CHAPTER XXX
CHARITY IN ACTION: CHILDREN, GALLEY SLAVES, BEGGARS
CHARITY IN ACTION: CHILDREN, GALLEY SLAVES, BEGGARS
"Paris has as many foundlings as there are days in the year"
Pictures of Vincent de Paul, and this is specially true of nineteenth century representations of the saint, often show him holding a baby in his arms and with two little ones pulling at his cassock. These is no historical basis for such pictures and yet they contain an element of truth. One of the most striking aspects of Vincent's works of charity was the way that this man could stoop down to abandoned little ones and show them, through the ladies, the Daughters of Charity and also the missionaries, how tenderly he cared for them. It was children, more than anybody else, who gave him the title "Father of the Poor".
There were hundreds of abandoned babies. In a hypocritical society that was scandalised by conduct they judged to be immoral, the only answer to the single mother situation was for babies to be left abandoned on the public highway. Quite often mothers had to abandon their new born babies because they simply couldn't feed them. Other, and less pardonable reasons for abandoning children, were selfishness, vice and perversion. [1]
At any rate, hundreds of abandoned babies appeared on the streets of Paris and particularly in the doorway of churches where people left them as if appealing to the Church's maternal instincts. Vincent reckoned that there were "as many foundlings as there are days in the year." [2]
This was no new evil. Throughout the sixteenth century, royal and municipal directives aimed at improving the lot of these poor, defenceless children, [3] were issued at intervals but they didn't come to much. Those children who didn't die of hunger or cold during the hours or even days that they were left lying abandoned, were taken to an official institution, the Couche, which was run by a widow and two servants. The cathedral Chapter was really responsible for this place. Funds were scarce at the Couche, but worse still, the staff were very inhuman. [4] Vincent gave this stark description of conditions there.
A wet nurse would be attending to four or five babies at once. Babies were given a few drops of alcohol or some laudanum pills to make them sleep. Some babies were sold at 8 sous each, to beggars who used to break the babies' arms or legs so that people would feel sorry for them. Others were procured by immoral women for similar or even worse purposes and some were used to stimulate a mother's mammary glands. And to add to all these evils, the chilren were not baptised and this filled Vincent's christian soul with horror. As their names do not appear in any baptismal register, we can't be sure that any of the foundlings admitted to the Couche in the first 50 years of its history, survived. [5]
This is a frightening picture and if it didn't come from the pen of such a perfectly reliable witness we might be tempted to think it was exaggerated. A contempory historian states that child cruelty, whether directed at foundlings or other infants, produced more victims during that century than wars did. [6]
We don't really know how Vincent first came into contact with this particular form of misery. In the last century the story went round that Vincent was returning, one day, from a mission and when he came to the gates of Paris he met one of these beggars who used to break the babies' limbs. "You monster", shouted Vincent as he went for the wretch, "I was wrong. From the distance I thought you were a man." Then he took the babe in his arms and carried it to the Couche where he witnessed the scene that he was to describe, years later, to the ladies [7]
It didn't take such horrifying scenes as these for Vincent's heart to be moved. Everyone knew about foundlings and the terrible consequences of this but nobody was willing to tackle the dreadful problem. They would have to start by overcoming prejudice. Foundlings were regarded as "children of sin" and illegitimacy was a degrading social stigma. At least this is what the high minded bourgeoisie thought, though kings and nobles could boast about their bastard sons and even procure bishoprics for them. Even a Daughter of Charity, when the Queen of Poland once suggested that Vincent might recruit vocations from girls at the Couche, was very offended and said, "Oh no, Madame. Our company doesn't take that sort of person. We only accept virgins." [18] The good sister was unconsciously echoing the social prejudice which laid what they presumed to be the sin of the parents at the doors of the children.
"We will give it a try."
It took courage to go against the whole climate of opinion for the sake of the gospel. Vincent had this courage. The first thing he did was to invite the Ladies of Charity to visit the Couche. His reason for doing this was not so much to let them see the evil as to encourage them to suggest a remedy. The ladies discussed the matter, prayed about it, and decided to give it a trial. [10] This was towards the end of 1637.
On the 1st January, 1638,Vincent spoke to St. Louise about the outcome.
"At the last meeting it was agreed that we should ask you to try and see if there was any way we could get cow's milk for the children and whether it would be possible to buy two or three cows for this purpose. I was very consoled to see how Providence was turning to you to deal with the matter. I do realise that this question needs to be discussed fully and so we'll talk about it later. [11]
It was a very modest first attempt. They began by taking in 12 infants who were chosen by lot so that there would be no favouritism and also in order "to honour divine Providence." At first the babies were taken to Mlle. Le Gras' house and later on to a rented building in the rue des Boulangers. Several Daughters of Charity took on this work. They bought a goat but this didn't solve the problem and they had to go back to employing wet nurses. [13] There were many difficulties to be overcome. To save money allocated for this work, one of the ladies suggested that the babies should stay at the Couche and that the ladies should visit them there. [14] The first Daughter of Charity to take over this work was a widow of some standing, called Mde. Pelletier. She wanted the direction of this establishment to be taken out of the hands of the Superiors and when this proposal was rejected she left the company. [15] And yet, in spite of everything, this first attempt was a success. The number of infants being looked after increased and they continued to be chosen by lot. The increase in numbers was only a modest one because resources were limited to 1,200 livres a year.
"We will take in all the foundlings."
After two years Vincent decided to take over the whole enterprise and with this in mind he called an extraordinary meeting of the ladies. This took place on 17th January, 1640. All the aristocracy were there, including the duchess d'Aiguillon and the princess de Montmorency. [16] Vincent prepared his talk very carefully. He knew he would have to move their hearts, forestall objections and indicate ways of solving the problem. He didn't hesitate to attack their pseudo religious prejudices head on, and didn't mince his words. "It will be said that God has condemned many of these little ones because of the circumstances of their birth and that could be why the problem can't be solved." This was a horrible way of reasoning but it reflected what people and many of the ladies thought. "My answer to that is that man was cursed by God because of Adam's sin. But it was precisely for this reason that Our Lord became man and died. Taking care of these little ones, even if they are cursed by God, is to do the work of Jesus Christ."
The main problem was money. How could they be responsible for two or three hundred infants if it cost 150 livres a year to maintain six or seven? Vincent, who was realistic as well as an optimist, replied, "The answer is we must do what we can."
It was suggested, too, that they might set up another association of ladies who would be known as "the Foundling Ladies" as distinct from the Ladies of the Hôtel Dieu. After considering the pros aand cons Vincent decided against this.
He ended by saying, "If we do what we can we shall be honouring the Eternal Father who handed over his Son to the mercy of the world and subjected him to Herod's persecution." The cause was won. "The decision was taken that they would look after all the foundlings." [17] Two months later on 30th March, 1640, the work began.
A special feature of Vincent's works of charity is particularly striking in the case of the foundlings. Vincent's three great institutions all collaborated, in their own way, in this work. The ladies were patrons of the work and they provided the funds, the Daughters of Charity were directly involved in the work, while the priests of the Mission supervised and directed it. Charity is all one and it is to be served by all available helpers.
Moving house
The first problem was that of finding accommodation. The little house in the rue des Boulangers was too small so some of the children were moved to the sisters' Mother House which was then in La Chapelle. From there, they moved with the sisters to the new house in the faubourg Saint Laurent but still there wasn't enough room. In 1645 Vincent took a decision which went some way towards solving the problem. Using the foundation capital from the missionaries' house in Sedan, he had 13 small houses for children built alongside the sisters' house. For these, the ladies paid an annual rent of 1,300 livres. [18] The latest group of foundlings to be rescued, now had somewhere to stay. Some remained there and were looked after by the sisters and by wet nurses. Others were put in the care of foster mothers who came from Paris or the surrounding districts. Louise de Marillac kept a register of the different placements for these children. Vincent checked this register and, (a touching detail), signed it with his own hand. At intervals a brother from the mission would come to inspect the places where the children were. [19]
Every week the ladies would visit both refuges, the one in the rue des Boulangers and the other that comprised the thirteen small houses. But the great number of babies and older children was still a problem. There just wasn't room for them in the house so another place had to be found. The ladies decided to ask the Queen to let them have the Château of Bicêtre, a royal property near Gentilly, south of Paris, which had been empty for years.
Louise was against the plan because she foresaw that they would have difficulty in adapting the place to meet the needs of the children and the sisters. For example, how could the sisters go to Mass in the parish of Gentilly and leave the children on their own? In spite of these objections the move went ahead. Louise's fears were justified. There were all sorts of problems. The administrator appointed by the Chapter claimed that he was the only one who had the right to instruct the children. The ladies objected and threatened to withdraw from the work. [20] Quite a number of the infants died. [21] In 1649 all their lives were in danger because of the Fronde. Condé's troops were camped outside Paris and the sisters lived in a permanent state of anxiety and in fear of the aoutrages committed by the soldiery. [22]
Of course Paris wasn't a safe place either. On 13th May, 1652, there was an incident in the Saint Denis conflict between Condé and Touraine which took place right outside the doors of the sisters' house and they feared the worst.
"The fierce fighting that went on close by and the men that they saw lying dead outside their door terrified the wet nurses so much that everyone of them left with the other sisters. They each carried an unweaned babe in their arms and left the rest of the children asleep in bed." [23]
In 1649, the children were moved from Bicêtre to Paris. They were provisionally lodged in the sisters' mother house. Later on it was requested that they occupy part of the prison hospital but negotiations for this came to nothing. The ladies then rented a house near Saint Lazare. [24]
"These good ladies are not doing all they could."
