Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge

Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge is a Roman Catholic monastic order, founded in 1641 by St. Jean Eudes, at Caen, France.

Moved by pity for abandoned women living a life of sin, Father Eudes at first attempted to unite the penitent among them and place them under the care of good and zealous women, but he soon became convinced that the only way of dealing with them was to found a congregation of holy women, who would bind themselves by vow to work for the reformation of these unfortunate ones. Three Visitation nuns came to his aid temporarily, and, in 1644, a house was opened at Caen under the title of Our Lady of Charity. Other ladies joined them, and, in 1651, the Bishop of Bayeux gave the institute his approbation. In 1664 a Bull of approbation was obtained from Pope Alexander VII. That same year a house was opened at Rennes, and the institute began to spread. When the French Revolution broke out there were seven communities of the order in France. From this parent-tree of Our Lady of Charity sprang the Order of the Good Shepherd.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity do not limit their work to reclaiming the fallen; they also receive girls who are in danger of being lost or who are being brought up immorally. These form what is called the class of preservation. Government reformatories are attached to some of the monasteries. All the houses of this order are independent of each other, and each has its own novitiate, but the mother-house is still at Caen. The nuns wear a white habit and a large silver cross on the breast. To the three ordinary religious vows they add a fourth, viz., to devote themselves to the reformation of the fallen. The novitiate lasts two years. These sisters came to England in 1863 and by 1910 had houses at Bartestree, Waterlooville, Monmouth, Southampton, Northfield (near Birmingham), and Mold. In Ireland they had two houses at Dublin. In France they had seventeen houses: one each at Caen, Saint-Brieuc, Rennes, La Rochelle, Paris, Versailles, Nantes, Lyon, Valence, Toulouse, Le Mans, Blois, Montauban, Besançon, Valognes, and two at Marseilles. In the United States they had two houses at both Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and one each at Green Bay (Wisconsin), Wheeling (West Virginia), Hot Springs (Arkansas), San Antonio, and Dallas (Texas). In Canada they had houses at Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver; in Mexico, two; in Italy, one at Loreto; in Spain, one at Bilbao; and in Austria, one at Salzburg.

Jean, or John Eudes, "the Venerable Pere Eudes," was beatified by Pope Pius X in 1909, and canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925. His feast day is 19 August.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

External links

• Sisters of Our Lady of Charity