called “Chatillon-les-Dombes.” Meanwhile other parishes began establishing groups of laywomen to care for their poor and sickly. By 1629 these women became known as the “Ladies of Charity” and centered themselves in Paris, under the direction of Vincent de Paul. Many of these women actually cared for the sick and poor, but many felt repulsion to this actual work and supported the ministry by their financial donations.
Finally Vincent felt it was time to establish a regular community, but again not on the monastic model.And so, in 1633, the Daughters of Charity were established. But Vincent told his sisters: ‘For a cell, you have a rented room, for your chapel you have the parish church, for your cloister you have the streets of the city; for enclosure you have obedience. Fear of God is your grill and modesty is your veil.’
Again there was a struggle for acceptance. Even today the Sisters do not take final vows. They renew their vows every year. The church was not yet ready to give liberty to religious women. This is why the church did not take readily to the Beguines. Their goal was simplicity and freedom, especially from male domination. The Council of Vienne (1311-1312) went so far as to say the Beguines were heretical. And in some cases this may have been true. In some places the beguinages were confiscated but they did continue for some time until the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars.
In 17th century Belgium there was a revival of the Beguines. As recently as 1969 there were still a handful of these houses in Belgium and Holland.
Finally religious life as we knew it growing up took hold. Technically called sisters, rather than nuns, women religious dedicated their lives to the service of the Church as teachers and nurses, living an active life outside of monasteries. This lifestyle has again changed radically since Vatican II but there will always be religious women who will dedicate themselves to God and the Church for works of ministry. Thanks be to God. This began with the women who ministered to Jesus and the Apostles and has continued throughout the ages.
Rev. Edward St-Godard is the pastor of Holy Family Church, South Main Street, Woonsocket.