Finance posed a much more serious problem. The initial income of 1,200 livres was soon found to be inadequate. By 1644 expenditure had risen to 40,000 livres. [25] Vincent knocked on all doors. First Louis XIII, and then his widow, assigned him an income of 12,000 livres from various royal properties. [26] The gap between income and expenditure was still enormous and the only way of narrowing it was to have generous donations from the ladies. In 1649, these felt they had reached their limit. The war (this was the first year of the Fronde) and the economic crisis affected everybody, even the wealthy ladies of charity. Everything was in short supply; clothing, food and money. Louise, who was responsible for dealing with the day to day administrative problems, was on the point of giving up and abandoning the work. Her letters to Vincent at this time are constant appeals for help.
"I am very sorry to keep troubling you but we are finding it just impossible to take in any more children. At present we have seven children who are not ready to be bottle fed and we have only two wet nurses. We havent a single "double" to hire any more nurses, we have no supplies of linen or clothing, and no hope of getting a loan. Please tell us whether in conscience we can expose these children to the risk of dying since the ladies are not bothered about our situation and I'm sure they think that we are supporting ourselves at their expense. This is just not true because we've only kept 100 livres out of the money they agreed to pay for the nurses' board. I can only think of one way to help all those who are suffering in this work and that is to ask the president, on behalf of the company, to first of all relieve us of the obligation of admitting any more children. He can transfer that responsibility to anybody he likes. But we would need to have the ladies' approval for such a step so that nobody would be surprised by our decision. If we don't do this I feel we will be in a perpetual state of mortal sin."
They brought us another four children yesterday. As well as the seven babies who are being breast fed, we have three others that have just been weaned and these were only brought in recently; one of them is sick and we really should put these back with foster mothers if at all possible. I wish we could bear these trials without telling you about the situation but we are so helpless to deal with it that we have to let you know. These good ladies are not doing all thet they could, they haven't sent us a thing and even the ladies of the company, most of whom have paid their subscription for the year, haven't sent us anything either... " [27]
"Now is the time for you to pass sentence."
Louise's anxious plea touched Vincent's heart and he decided to call an extraordinary meeting of the ladies of charity. Madame de Herse very nearly prevented this meeting from taking place. She spread the rumour that the ladies would need to take plenty of money with them to this meeting so some ladies began to send their excuses for not attending. [28] The danger was averted just in time and the meeting was held at the end of December, 1649. Once again Vincent prepared a talk that was to move these ladies' hearts.
He realised that these were hard times and that everyone was feeling the pinch but he really wasn't asking all that much. If every one of the hundred ladies present each contributed a hundred livres then the problem would be solved; if only half donated a hundred livres and the rest gave as much as they could, then the situation wouldn't be so desperate. What would this involve? Well, what about all the trinkets they wore and the knick knacks they had decorating their houses? One lady, recently, had given all her jewels... And thus he finished his now famous exhortation which in itself is ample proof of his great eloquence.
"Mesdames, pity and charity led you to adopt these little ones as your children. You have been their mothers according to grace ever since their natural mothers abandoned them. Now we have to see if you, too, are going to abandon them. Stop being their mothers for a minute, and see yourselves as their judges. The life or death of these little ones is in your hands. I am going to take a vote. The time has come to pass sentence. Let us see if you are going to be merciful to them. If you continue to collect alms for them then they will live, if you abandon them they will die. Make no mistake about it, they will die, as we know from experience." [29]
The ladies responded generously to this moving appeal and the work for foundlings was saved. After 1653 there don't seem to have been any further financial problems. In 1656 they had nearly reached a balance between income and expenditure; 16,248 livres as against 17,221. [30]
The ladies weren't the only people to grumble. Discontent was expressed by some missionaries, too. These claimed that the foundlings were ruining the company not just because mission funds were being used for this work but because benefactors of the mission had stopped helping them because they thought that the foundlings needed the money more. When Vincent heard these complaints he was saddened.
"May God forgive you for this failing which is so opposed to the spirit of the gospel. What a lack of faith! To think that Our Lord will be any less good to us if we do good to these poor abandoned children; he who has promised to reward a hundredfold whatever is given for love of him! If our gracious Saviour could say to his disciples, "Let the children come to me" how can we reject and abandon them when they come to us, for to do this would mean rejecting Him? We would not be faithful to his grace if, after being chosen by his providence to preserve and give spiritual help to these poor foundlings, we were to grow weary of this task and abandon them because they caused us some problems." [31]
"You will be both mothers and virgins."
Only the sisters remained steadfast in this work though the heaviest burdens fell on them. Vincent had taught them to value the spiritual dimension of the work they were doing. These little ones were the children of God and the sisters who acted as mothers to them were mothers, then, of God's children.
"In this you are something like the Blessed Virgin because you are both mothers and virgins."
They were also the guardian angels of these children and theirs would be the merit for the Lord's praises that came from these little ones' lips. Theirs would be a far greater reward than the children's natural mothers or the paid nurses could ever hope for.
"What reward will you have for serving these poor little ones that the world has cast aside? You will enjoy God's presence for all eternity. My daughters, is there anything to equal that?" [32]
The instructions that Vincent gave in the conferences were summarised and formally written down in their particular rules. Some of these may seem too strict to modern eyes but others reveal a remarkable understanding of child and of feminine psychology. They also anaticipated, in a very striking way, our present day teaching methods. Punishment was to be used sparingly and introduced by degrees, while rewards were presented as desirable. Boys and girls were to be taught how to read and the former also learned how to write. Naturally, religious instruction was given first priority. But all the children were taught a trade. When the boys reached the age of twelve they became apprentices. The girls were found a situation, usually in domestic service, when they were fifteen. [33]
Concern for the welfare of young children would seem to be one of the greatest advances of our times. The change in people's attitudes which has made this possible has its roots in the charitable works of Vincent de Paul in the second half of the 17th century and continued for three centuries more by Daughters of Charity in all the countries of Europe.
"Nothing is more meritorious in God's eyes than charitable work for prisoners"
If the foundlings were a blot on society then the galley slaves were a reproach both to society and to the state. The latter was responsible for the appalling situation whereby thousands of men were condemned to waste away their lives on the benches of the galley ships. This spectre was to haunt every navy in the world until the development, first of sailing boats, and later of steamships, meant that vessels could be powered by other means than men's arms. In the latter part of the 17th century this solution was still a long way off and the fact that the country was at war only added to the evil. Richelieu's policy of naval expansion in his bid for European supremacy meant that the number of galley slaves was increased and that the prisoners had to serve longer sentences. [34]
If the evil couldn't be eradicated then it should at least be mitigated. Vincent de Paul had been principal chaplain to the galley slaves since 1619. Such authority as he had, was limited to those prisoners who were already serving sentences in the galleys. He wasn't responsible for the prisoners who were locked up in the galley slaves' institution in Paris, waiting to be transferred to Marseilles, since all prisons in the capital were under the Procurator General and not the naval authorities. [35] Neverthless, he was concerned with improving their conditions and he did manage to have them moved to somewhat better accommodation. In 1632 he succeeded in having them moved again and this time the prison assigned to them was a tower set into the old walls of the city and situated on the left bank, between the Seine and St. Bernards' gate in the rue de la Tournelle. [36]
Many people were involved in this work for galley slaves and there were several associations devoted to the same end, particularly the company of the Blessed Sacrament. Its members tried hard to have the worst abuses stopped and they fought against the unjust practice of extending the sentence passed on galley slaves. They tried to procure better treatment for the prisoners by paying the wages of extra guards so that the prisoners could take exercise in the courtyard; they paid for soup and medicine as the authorities only provided bread and water, and they maintained a chaplain to look after the prisoners' spiritual needs. [37] This last provision upset the parish priests in the capital because they considered themselves responsible for any prisons in their parishes. The prison for galley slaves was in the parish of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet and an episcopal decree in 1634 had specifically appointed its priests as chaplains for prisoners. [38] So the company of the Blessed Sacrament had to give up the work. [39]
The details just given will help us to understand the relatively small effort made by Vincent and his Congregation to help the galley slaves of Paris betweeen the years 1625 and 1632. This doesn't signify any want of concern. Even though he wasn't directly involved, Vincent was mindful of the difficulties that people experienced in providing spiritual and material help for prisoners. We know this from the part he played in having them moved to La Tournelle and also from a brief letter he wrote about this time to Louise de Marillac in which he sounds out the possibility of the charity confraternity at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet taking on the care of those galley slaves who had just been moved to a district in that parish.
"Nothing is more meritorious in God's eyes than charitable works for poor prisoners. You did well to assist these poor men and it will be very good if you can continue to help them in every way possible until I can come and see you, probably in two or three days' time. Give some thought as to whether the charity at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet might take charge of this work, even if it's only for a short time; you can help them with any money you have left over. But what else can we do? I know it is difficult and that's why I venture to put this thought into your mind." [40]
The results of this experiment couldn't have been very encouraging. Not much was done during the years that followed; the community at the Bons Enfants gave a little help, some missions were preached to the galley slaves before the "chain gang" left for Marseilles, and some charitable people visited them occasionally. [41] This was the time when the parish priests of Paris were so suspicious of the Congregation of the Mission and complained about them. Vincent had to proceed with great caution and now, more than ever, he was careful "not to poach on other people's preserves."
In 1639 the situation changed. It was in that year that one of those small events that Vincent regarded as signs from Providence took place. M. Cornuel, the former Financial Administrator and President of the Ministry of Finances, bequeathed the sum of 6,000 livres to be used for helping galley slaves. [42] Collet observes philosophically, "These legacies that the deceased often bequeath in order to salve their consciences, are frequently opposed by other members of the family. What they hope to receive is more important in their eyes than the actual legacy". [43]
M. Cornuel's daughter was to have seen to the legacy but her husband was reluctant to comply with his father in law's wishes. Vincent had to be very patient during the negotiations. He made many applications for the money, had several interviews with the other legatees, and discussed the matter with the Procurator General. At last they came to an agreement. M. Cornuel's family handed over to the Procurator the sum of money stipulated in the will and they appointed him executor of the trust for life. The money was allocated to a community of the Daughters of Charity whose sole work was to look after prisoners. Vincent also succeeded in introducing a clause into the agreement which would give the parish clergy an annual income of 300 livres for the additional work involved in their spiritual ministrations to the galley slaves. There was some opposition to this. Why should they be given anything since this work was part of their normal duties? Vincent gently insisted and this gesture took away the bitterness felt by clergy who had previously opposed him and who now became his allies...[44]
One of the most dangerous and difficult works."
