ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 15th of March
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST LOUISE DE MARILLAC, FOUNDRESS
Saint Louise de Marillac Le Gras was foundress of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. She was born at Paris, August 12, 1591, daughter of Louis de Marillac, and Marguerite Le Camus; she died there, March 15, 1660.
Her mother having died soon after the birth of Louise, the education of the latter devolved upon her father, a man of blameless life. In her earlier years she was confided to the care of her aunt, a religious at Poissy. Afterwards she studied under a preceptress, devoting much time to the cultivation of the arts. Her father’s serious disposition was reflected in the daughter’s taste for philosophy and kindred subjects.
HER FATHER'S DEATH
When about sixteen years old, Louise developed a strong desire to enter the Capuchinesses (Daughter of the Passion). Her spiritual director dissuaded her, however, and her father having died, it became necessary to decide her vocation.
Interpreting her director’s advice, she accepted the hand of Antoine Le Gras, a young secretary under Maria de Medici. A son was born of this marriage on October 13, 1613, and to his education she devoted herself during the years of his childhood. Of works of charity she never wearied. In 1619 she became acquainted with St Francis de Sales, who was then in Paris, and Mgr. Le Campus, Bishop of Belley, became her spiritual adviser. Troubled by the thought that she had rejected a call to the religious state, she vowed in 1623 not remarry should her husband die before her.
HER HUSBAND'S DEATH
M. Le Gras died on December 21, 1625 after a long illness. In the meantime his wife had made the acquaintance of a priest known as M. Vincent (St Vincent de Paul), who had been appointed superior of the Visitation Monastery by St Francis of Sales. She placed herself under his direction, probably early in 1625. His influence led her to associate herself with his work among the poor of Paris, and especially in the extension of the Confrérie de la Charité, an association which he had founded for the relief of the sick poor.
HER LIFE'S WORK
It was this labour which decided her life’s work, the founding of the Sisters of Charity. The history of the evolution of this institute, which she plays so prominent a part, has been given elsewhere; it suffices here to say that, with formal ecclesiastical and state recognition, her life-work received its assurance of success. Her death occurred in 1660, a few months before the death of St Vincent, with whose labours she had been so closely united.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. "Saint" has been inserted afterwards. St Louise was canonised by Pope Pius XI in 1934.)
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