AND LOUISE DE MARILLAC, Vowed Religious, 1660]

Born into a family of peasant farmers in the village of Pouy in Gascony in 1581, Vincent de Paul showed an early aptitude for reading and writing. His father sold his oxen in order to send the boy to seminary, hoping that a clerical career would allow him to support the family. Later kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave, he studied alchemy under his master. While traveling to Istanbul, the alchemist died; Vincent was sold again, this time to a former Franciscan who had likewise been enslaved, but became a Muslim in exchanged for his freedom. Vincent shared the Gospel with his new master’s wife; she was baptized and convinced her husband to return to the faith of Christ and escape to France. Later, while serving as a parish priest near Paris, Vincent began to devote his attention to serving the poor and destitute. With the support of the noble women of the parish, a ministry developed for visiting, feeding, and nursing the poor in and around Paris. As this ministry grew, he came to rely on a widow, Louise de Marillac, to oversee their efforts.

Louise de Marillac was born to a wealthy family near Le Jeux in Picardy; by the time she was fifteen years old both of her parents had died. She longed to become a nun, but was discouraged; instead, she wed Antonie Le Gras. Her husband died twelve years later; the union produced one child, a son with special needs. Francis de Sales, later Bishop of Geneva, who wrote the highly influential Introduction to the Devout Life became her spiritual director. At age thirty-two it was revealed to her in a vision that God would bring her a new spiritual director, whose face she was shown. When she met Vincent de Paul, she recognized his face from her vision. He invited Louise to assist in his expanding charitable ministry. She accepted his offer, poured herself into this ministry, and soon became the leader of the sisterhood. She led the order until her death in 1660.

In 1633, Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac formally founded The Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph (later the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul), or more commonly, the “Grey Sisters,” the first non-cloistered religious order for women devoted to acts of charity. The ministry of the Grey Sisters grew to include founding hospitals, orphanages, and schools. The nineteenth century revival of religious orders within Anglicanism was greatly influenced by the spirituality and the work of the Daughters of Charity.