In 1640 the Daughters of Charity went into action. There were only two or three of them [45] to take on this very onerous work which was described in the regulations drawn up by Louise de Marillac and Vincent as "one of the most difficult and dangerous works". [46] The sisters were required to purchase the food, prepare the daily meals for the galley slaves and carry the food to the prisons, to wash the prisoners' clothes, look after the sick, kit the prisoners out when they left for Marseilles, scrub the wards, and wash and mend the mattresses. They really were the servants of these fearsome and demanding masters who used to jeer at them, make improper suggestions, were insolent and insulting and even, at times, made false accusations about the sisters "while these were doing everything they could to help them." We are amazed at the audacity shown by Vincent and Louise in sending their daughters to these dens of iniquity that housed the scum of society. It would be no exaggeration to compare their situation with that of the three young men in the fiery furnace of Babylon. [47]
The sisters needed to be very virtuous to be able to put up with all the trials mentioned in their rule. The work would have tried the patience of a saint. Vincent wondered if it might not be too much even for Barbara Angiboust who in spite of being tall, was not very strong. [48] Once again Barbara showed her mettle. During the conference on her virtues that was held after her death, a sister who had worked with her said,
"I worked with her, looking after the galley slaves. She showed great patience in dealing with difficulties caused by those persons' ill humour. And even though they were sometimes so angry with her that they threw the soup and meat on the floor, she bore it all in silence and gently picked up the food as pleasantly as though they hadn't said anything. Not only that, but five or six times she stopped the guards from beating them."
Vincent meant his daughters to learn from these conferences so he drew a lesson from what had just been said.
"My daughters, you could all be called on to serve these poor people so learn from your sister how you should conduct yourselves, not just in the galleys but in every other place too, learn from our sister how to bear patiently with the poor." [49]
Sometimes it was so difficult to bear patiently with the poor... But Vincent's whole life had been spent bearing with them and teaching others to do the same. And not just bearing with them, but serving them lovingly and joyfully. Once more he conjured up the spirit that was to animate their work.
"They shall try to win them over by their gentleness and their compassion, always keeping in mind the pitiable state of soul and body these people are usually in, but remembering that this does not stop them from being members of the one who became a slave to rescue us all from the dominion of the devil." "They should be like rays of sunlight that continually pass through filth and yet remain untouched by it." [50]
"What happiness to serve these poor prisoners who are abandoned into the hands of merciless men. I have seen these poor people treated like animals and it is this situation that has brought them God's compassion. He had pity on them and in his goodness did two things for these people. First of all he had a house bought for them, and then he arranged for them to be looked after by his own daughters, for the name Daughter of Charity means daughter of God." [51]
Mission to the galleys.
Once they were on board the galleys the prisoners became the responsibility of Vincent who was Chaplain Royal. Moreover, the foundation contract of the Congregation of the Mission stated that its members should, whenever possible, spend part of their time looking after the spiritual needs of galley slaves. [52]
From the earliest days of the Congregation Vincent had delegated his functions to ordinary chaplains and limited himself to co ordinating and supervising the work. But he felt the need to be more directly involved. This feeling was shared by other people who knew at first hand the terrible reality of the galley ships. Others who joined in the work at Marseilles included the bishop of that diocese, the Oratorian priest Jean Baptiste de Gault, (1593 1643) and Monsieur Gaspar Sirmiane de la Coste (1607 1649), a pious layman who had received spiritual direction from Vincent and from him had learnt to have a great love for the poor. [53] In Paris the cause was taken up by the Richelieu family; by the Cardinal who had over all responsibility for these poor men who were cannon fodder for his policies, by the Duchess of Richelieu who was her uncle's conscience, and by the Duke of Richelieu because he had been appointed General of the Galleys by his great uncle who had wrested this office from the hands of the de Gondis to keep it in his own family.
After the Cardinal died, early in 1643, all these forces banded together to organise a general mission for galley slaves. Vincent sent five missionaries, four of whom were priests, and a laybrother who was a surgeon by profession. The leader of this group was the ever efficient Fr. François du Coudray and they left Paris on 22nd February. [54] The bishop had intended postponing the mission but he changed his mind. The work was too much for Vincent's five missionaries so he had to ask other communities to help and he appealed to Authier de Sisgau's community, the Oratorians, the Jesuits and some Italian priests. The bishop took part in the work, too, and did this with so little regard for self that he died from a disease that he caught while giving a mission. [55] As usual, the mission was a success, and a special feature of it was the conversion of many heretics and Turks, who were baptised with great solemnity. [56]
"Compassion takes on different forms."
This mission was only the first stage in a much more ambitious project. After an initiative made by Philippe de Gondi and by Vincent, in 1618, [57] it was proposed that a hospital for galley slaves should be established. This time they were serious about the project. The Duchess d'Aiguillon contributed 9,000 livres, and prompted by Vincent, the Queen allocated to the work 12,000 livres which were to come from taxes at Marseilles. [58] The death of Monsignor Gault would have been a serious setback if it had not been for the enthusiastic perseverance of M. de la Coste who was the guiding spirit behind the enterprise. [59] Thanks to his efforts the hospital was completed within two years. When the sick were transferred there from the galleys they thoughtthey were moving from hell into paradise. [60]
At the insistence of M. de la Coste, a house of the mission was founded at the same time and this was endowed by the duchess d'Aiguillon. [61] The principal objective of this house was to provide spiritual help for sick prisoners at the hospital and to give a mission to the galley slaves every five years. They also had the right to appoint and to dismiss chaplains to the navy. [62] With this in mind, Vincent obtained authorisation to delegate his office of Chaplain Royal, to the superior of the house. This chaplaincy was invested in the person of the Superior General of the Mission in perpetuity. [63]
The first superior at the house of Marseilles was François Dufestel. In 1648 Fr. Fermin Get, a man of extraordinary talent arrived, and in 1654 was appointed superior. [64] Thanks to his many activities, his talent for organising, his greatheartedness, and his administrative ability, the Marseilles house became the third most important foundation in the Company. Fermin Get can't take all the credit for this for he was constantly backed up by Vincent de Paul. We know this from Vincent's letters to him and these numbered more than a hundred and fifty. The letters contain all sorts of things; advice, instructions, prohibitions, words of encouragement, reprimands, praise, consolation... Perhaps it would be a slight exaggeration to say that Vincent himself was directing the house from a distance. It was Vincent who made the important decisions but it was Fr. Get who had to see that these were implemented. He often had to take on very serious responsibilities; appointing chaplains, supervising their way of acting, and paying them; this latter was not always an easy thing to do because funds came in from the Exchequer at very irregular intervals. Occasionally he had to use community money to pay the chaplains. [65] He organised missions for the galley slaves, found confessors for the different language groups, and attended the sick. In addition, and with Vincent's approval, he also set up a sorting office and depot like the one that was used for the captives in Barbary. He had to compile a list of the galley slaves who, through the ministrations of Vincent and his delegate in Marseilles, received messages and tiny sums of money, maybe thirty sous or fifty denarii, from their relations. The galley ships bore such fine names as "La Douce, La Ducal, La Capitaine, La Reine, La Duchesse, La Princesse de Morgue" and these names appear more than once in Vincent's letters. Mothers, sisters, sweethearts and wives of the galley slaves would confide to Vincent's care the little present they had made such sacrifices to send, or their loving messages and words of encouragement which would often have been written down by some other priest of the mission. [66] Vincent's pen allows us to see what this terrible institution was like and it puts a name and a suffering face to its inmates. Perhaps it was one of these who threw the plate of hot soup at Sister Barbara Angiboust.
For Vincent the galley slaves were yet another group among the countless poor people crying out for help. None of these groups was to be excluded from the benefits of christian charity because, as Vincent explained to the missionaries.
"Compassion takes on different forms so the Company is called on to serve the poor in a variety of ways; to serve the galley slaves, the captives in Barbary... [67]
Martyrs of charity
The missionaries were steeped in the spirit of self sacrifice imparted to them by Vincent so it wasn't long before charity had its martyrs. Just two years after the Marseilles house was founded, Fr. Louis Robiche died from a disease he caught while serving the galley slaves. He was thirty five. He had so won the admiration of the people of Marseilles that his funeral was marked by scenes of hysteria. One man took a bite out of the cushion that was stained with the martyr's blood so that he could keep it as a relic. Somebody else scratched a few splinters off the chair he used to sit in, and someone else took the wax from the funeral candles. Vincent gave details of this display of veneration by the people and ended by saying,
"The voice of the people (which is the voice of God) proclaimed him a saint and we could almost say he died the death of a martyr since, for love of Our Lord, he risked his life working for the corporal and spiritual welfare of these poor sick people and died from a disease which is nearly always fatal and which he knew to be contagious." [68]
Robiche was not the only martyr. Six years later Fr. Brunet, "such a good worker for the Lord, such a friend of the poor and such a shining light for the whole company," died in similar circumstances. At this time, M. Sirmiane de la Coste, described by Vincent as, "founder and benefactor of the hospital at Marseilles," [69] also fell victim to the plague and died.
The work for galley slaves exacted payment in blood. Vincent made this payment with a sorrowful heart, knowing that this was the price they had to pay for practising charity.
