LUISA de MARILLAC, saint. — Charity (v.); b. in Paris on 12 August 1591, d. there on 15 March 1660.
She married Antonio Le Gras in 1613, but, having been widowed in 1625, devoted herself more fully to a life of devotion, under the direction of Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus, the great disciple of St. Francesco di Sales (in 1610, during a painful spiritual trial, she had been guided by the Bishop of Geneva); from Camus, as early as 1624, she was brought into contact with St. PALAI (v.), whose charitable works she soon became one of the principal collaborators. From 1633, moreover, she began to lodge in her own house several young women who, like her, were engaged in the proper conduct of those many initiatives; the association, distinguished by a plain grey habit which earned it the popular name of « sœurs grises », received episcopal recognition in 1646 as the Confraternity of the « Daughters of Charity », and was given its definitive statutes in 1655, soon acquiring a wide diffusion. The foundress, who always remained at the head of the Paris house, continued to devote herself with the greatest self-abnegation to hospital 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.