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 CHARITY

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CHARITY

sumed the French habit and St. Vincent's rule in its entirety. Their general mother-house is 140 Rue du Bar. Paris, and their central house at St. Joseph's Academy, Emmitsburg, Maryland. They have es- tablishments in the Archdioceses of Baltimore, Bos- ton. Chicago, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and the Dioceses of Albany, Alton, Buffalo, Dallas, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Harrisburg, Hartford, Indianapolis, Kansas City. Mobile, Mon- terey, and Los Angeles, Nashville, Natchez, Rich- mond, Rochester, St Joseph, San Antonio, Syracuse, Wilmington, Porto Rico, and the Vicariate of North Carolina, where there are 1704 sisters in charge of these institutions: academy, 1: hospitals, 38; or- phanages. L'S; infant asylums, 14; industrial schools, ">: parochial schools, 33; asylums and schools, 6; insane asylums, 5.

The growth of St. Vincent's community has been gradual, and the slowness of their founder in giving it a written rule allowed that rule to have a practica- bility that has made it as fitted for the democratic notions of our day as for the aristocratic ideas of the old regime. But this is most of all because its ani- mating principle is the saying of Christ, "So long as you do it to the least of these my brethren, you do it unto me". In 164(3 the approbation of the Arch- bishop of Paris was asked by St. Vincent for his com- munity, and this was granted in 1655. Though numerous privileges have been granted to the sisters by various popes, no approbation has ever been asked from the Holy See because their founder wished this community to be a lay one with only private vows. Hence the canon law concerning religious communi- ties does not apply to them. Their confessor is the pastor or secular priest approved by the bishop. The interior administration is subject only to the superior general, or his delegates, while their exterior works are of course under the jurisdiction of the bishop. This has been the case from the very beginning, and the Holy See has on several occasions ratified their long established custom, notably in 1882.

The rule and constitution have remained unchanged since the days of St. Vincent. To his successor, as Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, the sisters vow obe- dience. He ratifies the election of the mother general rhosen by vote every three years. The community is divided into several provinces governed by a visita- trix and a director, a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, who are appointed by the central govern- ment. There is no distinction among the sisters; those from the highest as from the humblest walks of life associate together as servants of the poor. The hour of rising is everywhere at four o'clock; then fol- low meditation and Mass and usually Communion. At noon there is the particular examination of con- science which is made again before supper. In the afternoon there are spiritual reading and another meditation. No office is recited, for "Charity is your office", said St. Vincent. All the rest of the time is given to the poor. He used to tell them that when they left prayer to wait on the poor they were leaving God for God. After three months of approbation the candidate is sent to the "seminary", where she is trained for six months and then admitted to the habit, which is put on without any ceremony what- ever, and after a trial of five years she is permitted to take the four animal vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and the service of the poor. The dress is that of peasant women of the neighbourhood of Paris at the date of the foundation, a grey habit with wide sleeves and a long grey apron. The head-dress was at first a small linen cap. but to this was added in the early days the white linen cornette. At first it was used only in the country, being in fact the head-dress of the He de France district, but in 1685 its use be- came general. Seven sisters were martyred during

the French Revolution, and ten laid down their lives for the Faith in 1870 at T'ien-tsin, among whom was an Irishwoman, Sister Alice O 'Sullivan. But no one

can count the numbers that have died martyrs to duty on the battle-field, or among the plague-stricken, or in the hidden ways of continuous hard work for the poor. In 1830 at the mother-house of the sisters, Rue du Bac, Paris, Sister Catherine Laboure (declared Vener- able in 1907) had a vision of the Blessed Virgin, who urged her to have a medal madeand distributed, since well known as the miraculous medal, through the won- ders wrought in favour of those who wear it devoutly. Pope Leo XIII granted a special feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal to the double family of St. Vin- cent. The scapular of the Passion, or red scapular, was revealed to Sister Apolline Andreveau in 1846 and approved by Pope Pius IX in 1847.