Vagrancy, another scourge
French society was plagued by a third scourge which took the form of vagrancy. Beggars were to be found all over France, both in the country areas and in the cities, but they were most in evidence in Paris which was the nation's sponge and its sewer. These beggars formed a floating population that hung around the public square or the streets of a town, crowded outside convents, surrounded the coaches bringing travellers to the towns and pestered better off people in the streets. Roguery flourished alongside begging. There were countless ways of playing on people's pity; people pretended to be blind or crippled, others feigned madness, some swallowed soap so that they would be taken for epileptics foaming at the mouth, women padded their stomachs with rags to pretend that they were pregnant or had a whole troupe of little ones with them... These represented every shade of petty criminal that walked the streets of Paris by day, and when night fell, melted into Monopodio's courtyard or the "Court of Miracles." [*]
The state regarded vagrancy as a political problem and dealt, or rather tried to deal with it, by political, or maybe we should say, police methods. Countless decrees against vagrancy were promulgated during the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. The very fact that these had to be repeated so often is clear proof that they didn't work. As long as the causes of the misery remained, there was no hope of curing its effects. [70]
Beggars were a public enemy for society in general. They were regarded as enemies and feared as such. These fears were well founded because bands of armed beggars would often demand money, not beg for it. Furetière's dictionary gives the laconic definition, "murder by the poor."
As a general rule the Church remained faithful to the traditional practice of almsgiving. Abbeys, monasteries and convents gave a tremendous lot of help to beggars, usually in the form of food. But this easy access to sustenance was, itself, an open invitation to lead a life of idleness. [71]
"I'm concerned for the company, but I'm even more concerned for the poor."
Vincent, too, gave alms. Until such times as a more radical solution to the problem could be found, no charitable soul could refuse to meet the urgent needs of those in distress. All sources of contemporary evidence are in emphatic agreement about Vincent's exorbitant almsgiving. He gave everything he had. He turned Saint Lazare into the greatest welfare centre in Paris. Every year the house contributed 200 livres to the charity confraternity in the parish of Saint Laurent and every day they distributed bread, soup and meat to poor families in the neighbourhood. And every day, two poor men were invited to eat in the community refectory where they were given the places of honour, on either side of the superior. Poor beggars who rang at the door were given a portion of bread and a few sous. Three times a week soup would be distributed to every begger that came and there would usually be about six hundred. When times were worse, as during the siege of Paris by the Fronde, this distribution was made every day. Three great cauldrons of soup were needed to provide for nearly two thousand people. The brother who was in charge of making bread reckoned that in the space of three months they had gone through almost ten muids or the equivalent of 1,200 kilos of wheat. [72] Vincent's generosity was a serious threat to the community's finances. The bursar complained that they had no money left. Some of the missionaries protested and they complained that M. Vincent was taking it on himself to dispose of the community's goods. But Vincent could give good reasons to justify his actions.
"Of course I am concerned about the company, but I'm even more concerned about the poor. When we are in difficulties we can always ask our other houses for bread if they have any, or we could find work in the parishes as curates. But what can the poor do or where can they go to find something to eat? The poor are my burden and my sorrow."
[73]
When the house finally ran out of money, he borrowed the sum of 16,000 livres. In addition to the regular distribution of alms, help was given on other ocasions. Vincent couldn't see anyone in need without helping them. If the faceless poor man behind the statistics called into play his organising skills, then the poor person in the flesh melted his heart. Anecdotes abound about Vincent's spontaneous giving and we should put some of these on record.
On day, when Vincent was passing by in his carriage, he saw a boy crying in the street. He stopped the carriage, got out, and went up to the boy to ask him why he was crying. When he saw the boy's injured hand he took him to a surgeon who attended to the wound, then he paid the doctor and gave the lad a few coins. On another occasion he gave 100 livres to a carter who had lost his horses. It's imposible to count the number of times he used his carriage to take sick people that he found in the streets to the Hôtel Dieu. A soldier, nicknamed "the Sieve" because he had so many scars, came to Saint Lazare and with all the effrontery of the "miles gloriosus" asked Vincent for lodgings. Vincent took him in. Next day the veteran beggar fell sick. Vincent had him moved to a room with a fireplace, and he lived there for two months as their guest, with a brother to wait on him hand and foot. At other times Vincent would waive the rent due from tenants, he took in orphans at Saint Lazare, sent a hundred needles to a tailor, and he personally gave some women the money they asked for. As we said, the list is endless. [74]
"Here you have the poor people of the Nom de Jésus Hospital."
Vincent was not content just to give alms when these were urgently needed but he tried to view the problem of vagrancy from a new perspective. Ever since his Chatillon days he had been good at organising and putting things in order. For many years he had been toying with the idea of setting up some sort of institution for vagrants but as yet Providence had given him no sign. Then one day a gentleman gave him a considerable sum of money, 100,000 livres, to be used for any charitable work he liked and under one condition only, that the donor remain anonymous. After consulting Louise, Vincent suggested to the donor that they use the money to set up a refuge for old people. He immediately started to make plans and get the work under way. He bought a house quite near to Saint Lazare and on the front of the building was the name, "Nom de Jésus". [75] This house would give him many a headache. Noël Bonhomme, the man who was selling it, took as long as he could to hand over the premises and Vincent was obliged to file a suit with Parlement. [76] Once this problem was solved he set to work. His plan was to provide a comfortable and pleasant dwelling for old people and for those who were unable to work. If they made the best use of the money they had available, he reckoned they could take in forty people; twenty men and twenty women. These would be looked after by a community of Daughters of Charity. The men and women were to live in separate units with a church and a dining room between the two wings so that they could all hear Mass and listen to the same spiritual reading during meals though they wouldn't be able to see each other. In this matter, as in many others, Vincent was acting in accordance with the customs and the outlook of his times.
Neither Vincent nor Louise wanted the people they took in to live a life of idleness. In the first few years after the institution opened, they had people who could teach their skills to the elderly so there were weavers, cobblers, silk weavers, buttonmakers, wool carders, lacemakers, glovemakers, seamstresses, pinmakers... At the benefactor's special request, religious instruction and taking devotional services was entrusted to the priests of the Mission and these activities took up a good part of the day. As always, Vincent regarded corporal and spiritual charity as inseparable, and he committed his two congregations to working at both. [77]
It was Vincent, himself, who gave the first talk, in his customary simple and familiar way which involved the old people in a dialogue with him. He tried in his talk, to teach them the basic truths of religion and also to instil in them the spirit of work.
"Tell me, isn't it right that you should work out of gratitude to God for giving you the grace of providing you with all that you need for soul and body? What more could you wish for? You have your meals; they may not be quite as good as the meals the President eats, but they meet your needs. How many poor people in Paris and elsewhere haven't got what you have! How many impoverished noblemen would be glad to have the food you have! How many farm labourers have to toil from morning till night but are not as well fed as you are! All this should encourage you to do manual work for as long as you can, and according to your strength, instead of thinking to your youself,
"I don't need to bother doing anything because I'll always have what I need." Oh my brethren be on your guard against that. Instead you should be telling yourselves that you ought to work for the love of God, since He himself has given us the example of always working on our behalf." [78]
This novel type of institution, which became operational in 1653, proved very successful. The residents could enjoy a peaceful and leisurely old age and they were happy with the way they were being looked after. The only drawback was that the institution could only take in a limited number of residents. Places only became vacant when residents died, and there was always a long waiting list as people applied years in advance. [79] The institution may have been just an experiment for Vincent, a first step in a new direction, but politicians took up the idea and decided to implement it on a big scale. Later on we will see the consequences of this.
Some of the missionaries had misgivings. The objection was made that this hospital was distracting the company's attention away from its main work which was to preach missions. Vincent took these objections on board and strongly refuted them.
"Someone will say to me, why should we be running this hospital? The poor people at the Nom de Jésus are wearing us out. We have to go and say Mass for them, give them instructions, administer the sacraments and be generally responsible for them... Messieurs, would we not be lacking in piety if we criticised this good work? If priests dedicate themselves to caring for the poor, wasn't this just what Our Lord did, and many of the great saints did likewise. They didn't just exhort us to look after the poor but they, themselves, consoled and encouraged them. Aren't the poor the suffering members of Our Lord? Aren't they our brothers? And if priests abandon them, who will be there to help them?" [80]
Every kind of misery.
Foundlings, galley slaves and beggars were not the only needy people. Poverty had a thousand other faces. It is typical of Vincent that his charity could be aware of all these and reject none of them. Whether on his own initiative or acting through his missionaries, the Ladies of Charity, his Daughters, the priests from the Tuesday Conferences or other congregations that he inspired and helped, he ministered to "every kind of misery" as the liturgy would later say about him. We can only give a brief mention of these works here.
From time immemorial Paris had had the "Hôpital des petites maisons" (the Hospital of the little houses) or the hospital for married couples, for the mentally ill, for people with contagious diseases, and other sick people. Vincent had given a mission here before he founded the Congregation, and so, too, had the priests from the Tuesday Conferences. [81] In 1655 the municipal welfare department asked Vincent to send Daughters of Charity to work in the hospital and Vincent agreed. [82]
The bishop of Cahors, Alain de Solminihac, also put in a request for sisters to work in a home for orphan girls. Vincent agreed [83] but only after some hesitation, since he was afraid that this work for orphans might prove detrimental to the service of the poor in their own homes.
Irish immigrants, bishops, priests, soldiers, widows and orphans were all in desperate need. The help they all received from Vincent was both generous and discreet. [84]
Many other groups, including the young girls in moral danger who were taken in by Mde. de Pollalion's Daughters of Providence, the orphans who were cared for by Mlle. L'Estang, the fallen women of Saint Magdalen, the little school girls of the Daughters of the Cross and many others; were indebted to Vincent de Paul for assistance, spiritual direction, legal advice and his negotiations with the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. [85]
And we still have to consider one of the most spectacular aspects of Vincent's all embracing charity, his wonderful work for those who suffered in the war.
