May 6, 2014 · 10:52 am

Beatification of Louise de Marillac – DC pilgrimmage to Rome, May 1920 (part 1)

Louise de Marillac

Louise de Marillac, 1591-1660 (Image courtesy of Vincent de Paul Image Archive, DePaul University)

(Account of Sister Margaret O’Keefe taken from the Provincial Annals. Used with permission of Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives)

On May 9, 1920, Louise de Marillac, co-founder of the Daughters of Charity, was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XV . Today’s is the first of three posts with accounts of Sister Margaret O’Keefe, then Visitatrix of the Emmitsburg Province, who traveled to Rome for the beatification ceremony.

May 6. Thursday. Went to St. Paul’s without the Walls. It is quite a long ride and we saw some of the old walls of Rome and other interesting things. The Church is magnificent and beautiful beyond expression. The Chapel of the Crucifix where St. Ignatius and his first companions made their first Vows, and where our Lord from His Cross spoke to St. Bridget of Sweden as she prayed before the crucifix. The magnificent Confessio where the relics of St. Paul and his disciples, Timothy are kept. The porphyry pillars in the Church were the gift of Mehemet Ali Viceroy of Egypt.

May 7. Friday. St. Mary Major. Our Lady of the Snow. Majestic and most beautiful 36 white marble pillars taken from a temple of Juno the beautiful paneled ceiling is richly decorated with the first gold brought from South America. The relics of Saint Matthew. The Borghese Chapel has precious marbles and is one of the richest in Rome. Above the beautiful altar is the Madonna painted by St. Luke. Sistine Chapel – in the center beneath the altar is the Chapel of the Manger in which are preserved some boards taken from the Manger in which our Lord was laid.

San Pietro in Vincoli. The chains which bound St. Peter in Jerusalem were brought from the Holy Land by the Empress Eudoxia and presented to Leo I. they are kept in a beautiful shrine under the high altar. It is enclosed by railings and marble steps lead down. A priest happened to come out of the confessional, and seeing us came and explained the different parts. Before opening the Shrine he put on a surplice and lighted two candles on the altar – turned a crank, and the doors of bronze and gold opened in the centre and slid back, revealing a beautiful gold shrine in which were the heavy iron chains so arranged that you could see them plainly, we knelt before them deeply impressed. We procured from the sacristy small chains blessed, that had touched this most precious relic. It was well worth climbing the three long flights of stone steps leading up to this hill.

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Filed under Benedict XV, Church History, Louise de Marillac, Popes, Provincial Annals

May 5, 2014 · 6:00 am

Digital exhibit of Vincent letters at DePaul University

Vincent letters

Examples of Vincent de Paul letters at DePaul University (Image courtesy of DePaul University Office of Mission and Values)

View the exhibit

DePaul University announces its premier digital exhibit of manuscript letters of Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). This collection represents the largest of the Saint’s extant holographic documents outside of Europe. These documents are the cornerstone of DePaul’s Vincentian Studies Collection, which includes multidisciplinary resources pertaining to scholarship about Saint Vincent and the Vincentian Family. For more information on the broader collection, see the Vincentian Research Guide.

To view any of these letters, go to http://libservices.org/contentdm/handwritten-letters.php and simply click on the timeline date, or letter itself. In addition, each marker on the European map represents the location where a letter was sent, and clicking on a marker will pull up an individual letter.

The letters range in date from 1641 to 1660, a fertile period during Vincent’s life during which his influence was at its height. By his death on September 27, 1660, he was the administrator of a vast network of religious and charitable endeavors, and one of the most well-known and revered figures in France.

Each letter includes a transcription and translation of the respective text. The transcriptions are taken from Vincent de Paul: Correspondence, Entretiens, Documents (Librairie Lecoffre, 1920-1925), edited by Pierre Coste, C.M. The English translations are taken from Vincent de Paul: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents (New City Press, 1985-2010), translated and edited by Sister Marie Poole, D.C., editor-in-chief, of the Vincent Translation Project.

