COMPAGNIA DELLE FIGLIE DI MARIA NOSTRA SIGNORA. — Founded by St Giovanna di Lestonnac, baroness of Montferrand Landiras, in 1607, it was the first institute in France devoted to teaching. It spread rapidly throughout Europe and the Americas. The persecutions suffered in various nations, and especially in France in 1904, made clear the need to bring the institute under the authority of a superior general; this took place in 1921 with the union of some of the existing communities.
At present, the religious number more than 3,000.
COMPAGNIA DEL S.mo SACRAMENTO. — A religious organization founded in Paris in 1630 as a secret society by Enrico de Lévis, duke of Ventadour, with the cooperation of the Capuchin Filippo d'Angoumois and two priests, with the aim of unifying the forces of the best Catholics « in order to accomplish all the good possible and avoid all the evil possible ». Its members belonged to the highest classes (clergy, nobility, magistracy); among the most celebrated were: St Vincenzo de' Paoli, the Ven. Olier, Bossuet, Abelly, Coligny (son of the murdered admiral), the prince of Gondi, the marquis de Salignac-Fénélon, the count de Noailles, the baron de Renty, Le Fèvre d'Ormesson. The c. had foundations in the principal cities (49): all received directives from Paris. The central organization consisted of 9 members, from among whom the president, spiritual director, and secretary were chosen. On Thursdays, dedicated to the Most Blessed Sacrament, the C. held its meetings, in which, after discussing the most suitable means of attaining its ends and receiving reports on correspondence arriving from the provinces, the members prayed and read a chapter of the Bible, the Imitation of Christ, or the Spiritual Combat.
The strictest secrecy was considered the absolute condition of success, because it shielded the members from the maneuvers of their adversaries and enabled them to imitate Jesus’ concealment in the Eucharist. Louis XIII, informed of the existence and purposes of the C., showed himself favorable, requesting in a private letter that the archbishop of Paris approve it; the latter categorically refused. The Holy See, repeatedly urged by royal ambassadors and members of the C., always replied evasively, limiting itself to granting indulgences as though the organization were an ordinary confraternity. Although unapproved, the C. spread rapidly until it covered all France with a dense network of cells, strongly influencing the nation’s religious and political life; in fact, almost inspired by the motto facere et pati fortia catholicum est, within 30 years it accomplished the most arduous undertakings: the « Hôpital Général » for all the beggars of Paris, the seminary of the Foreign Missions, charitable works for prisoners, galley slaves, fallen women, impoverished persons ashamed to beg, and parish storehouses connected to the central one (a kind of Catholic relief system for all the hungry). The extensive charitable work of St Vincenzo is explained in part by the assistance the C. provided him; meanwhile, it had launched a merciless war against blasphemy, immorality, gambling, and dueling. It worked effectively to ensure that the Edict of Nantes was interpreted restrictively, thereby preserving France’s homogeneity as a Catholic nation. In 1659 it held its general congress in Paris with great success: militant Catholicism reviewed its forces. But the following year the secret was revealed at Caen, and a royal decree, promoted by Mazarin, prohibited all secret societies.
The C. disappeared, but its great works remained as an enduring testimony to its inner supernatural vitality. France’s « great century » cannot be studied and understood without taking this extraordinary, though short-lived, institution into account. The documents discovered at the end of the nineteenth century aroused a great scandal because of the presence of a « Catholic Freemasonry in the midst of the Counter-Reformation ». The fact that a society is secret does not mean that it is therefore immoral, especially since other similar societies arose at that time in France and elsewhere; whereas, as Divino Amore (v.) in Italy in the preceding century, secrecy was a safeguard enabling them to do good in Christian fraternity without exposing themselves to the criticisms of the general public. Therefore, while admitting some excesses of zeal among men who lived in the climate still troubled by the religious wars, it is a historical injustice to continue describing the C. as cabalis dei devoti. It was not a company of « Tartuffes » that counted St Vincenzo, Olier, and Bossuet among its members and that took its inspiration from Jesus’ concealment in the Eucharist in order to carry out great works of social charity with that « modest silence » which every follower of the Gospel must praise.
From the Protestant side: F. Rabbe, Une société secrète catholique au XVIIe siècle, in Revue historique, 71 (1890), pp. 213–302; R. Allier, La Cabale des Dévots, Paris 1902; A. Rabelliau, Un épisode de l'histoire religieuse du XVIIe siècle, in Revue des deux mondes, 17 (1903), p. 621. Antonio Piolanti