Pictures of Vincent de Paul, and this is specially true of nineteenth century representations of the saint, often show him holding a baby in his arms and with two little ones pulling at his cassock. These is no historical basis for such pictures and yet they contain an element of truth. One of the most striking aspects of Vincent's works of charity was the way that this man could stoop down to abandoned little ones and show them, through the ladies, the Daughters of Charity and also the missionaries, how tenderly he cared for them. It was children, more than anybody else, who gave him the title "Father of the Poor".
There were hundreds of abandoned babies. In a hypocritical society that was scandalised by conduct they judged to be immoral, the only answer to the single mother situation was for babies to be left abandoned on the public highway. Quite often mothers had to abandon their new born babies because they simply couldn't feed them. Other, and less pardonable reasons for abandoning children, were selfishness, vice and perversion. [1]
At any rate, hundreds of abandoned babies appeared on the streets of Paris and particularly in the doorway of churches where people left them as if appealing to the Church's maternal instincts. Vincent reckoned that there were "as many foundlings as there are days in the year." [2]
This was no new evil. Throughout the sixteenth century, royal and municipal directives aimed at improving the lot of these poor, defenceless children, [3] were issued at intervals but they didn't come to much. Those children who didn't die of hunger or cold during the hours or even days that they were left lying abandoned, were taken to an official institution, the Couche, which was run by a widow and two servants. The cathedral Chapter was really responsible for this place. Funds were scarce at the Couche, but worse still, the staff were very inhuman. [4] Vincent gave this stark description of conditions there.
A wet nurse would be attending to four or five babies at once. Babies were given a few drops of alcohol or some laudanum pills to make them sleep. Some babies were sold at 8 sous each, to beggars who used to break the babies' arms or legs so that people would feel sorry for them. Others were procured by immoral women for similar or even worse purposes and some were used to stimulate a mother's mammary glands. And to add to all these evils, the chilren were not baptised and this filled Vincent's christian soul with horror. As their names do not appear in any baptismal register, we can't be sure that any of the foundlings admitted to the Couche in the first 50 years of its history, survived. [5]
This is a frightening picture and if it didn't come from the pen of such a perfectly reliable witness we might be tempted to think it was exaggerated. A contempory historian states that child cruelty, whether directed at foundlings or other infants, produced more victims during that century than wars did. [6]
We don't really know how Vincent first came into contact with this particular form of misery. In the last century the story went round that Vincent was returning, one day, from a mission and when he came to the gates of Paris he met one of these beggars who used to break the babies' limbs. "You monster", shouted Vincent as he went for the wretch, "I was wrong. From the distance I thought you were a man." Then he took the babe in his arms and carried it to the Couche where he witnessed the scene that he was to describe, years later, to the ladies [7]
It didn't take such horrifying scenes as these for Vincent's heart to be moved. Everyone knew about foundlings and the terrible consequences of this but nobody was willing to tackle the dreadful problem. They would have to start by overcoming prejudice. Foundlings were regarded as "children of sin" and illegitimacy was a degrading social stigma. At least this is what the high minded bourgeoisie thought, though kings and nobles could boast about their bastard sons and even procure bishoprics for them. Even a Daughter of Charity, when the Queen of Poland once suggested that Vincent might recruit vocations from girls at the Couche, was very offended and said, "Oh no, Madame. Our company doesn't take that sort of person. We only accept virgins." [18] The good sister was unconsciously echoing the social prejudice which laid what they presumed to be the sin of the parents at the doors of the children.
"We will give it a try."
It took courage to go against the whole climate of opinion for the sake of the gospel. Vincent had this courage. The first thing he did was to invite the Ladies of Charity to visit the Couche. His reason for doing this was not so much to let them see the evil as to encourage them to suggest a remedy. The ladies discussed the matter, prayed about it, and decided to give it a trial. [10] This was towards the end of 1637.
On the 1st January, 1638,Vincent spoke to St. Louise about the outcome.
"At the last meeting it was agreed that we should ask you to try and see if there was any way we could get cow's milk for the children and whether it would be possible to buy two or three cows for this purpose. I was very consoled to see how Providence was turning to you to deal with the matter. I do realise that this question needs to be discussed fully and so we'll talk about it later. [11]
It was a very modest first attempt. They began by taking in 12 infants who were chosen by lot so that there would be no favouritism and also in order "to honour divine Providence." At first the babies were taken to Mlle. Le Gras' house and later on to a rented building in the rue des Boulangers. Several Daughters of Charity took on this work. They bought a goat but this didn't solve the problem and they had to go back to employing wet nurses. [13] There were many difficulties to be overcome. To save money allocated for this work, one of the ladies suggested that the babies should stay at the Couche and that the ladies should visit them there. [14] The first Daughter of Charity to take over this work was a widow of some standing, called Mde. Pelletier. She wanted the direction of this establishment to be taken out of the hands of the Superiors and when this proposal was rejected she left the company. [15] And yet, in spite of everything, this first attempt was a success. The number of infants being looked after increased and they continued to be chosen by lot. The increase in numbers was only a modest one because resources were limited to 1,200 livres a year.
"We will take in all the foundlings."
After two years Vincent decided to take over the whole enterprise and with this in mind he called an extraordinary meeting of the ladies. This took place on 17th January, 1640. All the aristocracy were there, including the duchess d'Aiguillon and the princess de Montmorency. [16] Vincent prepared his talk very carefully. He knew he would have to move their hearts, forestall objections and indicate ways of solving the problem. He didn't hesitate to attack their pseudo religious prejudices head on, and didn't mince his words. "It will be said that God has condemned many of these little ones because of the circumstances of their birth and that could be why the problem can't be solved." This was a horrible way of reasoning but it reflected what people and many of the ladies thought. "My answer to that is that man was cursed by God because of Adam's sin. But it was precisely for this reason that Our Lord became man and died. Taking care of these little ones, even if they are cursed by God, is to do the work of Jesus Christ."
The main problem was money. How could they be responsible for two or three hundred infants if it cost 150 livres a year to maintain six or seven? Vincent, who was realistic as well as an optimist, replied, "The answer is we must do what we can."
It was suggested, too, that they might set up another association of ladies who would be known as "the Foundling Ladies" as distinct from the Ladies of the Hôtel Dieu. After considering the pros aand cons Vincent decided against this.
He ended by saying, "If we do what we can we shall be honouring the Eternal Father who handed over his Son to the mercy of the world and subjected him to Herod's persecution." The cause was won. "The decision was taken that they would look after all the foundlings." [17] Two months later on 30th March, 1640, the work began.
A special feature of Vincent's works of charity is particularly striking in the case of the foundlings. Vincent's three great institutions all collaborated, in their own way, in this work. The ladies were patrons of the work and they provided the funds, the Daughters of Charity were directly involved in the work, while the priests of the Mission supervised and directed it. Charity is all one and it is to be served by all available helpers.
Moving house
The first problem was that of finding accommodation. The little house in the rue des Boulangers was too small so some of the children were moved to the sisters' Mother House which was then in La Chapelle. From there, they moved with the sisters to the new house in the faubourg Saint Laurent but still there wasn't enough room. In 1645 Vincent took a decision which went some way towards solving the problem. Using the foundation capital from the missionaries' house in Sedan, he had 13 small houses for children built alongside the sisters' house. For these, the ladies paid an annual rent of 1,300 livres. [18] The latest group of foundlings to be rescued, now had somewhere to stay. Some remained there and were looked after by the sisters and by wet nurses. Others were put in the care of foster mothers who came from Paris or the surrounding districts. Louise de Marillac kept a register of the different placements for these children. Vincent checked this register and, (a touching detail), signed it with his own hand. At intervals a brother from the mission would come to inspect the places where the children were. [19]
Every week the ladies would visit both refuges, the one in the rue des Boulangers and the other that comprised the thirteen small houses. But the great number of babies and older children was still a problem. There just wasn't room for them in the house so another place had to be found. The ladies decided to ask the Queen to let them have the Château of Bicêtre, a royal property near Gentilly, south of Paris, which had been empty for years.
Louise was against the plan because she foresaw that they would have difficulty in adapting the place to meet the needs of the children and the sisters. For example, how could the sisters go to Mass in the parish of Gentilly and leave the children on their own? In spite of these objections the move went ahead. Louise's fears were justified. There were all sorts of problems. The administrator appointed by the Chapter claimed that he was the only one who had the right to instruct the children. The ladies objected and threatened to withdraw from the work. [20] Quite a number of the infants died. [21] In 1649 all their lives were in danger because of the Fronde. Condé's troops were camped outside Paris and the sisters lived in a permanent state of anxiety and in fear of the aoutrages committed by the soldiery. [22]
Of course Paris wasn't a safe place either. On 13th May, 1652, there was an incident in the Saint Denis conflict between Condé and Touraine which took place right outside the doors of the sisters' house and they feared the worst.
"The fierce fighting that went on close by and the men that they saw lying dead outside their door terrified the wet nurses so much that everyone of them left with the other sisters. They each carried an unweaned babe in their arms and left the rest of the children asleep in bed." [23]
In 1649, the children were moved from Bicêtre to Paris. They were provisionally lodged in the sisters' mother house. Later on it was requested that they occupy part of the prison hospital but negotiations for this came to nothing. The ladies then rented a house near Saint Lazare. [24]
"These good ladies are not doing all they could."
