Beyond Frontiers

Founded by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac in the seventeenth century, the little Parisian community of the Daughters of Charity quickly became the leading congregation of active sisters. “The streets as a cloister”: such was the unique rule of life of those women, neither cloistered nor married but single women vowed to the service of the poor. 

After a first volume dedicated to the early modern era (New City Press, 2020), Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée explores the two centuries between the French Revolution and World War II. This volume describes a new social contract between church and state in response to the poverty of the industrial era, as well as to the strong demand for education, health care, and leisure activities of urbanizing societies. Sensitive to the political situation, the Daughters of Charity also experienced exile or martyrdom in Germany, Mexico, and China. They became a truly global organization, from Europe to its empires and to the new nations of the Americas. As missionaries, they exported a very French Marian devotion beginning with the apparitions of Catherine Labouré in 1830. But even more as teachers, nurses, educators, or union activists, they supported the new fronts of feminine professionalization in the twentieth century. In this way, they contributed to reshaping the gender relationships of societies that discriminated against women. 

This study, based on original archives, highlights the major role of generations of women who linked spirituality with social work. About 12,000 sisters still work in over ninety countries today, dedicated to the poorest individuals, including migrants and the homeless, and committed to promoting social justice.