Louise de Marillac

Born in Paris in 1591 into the de Marillac family, she married Antoine Le Gras, by whom she had a son, and was widowed at thirty-four. Her meeting with Vincent de Paul decided the rest of her life: he entrusted her with visiting the Confraternities of Charity he had sown across the countryside, and she travelled France to organise them. Out of that work the Company of the Daughters of Charity was born in 1633, and she took its direction. The novelty lay as much in the rule as in the service: these women were neither enclosed nor veiled, took only annual vows, and lived among the sick, foundlings and galley slaves. She died in Paris in 1660, some months before Vincent de Paul. Canonised in 1934, she was declared patroness of social workers by John XXIII in 1960. Her feast falls on 15 March.