The kind assistance of DePaul University’s Office of Mission and Values, the Vincentian Studies Institute, and DePaul University Library made this collection possible.

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Filed under Announcements, DePaul University, Digitized Collections, Exhibits, Vincent de Paul

May 2, 2014 · 9:08 am

Birthday of Catherine Laboure

Catherine Laboure witnessing one of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary while a Seminary Sister at the Daughter of Charity Mother House in Paris, 1830. Detail from a painting in the collections of the Provincial Archives (Image courtesy Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives)

Catherine Laboure witnessing one of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary while a Seminary Sister at the Daughter of Charity Mother House in Paris, 1830. Detail from a painting in the collections of the Provincial Archives (Image courtesy Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives)


Photo of Catherine Laboure

The only known photograph of Catherine Laboure, taken just before her death in 1876 (Image courtesy Daughters of Charity Mother House, Paris)

May 2 marks the birthday of Catherine Laboure, born on May 2, 1806 in Fain-les-Moutiers, France. The text below is taken from a biography of Catherine which appears on the Daughters of Charity international website.

Catherine was a girl from the countryside of Burgundy, the 8th in a family of 10 children. Orphaned at 9 years old, she decided to replace the mother she had lost with our Heavenly Mother, Mary. This act of faith would be a foundational event in her privileged relationship with “Heaven.”

On January 25, 1818 Catherine made her First Communion in the churchof Moutiers-Saint-Jeanand became « all mystical » as her little sister, Tonine, perceived. From the age of 12 Catherine was her father’s main helper on the farm. Burdened with work, Catherine worked tirelessly, which fortified her and built her endurance over fatigue. Each day she spent a long time in prayer. Before beginning her day she found the way to attend Mass in the church at Moutiers-Saint-Jean. At age 13 Catherine was as much a “contemplative” as she was “mistress of the house.”

Around 15 – 16 years old, she had a strange dream, one of the kinds of dreams that the Gospel calls prophetic, whose meaning becomes clear only at a later time. Catherine was visited by St. Vincent de Paul who spoke to her and invited her to follow him. At about 18 years old she told her father she wanted to enter the Daughters of Charity. He refused and hoped to change her mind by sending her to Paristo work as a cook and waitress in the restaurant of her brother.

When Catherine was 22 years old her father finally granted her desire to pursue her vocation. In April of 1830 Catherine entered the Seminary at the Motherhouse on rue du Bac, Paris. She greatly admired St. Vincent de Paul and drew strength, patience and enlightenment from prayer. Smiling and cheerful, Catherine focused on others and on day to day service.

From her arrival in the Seminary, Catherine received personal visions (of the heart of St. Vincent and of Our Lord in the Eucharist) and then two apparitions of Mary which had a message of evangelization for the Church and the world. These two apparitions, on July 18 and November 27, are inseparable. The first prepared for the second which, surely, was of great importance: Mary Immaculate confided the Medal to the world. By this symbol Mary revealed her Immaculate Conception; the reverse of the Medal gave symbols which linked Mary intimately with the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption.

For Catherine, God was not an idea but a presence: Jesus Christ, God made a man among humans, among those who are poor. At the end of January 1831 she was sent to serve the elderly in the hospice of Enghien, the poor of that neighborhood, those who were afflicted, saddened, the marginalized. During 46 years of untiring service she was a harbor of peace for everyone, looking out for the elderly with unusual generosity, especially those who were the most disagreeable. She gave equal attention to the sick whom she attended during their agony. She saw the face of Christ in each one. She was a “visionary” but above all a “believer” which was shown heroically in unexpected and difficult situations, notably during the Commune: all is for God.

During the first days of 1877 Sister Catherine was buried under the house in Reuilly. Seventy years after her death she was canonized. In 1933 the body of Catherine was transferred to the Chapel at rue du Bac and placed under the altar of the statue of Our Lady of the Globe. Thus, Catherine appears as the first witness to a new type of holiness, without glory or human triumph that the Holy Spirit began to bring for modern times.

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