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LA SCEUR BOSALIE. 155
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The In The Years Month Of A Of Long Octo...
_characteristic of lier whole life tliat her religious devotion never weakened lier human affections ; whenamidst the thousand
dis-, tractions of a busy and useful life , she lost any dear friend by death or separationshe seemed to suffer as much as those who
, waste their lives in passive loving . One part of this remarkable woman ' s character did not overbalance the other , and she found
space in her large heart for the tender fondness of individual ties _* beside the sublime charity by which the world learned to know
her , both ruled and vivified by the supreme love of a Christian towards her God .
It remains on record that the journey , a serious undertaking nearly sixty years ago , was rapid , without incident , and that the two
friends reached Paris on the 25 th of May , 1802 ; when , thinking little or nothing of the wonders of the capital , they went straight
to the Rue du Vieux-Columbier , and knocked at the door of the Sisters of St . Vincent de Paul .
In order , as Protestants , clearly to understand the sort of life to which Jeanne Rendu had devoted herself , we must consider the
peculiar circumstances of the foundation and development of this order of nuns in the . Catholic church . Among the great men ,
authors , statesmen , and divines , who in the seventeenth century made the name of France peculiarly glorious among the nations ,
foremost in popular affection stands St . Vincent de Paul . His whole life was a series of beneficent acts : the orphan , the sick , the
aged ; provinces decimated by war , famine , and pest ; the far shores of Alierswhere he was carried as a slave and where he ministered
unceasing g l , y to slaves more wretched than he ; the galleys , where criminals worked , and the scaffold on which they died;—all shared
his presence , and the healing power of his charity . The mark of , his powerful hand is seen on every pious work inaugurated during
his life-time ; and his influence "breathes in each emanation of Christian love . But his great legacy to the poor and suffering was
the order of sisters who bear his name ; whom we indifferently call " Sisters of Charity" or " Sisters of St . Vincent de Paul . " In these
he experience united , in of one a p , person hysician , the the piet watchfulness y of the servant of a of nurse God , , the the
, enlightened patience of a teacher , and the devoted aid of a servant . Hitherto the miseries of the poor had been allotted for alleviation
to the different members of Christian congregations ; he created a society to whom he confided human griefs as a special portion and a
peculiar field . To find fit instruments for offices which would in many cases seem beyond the endurance of human nerves , the
founder did not go about to seek those rare natures whose spiritual life transfuses every emotion ; nor did he impose any of those
spiritual exercises by which the Catholic church endeavors to train some of her flock , to lives of entire abnegation , and withdraw them
wholly from human influences , into the Divine life .
But . iSt . Vincent eta Paul called into his community simple souls ,,
La Sceur Bosalie. 155
LA SCEUR BOSALIE . 155
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 155, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/11/
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