In the archives of the Sisters of Charity, Rue du Bac, Paris, is a collection of the Conferences of St. Vincent to the Sisters of Charity in thirty small hooks in MSS.: IIemoi i in, Letters of St. Vincent (Paris, 1SS0); Bougard, Life of SI. Vincent, tr. Brady (London, 1899); de Brogue, ,87. Vincent in The Saints series (London, 1906); Bedford, Life of St. Vincent (London, 1901): Adderly, Monsieur Vincent (New York, 1901); Life of Mile Le Gnu (tr., New York, lss-li; Sadlier, Louise de Merillae, in Heroines of Charity (New York, s. d.); Ml'HPIlT, Terra Incognita or the Concents of Cecal Britain I Lon- don. 18731; Religions tlrders ,,r Sketches of Some „f the tlrders ami Congregations of Women (London. 1862); Steele. Monas- teries ami Religious Houses of Great Britain awl Ireland (Lon- don, 1903); huhlin Renew :.Inlv, ls.sli; The First Sisters ,,f Charitg, in The Catholic World (October, 1S99); Barton. Angels of the Battle-field (Philadelphia, 18(171; Ahelley. Vie de Vincent de Raul (Paris, 16001. revised hv Mii.on (3 vols., Paris. 1891 I; Mavnari., St. Vincent ,le Paul (Paris, I860; Paris, 1874), tr. Italian (Bologna, 1S77>, Latin (Peking. 1887), Polish (Cracow, 1876); GoBILLON, Vie de Mile Let, ras (Paris, 1676); ed. La Comtesse de Richemoxt (Paris, 1880); H. P. A., His- toid- da Dames, Sceurs el Filial de Charile (Paris. 1824); Lyi.en. Le Sours de Charili (Paris. 1879); Marcel, Les Su-urs de r),.,', r. I\,ris, 1888); BovER d'Agen. Heroines de la Cor- >>■"• i / aliims (1891) (Paris, 1892); Cosmier. Les Sawrs

Ho .. ,,,1,11.. ;.s .Pin-, IMl.si; IIklyot, Des Ordres Monastigues Reiigietirct M ilitavres (Paris, 1719); Sane, C ompendio de la his- toria de S. V irente dc Raul y de las H ijas de la Caridad (Mad- rid, 1844); Shea, Hist, of Call, CI, in C. S (New York, 1889- 1S92); Seton, Letters and Journal of Flr.ul.elli Setnn (New Y'ork. 1869); White. Life of Mrs. Scion, Foundress and First Superior of the Sisters of the V. S. (10th ed., New Y'ork. 1904). An extensive bibliography can be found in the Annals of the Congregation of the Mission, No. 32 I Emmitsburg, Maryland. 1902); the Annals, printed quarterly in several languages but not published, contains much historical information on the Sisters of Charity.

B. Randolph.

Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (mother-house at Mt. St. Vincent-on-Hudson, New York).— In 1817 Sisters Hose White. Cecelia ( ('Conway and Elizabeth Boyle were sent by Mother Seton to found a community of the Emmitsburg Sisters of Char- ity in New York. It was t he second branch of the new American institute, the first being at Philadelphia (1814). They took charge of the orphanage, a small wooden building al Prince and Mott Streets. In the early thirties, a young ladies' academy was opened in Oliver Street. Another academy, St. Diary's, begun shortly afterwards, was located in Grand Street, and then transferred to East Broadway, where three gener- ations of the young women of the old East Side of New York, now the heart of its! diet to, were educated.

Meanwhile at the mother-house at Emmitsburg negotiations were in progress for affiliation with the Sisters of Charity in France. In consequence there had been for some time a tendency to abandon cer- tain customs observed there, because these changes were required by the French superiors; for example, the sisters in charge of boys' asylums were every- where to be withdrawn. The measure threatened at that period the very existence of the New York or- phanage. At this juncture, also, sisters could not be obtained from Emmitsburg to carry on the work of a projected and much-needed hospital in New York, the St. Vincent's of to-day. The correspondence that ensued betwen Archbishop Hughes and Father De- luol, the director of the sisterhood, in relation to these matters, resulted in a notification that all the