Vincent de Paul and the Empowerment of Women

Journal of Vincentian Social Action, Dec 2017

The year 2017, marking the 400th Anniversary of the birth of the Vincentian Charism, has proven to be one of celebration for the entire Vincentian Family. While thousands of women are taking part in these celebrations around the world, the role women played in the birth and development of the charism is often overlooked. To do so however, is to miss a singularly significant aspect of Vincent de Paul’s genius, namely, the mission of charity he confided to the laity and particularly to women. Vincent de Paul’s life and his works would become what they were and what they continue to be because they put their hands to them. The women of the Vincentian Family continue to bring the giftedness that Vincent discerned in them early on to the “suffering members of Jesus Christ” throughout the world. As a result, now as then, persons who are poor are better served.

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Vincent de Paul and the Empowerment of Women

JoVSA • Vincent de Paul and the Empowerment of Women Louise Sullivan 0 0 Part of the Catholic Studies Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Religious Thou ght, The ology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, and the Sociology of Religion Commons Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/jovsa - Tof the birth of the Vincentian Charism, he year 2017, marking the 400th Anniversary has proven to be one of celebration for the entire Vincentian Family. It has been a time for looking back with gratitude, and perhaps more importantly, for looking forward with hope and daring. While thousands of women are taking part in these celebrations around the world, the role women played in the birth and development of the charism is often overlooked. To do so however, is to miss a singularly significant aspect of Vincent de Paul’s genius, namely, the mission of charity he confided to the laity and particularly to women. Indeed, it is incontestable that there were many women in Vincent de Paul’s life including some of the most influential figures of the time: Madame de Gondi, the Duchess d’Aiguillon, Madame Goussault, Jane Frances de Chantal, to name but a few. A painting by the eighteenth-century artist, Jean André, OP, is a visual reminder of this. Housed in the Museum of Public Assistance in Paris which, unfortunately, has been closed to the public since 4 July 2010, it depicts Vincent de Paul surrounded by obviously wealthy women of the nobility and bourgeoisie. Among them is a young widow recognizable by her solemn black attire as Louise de Marillac. In the foreground is a Daughter of Charity with three foundlings wrapped in swaddling clothes. No attempt is made here to discuss the intrinsic artistic value of the work. It is significant for our purposes as an illustration of the key players in the development of the Vincentian Charism born in Châtillon: Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, the Ladies of Charity, and the Daughters of Charity. As early as his arrival in Paris in 1608, Vincent had begun to frequent the society of wealthy, influential women. He would later number them among his closest friends and collaborators upon whom he could count in his charitable endeavors and even in his work to reform the clergy. During an era when, for many, the desired feminine virtues were “naiveté, childishness and servitude” (Six & Loose, 1980, p. 40) , Vincent de Paul saw in women a wellspring of untapped potential. He had witnessed this in the women who had been part of Madame Acarie’s circle. In them he perceived not only generosity in the service of the poor that marked the early seventeenth century and the Catholic renewal but also a thirst for the spiritual and the capacity to enter, on an equal footing with men, into the way of mystical union with God. Vincent de Paul’s work, however, was not simply a large-scale evolution of Madame Acarie’s circle. It would lead not to the Carmel of France but to the Ladies of Charity and the Daughters of Charity who seek to combine contemplation and action and in so doing continue Vincent de Paul’s work into the twenty-first century. Let us now examine more closely the collaboration between Vincent de Paul and women in the service of persons who were poor. GANNES—Folleville: Madame De Gondi Ia turning point in Vincent de Paul’s existence. t is generally accepted that the year 1617 marks We learn from Vincent himself that twice between January and late August of that year, God intervened directly and perceptibly in his life. On both occasions, an event caused him to stop, to reflect before God, and to undertake a course of action which would alter his future. Women would play a significant role in the outcome of each. Vincent de Paul and the Empowerment of Women 18 To understand these events and their far-reaching effects, it is essential to recall the context in which they occurred. At the time of the episode at Gannes-Folleville in January 1617, Vincent was thirty-six years old. Since 1613 he had been in the household of Phillipe-Emmanuel de Gondi, General of the Galleys of the king, as tutor for the children and spiritual director for Madame de Gondi. It was an enviable position for an ambitious man, one in which he found the security and the “honorable retirement” (Vincent de Paul, 1610, February 17, 1:17), he had longed for since his youth. But having attained it, he was dissatisfied. The soil of his soul was ready for conversion in the truest sense of the word. The incident that took place when Vincent accompanied the Gondi family to their estates in Folleville is, at first glance, quite ordinary, even banal in the life of a parish priest: he was called to the bedside of a dying man to hear his confession. Moreover, Vincent had little experience as a parish priest—sixteenth months in sixteen years—so it is quite possible that it would never have led to the first “sermon of the mission” (Vincent de Paul, n.d., 11:4) had it not been for the interventi (...truncated)


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Louise Sullivan. Vincent de Paul and the Empowerment of Women, Journal of Vincentian Social Action, 2017, Volume 2, Issue 3,