Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/59

Rh While there were a few among the parishioners who preserved the faith, and a few also who were provided with means that kept them above necessity, the great majority were almost in destitution. The parish church, unfortunately, was at a great distance from the locality in which a large number of the poor and neglected dwelt. To reach them was the object nearest to the good Abbé's heart; for then he expected to gain the children who would become the hope of the parish. Appeal to the humane sentiment is one of the most effective means of exciting to benevolence; so when Abbé Dujarié presented a picture of the misery of his people and pleaded with some of his penitents to interest themselves in the needs of the parish, there was a fervent response to his entreaties. A society of charity was formed comprising members of both sexes; thus a good work had at least been inaugurated. But demands in the domestic and business circles did not leave much leisure for Abbé Dujarié's work. The society's promises were too indefinite to be relied upon; the Abbé then began seeking for some pious persons who would consent to devote themselves exclusively to instructing the children of all classes, and caring for the sick who were deprived of everything in that desolated country. He found two young women ready to respond to his wishes; thereupon he began preparations for his new work by building a small house for them in the most distant part of the parish. These formed the nucleus of the religious Congregation known in after years as the Sisters of Providence.

Whether Abbé Dujarié had at that time conceived the idea of founding a religious order, or whether he