LUISA DE MARILLAC, Saint. – Co-foundress of the Daughters of Charity (q.v.); born in Paris on 12 August 1591, died there on 15 March 1660.
She married Antonio Le Gras in 1613, but after becoming a widow in 1625, she devoted herself more fully to a life of devotion, guided in this by Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus, the great disciple of St Francis de Sales (in 1619, during a painful spiritual trial, she had been guided by the Bishop of Geneva). From Camus, as early as 1624, she was put in touch with St Vincent de’ Paoli (q.v.), whose charitable works she soon became one of the principal collaborators. From 1633 onwards, indeed, she began to house in her own home some young women, like herself engaged in the smooth running of those manifold initiatives; the association, distinguished by a humble grey habit that earned it the popular name of ‘grey sisters’, obtained episcopal recognition in 1646 as the Confraternity of the ‘Daughters of Charity’, and received its definitive statutes in 1655, soon spreading widely. The foundress, who remained always at the head of the Paris house, continued to engage with the utmost self-denial in nursing care until her death. She was beatified by Benedict XV on 9 May 1920 and canonized by Pius XI on 11 March 1934. Feast day: 15 March.