Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France by Susan E. Dinan

Author:Susan E. Dinan [Dinan, Susan E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781351872300
Google: q3BQDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-29T01:31:05+00:00

De Marillac was clearly very worried about the implications of having the Daughters instructing people in catechism outside of approved places, such as schools. Given her exchange of letters with le Masle, it seems clear that de Marillac feared, and had reason to fear, the implications of having any Daughter act as an instructor in a public place—especially when the audience might consist of other than poor girls. It is worth qualifying this interpretation, however, with a statement that de Marillac wrote detailing her expectations for the Daughters. She explained that when traveling between the Company’s establishments, “should there be any poor nearby, they [the Daughters] shall visit them. Otherwise, they shall catechize those whom they meet.”151 Thus, it is not accurate to assume that de Marillac sought to limit all public interactions, although she did caution the Daughters that any public proclamations about faith should be stated “humbly and modestly.”152 It can be concluded that de Marillac held special reservations about catechizing in locations where the Daughters were engaged in institutional service to the poor. De Marillac sought to minimize the chances for scandal or misstep—especially in institutions that might suffer disrepute through a Daughter’s conduct.

De Marillac feared that Daughters who dedicated themselves to study of the catechism and education would form an elite group within the Company. Service to the poor, she argued, is the central function of the community, and all must engage in it. Daughters who possessed special training might demand special privileges, and might refuse to share the responsibility for manual labor. Such a division of workers and thinkers would divide the Company and send it down what she envisioned as a “pathway to destruction.”153 In 1646 de Marillac criticized a Sister Anne at Richelieu for acting as a “know-it-all” and a “scholar.”154 Education could not challenge de Paul’s theology of active service to the poor, nor could it challenge de Paul and de Marillac’s elevation of Marguerite Naseau as a model for all Daughters. The physical labor and basic religious education of a simple peasant girl, argued the founders, represented the virtues that the Daughters should aspire to. Education was to reinforce this aspiration, not to undermine it.

The teaching work of the Daughters demonstrates the complexities of having women with a religious vocation working in the world. De Paul intended the Lazarists to act as missionaries, but missionary work was also part of the Daughters’ vocation in a more constricted sense. The Daughters had to behave appropriately as women, and their vocation made this difficult. Not being nuns, they could not shelter themselves within a convent and dedicate themselves to learning. The Daughters needed freedom from enclosure to teach, but freedom made their lives complicated. The Daughters had to be careful, because the majority of French bishops believed that teaching girls about their faith was a ministry compatible with enclosure. Ministering to women and girls was not an activity that guaranteed a non-cloistered existence, as the cases of the Visitandines and Ursulines demonstrated.

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