NEWS
Home Church Calendar
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Select Date

calendar

St Louise de Marillac

Information

In the course of his work in Paris, Vincent de Paul met Louise de Marillac and became her spiritual director. Her husband, a court attendant, had died after only twelve years of marriage.

At Pentecost, 1623, Louise received a revelation from the Holy Spirit which banished her doubts and made clear her future in consecrated life.

29th November 1633, Vincent co-founded the Daughters of Charity with Louise de Marillac, to help the sick and the poor. In time, Vincent asked Louise to visit the growing Confraternities of Charity to supervise their leaders and to encourage their teamwork and ties with the local priests.

The collaboration of Vincent and Louise resulted in great gifts of innovation in ministry that continue to bless the world and the Church today. Louise de Marillac was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 and, on March 11, 1934, she was canonized by Pope Pius XI. Her feast day is May 9 (changed from March 15 in 2016). Her remains are enshrined in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity at 140 rue du Bac, Paris. She is mistakenly referred to as an incorrupt saint; the body enshrined in the chapel is actually a wax effigy, containing her bones. She was declared Patroness of Christian Social Workers by Pope John XXIII, in 1960.

St Catherine Labouré