Finance posed a much more serious problem. The initial income of 1,200 livres was soon found to be inadequate. By 1644 expenditure had risen to 40,000 livres. [25] Vincent knocked on all doors. First Louis XIII, and then his widow, assigned him an income of 12,000 livres from various royal properties. [26] The gap between income and expenditure was still enormous and the only way of narrowing it was to have generous donations from the ladies. In 1649, these felt they had reached their limit. The war (this was the first year of the Fronde) and the economic crisis affected everybody, even the wealthy ladies of charity. Everything was in short supply; clothing, food and money. Louise, who was responsible for dealing with the day to day administrative problems, was on the point of giving up and abandoning the work. Her letters to Vincent at this time are constant appeals for help.
"I am very sorry to keep troubling you but we are finding it just impossible to take in any more children. At present we have seven children who are not ready to be bottle fed and we have only two wet nurses. We havent a single "double" to hire any more nurses, we have no supplies of linen or clothing, and no hope of getting a loan. Please tell us whether in conscience we can expose these children to the risk of dying since the ladies are not bothered about our situation and I'm sure they think that we are supporting ourselves at their expense. This is just not true because we've only kept 100 livres out of the money they agreed to pay for the nurses' board. I can only think of one way to help all those who are suffering in this work and that is to ask the president, on behalf of the company, to first of all relieve us of the obligation of admitting any more children. He can transfer that responsibility to anybody he likes. But we would need to have the ladies' approval for such a step so that nobody would be surprised by our decision. If we don't do this I feel we will be in a perpetual state of mortal sin."
They brought us another four children yesterday. As well as the seven babies who are being breast fed, we have three others that have just been weaned and these were only brought in recently; one of them is sick and we really should put these back with foster mothers if at all possible. I wish we could bear these trials without telling you about the situation but we are so helpless to deal with it that we have to let you know. These good ladies are not doing all thet they could, they haven't sent us a thing and even the ladies of the company, most of whom have paid their subscription for the year, haven't sent us anything either... " [27]
"Now is the time for you to pass sentence."
Louise's anxious plea touched Vincent's heart and he decided to call an extraordinary meeting of the ladies of charity. Madame de Herse very nearly prevented this meeting from taking place. She spread the rumour that the ladies would need to take plenty of money with them to this meeting so some ladies began to send their excuses for not attending. [28] The danger was averted just in time and the meeting was held at the end of December, 1649. Once again Vincent prepared a talk that was to move these ladies' hearts.
He realised that these were hard times and that everyone was feeling the pinch but he really wasn't asking all that much. If every one of the hundred ladies present each contributed a hundred livres then the problem would be solved; if only half donated a hundred livres and the rest gave as much as they could, then the situation wouldn't be so desperate. What would this involve? Well, what about all the trinkets they wore and the knick knacks they had decorating their houses? One lady, recently, had given all her jewels... And thus he finished his now famous exhortation which in itself is ample proof of his great eloquence.
"Mesdames, pity and charity led you to adopt these little ones as your children. You have been their mothers according to grace ever since their natural mothers abandoned them. Now we have to see if you, too, are going to abandon them. Stop being their mothers for a minute, and see yourselves as their judges. The life or death of these little ones is in your hands. I am going to take a vote. The time has come to pass sentence. Let us see if you are going to be merciful to them. If you continue to collect alms for them then they will live, if you abandon them they will die. Make no mistake about it, they will die, as we know from experience." [29]
The ladies responded generously to this moving appeal and the work for foundlings was saved. After 1653 there don't seem to have been any further financial problems. In 1656 they had nearly reached a balance between income and expenditure; 16,248 livres as against 17,221. [30]
The ladies weren't the only people to grumble. Discontent was expressed by some missionaries, too. These claimed that the foundlings were ruining the company not just because mission funds were being used for this work but because benefactors of the mission had stopped helping them because they thought that the foundlings needed the money more. When Vincent heard these complaints he was saddened.
"May God forgive you for this failing which is so opposed to the spirit of the gospel. What a lack of faith! To think that Our Lord will be any less good to us if we do good to these poor abandoned children; he who has promised to reward a hundredfold whatever is given for love of him! If our gracious Saviour could say to his disciples, "Let the children come to me" how can we reject and abandon them when they come to us, for to do this would mean rejecting Him? We would not be faithful to his grace if, after being chosen by his providence to preserve and give spiritual help to these poor foundlings, we were to grow weary of this task and abandon them because they caused us some problems." [31]
"You will be both mothers and virgins."
Only the sisters remained steadfast in this work though the heaviest burdens fell on them. Vincent had taught them to value the spiritual dimension of the work they were doing. These little ones were the children of God and the sisters who acted as mothers to them were mothers, then, of God's children.
"In this you are something like the Blessed Virgin because you are both mothers and virgins."
They were also the guardian angels of these children and theirs would be the merit for the Lord's praises that came from these little ones' lips. Theirs would be a far greater reward than the children's natural mothers or the paid nurses could ever hope for.
"What reward will you have for serving these poor little ones that the world has cast aside? You will enjoy God's presence for all eternity. My daughters, is there anything to equal that?" [32]
The instructions that Vincent gave in the conferences were summarised and formally written down in their particular rules. Some of these may seem too strict to modern eyes but others reveal a remarkable understanding of child and of feminine psychology. They also anaticipated, in a very striking way, our present day teaching methods. Punishment was to be used sparingly and introduced by degrees, while rewards were presented as desirable. Boys and girls were to be taught how to read and the former also learned how to write. Naturally, religious instruction was given first priority. But all the children were taught a trade. When the boys reached the age of twelve they became apprentices. The girls were found a situation, usually in domestic service, when they were fifteen. [33]
Concern for the welfare of young children would seem to be one of the greatest advances of our times. The change in people's attitudes which has made this possible has its roots in the charitable works of Vincent de Paul in the second half of the 17th century and continued for three centuries more by Daughters of Charity in all the countries of Europe.
"Nothing is more meritorious in God's eyes than charitable work for prisoners"
If the foundlings were a blot on society then the galley slaves were a reproach both to society and to the state. The latter was responsible for the appalling situation whereby thousands of men were condemned to waste away their lives on the benches of the galley ships. This spectre was to haunt every navy in the world until the development, first of sailing boats, and later of steamships, meant that vessels could be powered by other means than men's arms. In the latter part of the 17th century this solution was still a long way off and the fact that the country was at war only added to the evil. Richelieu's policy of naval expansion in his bid for European supremacy meant that the number of galley slaves was increased and that the prisoners had to serve longer sentences. [34]
If the evil couldn't be eradicated then it should at least be mitigated. Vincent de Paul had been principal chaplain to the galley slaves since 1619. Such authority as he had, was limited to those prisoners who were already serving sentences in the galleys. He wasn't responsible for the prisoners who were locked up in the galley slaves' institution in Paris, waiting to be transferred to Marseilles, since all prisons in the capital were under the Procurator General and not the naval authorities. [35] Neverthless, he was concerned with improving their conditions and he did manage to have them moved to somewhat better accommodation. In 1632 he succeeded in having them moved again and this time the prison assigned to them was a tower set into the old walls of the city and situated on the left bank, between the Seine and St. Bernards' gate in the rue de la Tournelle. [36]
Many people were involved in this work for galley slaves and there were several associations devoted to the same end, particularly the company of the Blessed Sacrament. Its members tried hard to have the worst abuses stopped and they fought against the unjust practice of extending the sentence passed on galley slaves. They tried to procure better treatment for the prisoners by paying the wages of extra guards so that the prisoners could take exercise in the courtyard; they paid for soup and medicine as the authorities only provided bread and water, and they maintained a chaplain to look after the prisoners' spiritual needs. [37] This last provision upset the parish priests in the capital because they considered themselves responsible for any prisons in their parishes. The prison for galley slaves was in the parish of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet and an episcopal decree in 1634 had specifically appointed its priests as chaplains for prisoners. [38] So the company of the Blessed Sacrament had to give up the work. [39]
The details just given will help us to understand the relatively small effort made by Vincent and his Congregation to help the galley slaves of Paris betweeen the years 1625 and 1632. This doesn't signify any want of concern. Even though he wasn't directly involved, Vincent was mindful of the difficulties that people experienced in providing spiritual and material help for prisoners. We know this from the part he played in having them moved to La Tournelle and also from a brief letter he wrote about this time to Louise de Marillac in which he sounds out the possibility of the charity confraternity at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet taking on the care of those galley slaves who had just been moved to a district in that parish.
"Nothing is more meritorious in God's eyes than charitable works for poor prisoners. You did well to assist these poor men and it will be very good if you can continue to help them in every way possible until I can come and see you, probably in two or three days' time. Give some thought as to whether the charity at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet might take charge of this work, even if it's only for a short time; you can help them with any money you have left over. But what else can we do? I know it is difficult and that's why I venture to put this thought into your mind." [40]
The results of this experiment couldn't have been very encouraging. Not much was done during the years that followed; the community at the Bons Enfants gave a little help, some missions were preached to the galley slaves before the "chain gang" left for Marseilles, and some charitable people visited them occasionally. [41] This was the time when the parish priests of Paris were so suspicious of the Congregation of the Mission and complained about them. Vincent had to proceed with great caution and now, more than ever, he was careful "not to poach on other people's preserves."
In 1639 the situation changed. It was in that year that one of those small events that Vincent regarded as signs from Providence took place. M. Cornuel, the former Financial Administrator and President of the Ministry of Finances, bequeathed the sum of 6,000 livres to be used for helping galley slaves. [42] Collet observes philosophically, "These legacies that the deceased often bequeath in order to salve their consciences, are frequently opposed by other members of the family. What they hope to receive is more important in their eyes than the actual legacy". [43]
M. Cornuel's daughter was to have seen to the legacy but her husband was reluctant to comply with his father in law's wishes. Vincent had to be very patient during the negotiations. He made many applications for the money, had several interviews with the other legatees, and discussed the matter with the Procurator General. At last they came to an agreement. M. Cornuel's family handed over to the Procurator the sum of money stipulated in the will and they appointed him executor of the trust for life. The money was allocated to a community of the Daughters of Charity whose sole work was to look after prisoners. Vincent also succeeded in introducing a clause into the agreement which would give the parish clergy an annual income of 300 livres for the additional work involved in their spiritual ministrations to the galley slaves. There was some opposition to this. Why should they be given anything since this work was part of their normal duties? Vincent gently insisted and this gesture took away the bitterness felt by clergy who had previously opposed him and who now became his allies...[44]
One of the most dangerous and difficult works."
In 1640 the Daughters of Charity went into action. There were only two or three of them [45] to take on this very onerous work which was described in the regulations drawn up by Louise de Marillac and Vincent as "one of the most difficult and dangerous works". [46] The sisters were required to purchase the food, prepare the daily meals for the galley slaves and carry the food to the prisons, to wash the prisoners' clothes, look after the sick, kit the prisoners out when they left for Marseilles, scrub the wards, and wash and mend the mattresses. They really were the servants of these fearsome and demanding masters who used to jeer at them, make improper suggestions, were insolent and insulting and even, at times, made false accusations about the sisters "while these were doing everything they could to help them." We are amazed at the audacity shown by Vincent and Louise in sending their daughters to these dens of iniquity that housed the scum of society. It would be no exaggeration to compare their situation with that of the three young men in the fiery furnace of Babylon. [47]
The sisters needed to be very virtuous to be able to put up with all the trials mentioned in their rule. The work would have tried the patience of a saint. Vincent wondered if it might not be too much even for Barbara Angiboust who in spite of being tall, was not very strong. [48] Once again Barbara showed her mettle. During the conference on her virtues that was held after her death, a sister who had worked with her said,
"I worked with her, looking after the galley slaves. She showed great patience in dealing with difficulties caused by those persons' ill humour. And even though they were sometimes so angry with her that they threw the soup and meat on the floor, she bore it all in silence and gently picked up the food as pleasantly as though they hadn't said anything. Not only that, but five or six times she stopped the guards from beating them."
Vincent meant his daughters to learn from these conferences so he drew a lesson from what had just been said.
"My daughters, you could all be called on to serve these poor people so learn from your sister how you should conduct yourselves, not just in the galleys but in every other place too, learn from our sister how to bear patiently with the poor." [49]
Sometimes it was so difficult to bear patiently with the poor... But Vincent's whole life had been spent bearing with them and teaching others to do the same. And not just bearing with them, but serving them lovingly and joyfully. Once more he conjured up the spirit that was to animate their work.
"They shall try to win them over by their gentleness and their compassion, always keeping in mind the pitiable state of soul and body these people are usually in, but remembering that this does not stop them from being members of the one who became a slave to rescue us all from the dominion of the devil." "They should be like rays of sunlight that continually pass through filth and yet remain untouched by it." [50]
"What happiness to serve these poor prisoners who are abandoned into the hands of merciless men. I have seen these poor people treated like animals and it is this situation that has brought them God's compassion. He had pity on them and in his goodness did two things for these people. First of all he had a house bought for them, and then he arranged for them to be looked after by his own daughters, for the name Daughter of Charity means daughter of God." [51]
Mission to the galleys.
Once they were on board the galleys the prisoners became the responsibility of Vincent who was Chaplain Royal. Moreover, the foundation contract of the Congregation of the Mission stated that its members should, whenever possible, spend part of their time looking after the spiritual needs of galley slaves. [52]
From the earliest days of the Congregation Vincent had delegated his functions to ordinary chaplains and limited himself to co ordinating and supervising the work. But he felt the need to be more directly involved. This feeling was shared by other people who knew at first hand the terrible reality of the galley ships. Others who joined in the work at Marseilles included the bishop of that diocese, the Oratorian priest Jean Baptiste de Gault, (1593 1643) and Monsieur Gaspar Sirmiane de la Coste (1607 1649), a pious layman who had received spiritual direction from Vincent and from him had learnt to have a great love for the poor. [53] In Paris the cause was taken up by the Richelieu family; by the Cardinal who had over all responsibility for these poor men who were cannon fodder for his policies, by the Duchess of Richelieu who was her uncle's conscience, and by the Duke of Richelieu because he had been appointed General of the Galleys by his great uncle who had wrested this office from the hands of the de Gondis to keep it in his own family.
After the Cardinal died, early in 1643, all these forces banded together to organise a general mission for galley slaves. Vincent sent five missionaries, four of whom were priests, and a laybrother who was a surgeon by profession. The leader of this group was the ever efficient Fr. François du Coudray and they left Paris on 22nd February. [54] The bishop had intended postponing the mission but he changed his mind. The work was too much for Vincent's five missionaries so he had to ask other communities to help and he appealed to Authier de Sisgau's community, the Oratorians, the Jesuits and some Italian priests. The bishop took part in the work, too, and did this with so little regard for self that he died from a disease that he caught while giving a mission. [55] As usual, the mission was a success, and a special feature of it was the conversion of many heretics and Turks, who were baptised with great solemnity. [56]
"Compassion takes on different forms."
This mission was only the first stage in a much more ambitious project. After an initiative made by Philippe de Gondi and by Vincent, in 1618, [57] it was proposed that a hospital for galley slaves should be established. This time they were serious about the project. The Duchess d'Aiguillon contributed 9,000 livres, and prompted by Vincent, the Queen allocated to the work 12,000 livres which were to come from taxes at Marseilles. [58] The death of Monsignor Gault would have been a serious setback if it had not been for the enthusiastic perseverance of M. de la Coste who was the guiding spirit behind the enterprise. [59] Thanks to his efforts the hospital was completed within two years. When the sick were transferred there from the galleys they thoughtthey were moving from hell into paradise. [60]
At the insistence of M. de la Coste, a house of the mission was founded at the same time and this was endowed by the duchess d'Aiguillon. [61] The principal objective of this house was to provide spiritual help for sick prisoners at the hospital and to give a mission to the galley slaves every five years. They also had the right to appoint and to dismiss chaplains to the navy. [62] With this in mind, Vincent obtained authorisation to delegate his office of Chaplain Royal, to the superior of the house. This chaplaincy was invested in the person of the Superior General of the Mission in perpetuity. [63]
The first superior at the house of Marseilles was François Dufestel. In 1648 Fr. Fermin Get, a man of extraordinary talent arrived, and in 1654 was appointed superior. [64] Thanks to his many activities, his talent for organising, his greatheartedness, and his administrative ability, the Marseilles house became the third most important foundation in the Company. Fermin Get can't take all the credit for this for he was constantly backed up by Vincent de Paul. We know this from Vincent's letters to him and these numbered more than a hundred and fifty. The letters contain all sorts of things; advice, instructions, prohibitions, words of encouragement, reprimands, praise, consolation... Perhaps it would be a slight exaggeration to say that Vincent himself was directing the house from a distance. It was Vincent who made the important decisions but it was Fr. Get who had to see that these were implemented. He often had to take on very serious responsibilities; appointing chaplains, supervising their way of acting, and paying them; this latter was not always an easy thing to do because funds came in from the Exchequer at very irregular intervals. Occasionally he had to use community money to pay the chaplains. [65] He organised missions for the galley slaves, found confessors for the different language groups, and attended the sick. In addition, and with Vincent's approval, he also set up a sorting office and depot like the one that was used for the captives in Barbary. He had to compile a list of the galley slaves who, through the ministrations of Vincent and his delegate in Marseilles, received messages and tiny sums of money, maybe thirty sous or fifty denarii, from their relations. The galley ships bore such fine names as "La Douce, La Ducal, La Capitaine, La Reine, La Duchesse, La Princesse de Morgue" and these names appear more than once in Vincent's letters. Mothers, sisters, sweethearts and wives of the galley slaves would confide to Vincent's care the little present they had made such sacrifices to send, or their loving messages and words of encouragement which would often have been written down by some other priest of the mission. [66] Vincent's pen allows us to see what this terrible institution was like and it puts a name and a suffering face to its inmates. Perhaps it was one of these who threw the plate of hot soup at Sister Barbara Angiboust.
For Vincent the galley slaves were yet another group among the countless poor people crying out for help. None of these groups was to be excluded from the benefits of christian charity because, as Vincent explained to the missionaries.
"Compassion takes on different forms so the Company is called on to serve the poor in a variety of ways; to serve the galley slaves, the captives in Barbary... [67]
Martyrs of charity
The missionaries were steeped in the spirit of self sacrifice imparted to them by Vincent so it wasn't long before charity had its martyrs. Just two years after the Marseilles house was founded, Fr. Louis Robiche died from a disease he caught while serving the galley slaves. He was thirty five. He had so won the admiration of the people of Marseilles that his funeral was marked by scenes of hysteria. One man took a bite out of the cushion that was stained with the martyr's blood so that he could keep it as a relic. Somebody else scratched a few splinters off the chair he used to sit in, and someone else took the wax from the funeral candles. Vincent gave details of this display of veneration by the people and ended by saying,
"The voice of the people (which is the voice of God) proclaimed him a saint and we could almost say he died the death of a martyr since, for love of Our Lord, he risked his life working for the corporal and spiritual welfare of these poor sick people and died from a disease which is nearly always fatal and which he knew to be contagious." [68]
Robiche was not the only martyr. Six years later Fr. Brunet, "such a good worker for the Lord, such a friend of the poor and such a shining light for the whole company," died in similar circumstances. At this time, M. Sirmiane de la Coste, described by Vincent as, "founder and benefactor of the hospital at Marseilles," [69] also fell victim to the plague and died.
The work for galley slaves exacted payment in blood. Vincent made this payment with a sorrowful heart, knowing that this was the price they had to pay for practising charity.
Vagrancy, another scourge
French society was plagued by a third scourge which took the form of vagrancy. Beggars were to be found all over France, both in the country areas and in the cities, but they were most in evidence in Paris which was the nation's sponge and its sewer. These beggars formed a floating population that hung around the public square or the streets of a town, crowded outside convents, surrounded the coaches bringing travellers to the towns and pestered better off people in the streets. Roguery flourished alongside begging. There were countless ways of playing on people's pity; people pretended to be blind or crippled, others feigned madness, some swallowed soap so that they would be taken for epileptics foaming at the mouth, women padded their stomachs with rags to pretend that they were pregnant or had a whole troupe of little ones with them... These represented every shade of petty criminal that walked the streets of Paris by day, and when night fell, melted into Monopodio's courtyard or the "Court of Miracles." [*]
The state regarded vagrancy as a political problem and dealt, or rather tried to deal with it, by political, or maybe we should say, police methods. Countless decrees against vagrancy were promulgated during the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. The very fact that these had to be repeated so often is clear proof that they didn't work. As long as the causes of the misery remained, there was no hope of curing its effects. [70]
Beggars were a public enemy for society in general. They were regarded as enemies and feared as such. These fears were well founded because bands of armed beggars would often demand money, not beg for it. Furetière's dictionary gives the laconic definition, "murder by the poor."
As a general rule the Church remained faithful to the traditional practice of almsgiving. Abbeys, monasteries and convents gave a tremendous lot of help to beggars, usually in the form of food. But this easy access to sustenance was, itself, an open invitation to lead a life of idleness. [71]
"I'm concerned for the company, but I'm even more concerned for the poor."
Vincent, too, gave alms. Until such times as a more radical solution to the problem could be found, no charitable soul could refuse to meet the urgent needs of those in distress. All sources of contemporary evidence are in emphatic agreement about Vincent's exorbitant almsgiving. He gave everything he had. He turned Saint Lazare into the greatest welfare centre in Paris. Every year the house contributed 200 livres to the charity confraternity in the parish of Saint Laurent and every day they distributed bread, soup and meat to poor families in the neighbourhood. And every day, two poor men were invited to eat in the community refectory where they were given the places of honour, on either side of the superior. Poor beggars who rang at the door were given a portion of bread and a few sous. Three times a week soup would be distributed to every begger that came and there would usually be about six hundred. When times were worse, as during the siege of Paris by the Fronde, this distribution was made every day. Three great cauldrons of soup were needed to provide for nearly two thousand people. The brother who was in charge of making bread reckoned that in the space of three months they had gone through almost ten muids or the equivalent of 1,200 kilos of wheat. [72] Vincent's generosity was a serious threat to the community's finances. The bursar complained that they had no money left. Some of the missionaries protested and they complained that M. Vincent was taking it on himself to dispose of the community's goods. But Vincent could give good reasons to justify his actions.
"Of course I am concerned about the company, but I'm even more concerned about the poor. When we are in difficulties we can always ask our other houses for bread if they have any, or we could find work in the parishes as curates. But what can the poor do or where can they go to find something to eat? The poor are my burden and my sorrow."
[73]
When the house finally ran out of money, he borrowed the sum of 16,000 livres. In addition to the regular distribution of alms, help was given on other ocasions. Vincent couldn't see anyone in need without helping them. If the faceless poor man behind the statistics called into play his organising skills, then the poor person in the flesh melted his heart. Anecdotes abound about Vincent's spontaneous giving and we should put some of these on record.
On day, when Vincent was passing by in his carriage, he saw a boy crying in the street. He stopped the carriage, got out, and went up to the boy to ask him why he was crying. When he saw the boy's injured hand he took him to a surgeon who attended to the wound, then he paid the doctor and gave the lad a few coins. On another occasion he gave 100 livres to a carter who had lost his horses. It's imposible to count the number of times he used his carriage to take sick people that he found in the streets to the Hôtel Dieu. A soldier, nicknamed "the Sieve" because he had so many scars, came to Saint Lazare and with all the effrontery of the "miles gloriosus" asked Vincent for lodgings. Vincent took him in. Next day the veteran beggar fell sick. Vincent had him moved to a room with a fireplace, and he lived there for two months as their guest, with a brother to wait on him hand and foot. At other times Vincent would waive the rent due from tenants, he took in orphans at Saint Lazare, sent a hundred needles to a tailor, and he personally gave some women the money they asked for. As we said, the list is endless. [74]
"Here you have the poor people of the Nom de Jésus Hospital."
Vincent was not content just to give alms when these were urgently needed but he tried to view the problem of vagrancy from a new perspective. Ever since his Chatillon days he had been good at organising and putting things in order. For many years he had been toying with the idea of setting up some sort of institution for vagrants but as yet Providence had given him no sign. Then one day a gentleman gave him a considerable sum of money, 100,000 livres, to be used for any charitable work he liked and under one condition only, that the donor remain anonymous. After consulting Louise, Vincent suggested to the donor that they use the money to set up a refuge for old people. He immediately started to make plans and get the work under way. He bought a house quite near to Saint Lazare and on the front of the building was the name, "Nom de Jésus". [75] This house would give him many a headache. Noël Bonhomme, the man who was selling it, took as long as he could to hand over the premises and Vincent was obliged to file a suit with Parlement. [76] Once this problem was solved he set to work. His plan was to provide a comfortable and pleasant dwelling for old people and for those who were unable to work. If they made the best use of the money they had available, he reckoned they could take in forty people; twenty men and twenty women. These would be looked after by a community of Daughters of Charity. The men and women were to live in separate units with a church and a dining room between the two wings so that they could all hear Mass and listen to the same spiritual reading during meals though they wouldn't be able to see each other. In this matter, as in many others, Vincent was acting in accordance with the customs and the outlook of his times.
Neither Vincent nor Louise wanted the people they took in to live a life of idleness. In the first few years after the institution opened, they had people who could teach their skills to the elderly so there were weavers, cobblers, silk weavers, buttonmakers, wool carders, lacemakers, glovemakers, seamstresses, pinmakers... At the benefactor's special request, religious instruction and taking devotional services was entrusted to the priests of the Mission and these activities took up a good part of the day. As always, Vincent regarded corporal and spiritual charity as inseparable, and he committed his two congregations to working at both. [77]
It was Vincent, himself, who gave the first talk, in his customary simple and familiar way which involved the old people in a dialogue with him. He tried in his talk, to teach them the basic truths of religion and also to instil in them the spirit of work.
"Tell me, isn't it right that you should work out of gratitude to God for giving you the grace of providing you with all that you need for soul and body? What more could you wish for? You have your meals; they may not be quite as good as the meals the President eats, but they meet your needs. How many poor people in Paris and elsewhere haven't got what you have! How many impoverished noblemen would be glad to have the food you have! How many farm labourers have to toil from morning till night but are not as well fed as you are! All this should encourage you to do manual work for as long as you can, and according to your strength, instead of thinking to your youself,
"I don't need to bother doing anything because I'll always have what I need." Oh my brethren be on your guard against that. Instead you should be telling yourselves that you ought to work for the love of God, since He himself has given us the example of always working on our behalf." [78]
This novel type of institution, which became operational in 1653, proved very successful. The residents could enjoy a peaceful and leisurely old age and they were happy with the way they were being looked after. The only drawback was that the institution could only take in a limited number of residents. Places only became vacant when residents died, and there was always a long waiting list as people applied years in advance. [79] The institution may have been just an experiment for Vincent, a first step in a new direction, but politicians took up the idea and decided to implement it on a big scale. Later on we will see the consequences of this.
Some of the missionaries had misgivings. The objection was made that this hospital was distracting the company's attention away from its main work which was to preach missions. Vincent took these objections on board and strongly refuted them.
"Someone will say to me, why should we be running this hospital? The poor people at the Nom de Jésus are wearing us out. We have to go and say Mass for them, give them instructions, administer the sacraments and be generally responsible for them... Messieurs, would we not be lacking in piety if we criticised this good work? If priests dedicate themselves to caring for the poor, wasn't this just what Our Lord did, and many of the great saints did likewise. They didn't just exhort us to look after the poor but they, themselves, consoled and encouraged them. Aren't the poor the suffering members of Our Lord? Aren't they our brothers? And if priests abandon them, who will be there to help them?" [80]
Every kind of misery.
Foundlings, galley slaves and beggars were not the only needy people. Poverty had a thousand other faces. It is typical of Vincent that his charity could be aware of all these and reject none of them. Whether on his own initiative or acting through his missionaries, the Ladies of Charity, his Daughters, the priests from the Tuesday Conferences or other congregations that he inspired and helped, he ministered to "every kind of misery" as the liturgy would later say about him. We can only give a brief mention of these works here.
From time immemorial Paris had had the "Hôpital des petites maisons" (the Hospital of the little houses) or the hospital for married couples, for the mentally ill, for people with contagious diseases, and other sick people. Vincent had given a mission here before he founded the Congregation, and so, too, had the priests from the Tuesday Conferences. [81] In 1655 the municipal welfare department asked Vincent to send Daughters of Charity to work in the hospital and Vincent agreed. [82]
The bishop of Cahors, Alain de Solminihac, also put in a request for sisters to work in a home for orphan girls. Vincent agreed [83] but only after some hesitation, since he was afraid that this work for orphans might prove detrimental to the service of the poor in their own homes.
Irish immigrants, bishops, priests, soldiers, widows and orphans were all in desperate need. The help they all received from Vincent was both generous and discreet. [84]
Many other groups, including the young girls in moral danger who were taken in by Mde. de Pollalion's Daughters of Providence, the orphans who were cared for by Mlle. L'Estang, the fallen women of Saint Magdalen, the little school girls of the Daughters of the Cross and many others; were indebted to Vincent de Paul for assistance, spiritual direction, legal advice and his negotiations with the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. [85]
And we still have to consider one of the most spectacular aspects of Vincent's all embracing charity, his wonderful work for those who suffered in the war.
