Marc de Bauduen. La vie admirable de tres-haute, tres-puissante, tres-illustre, et tres vertueuse dame Charlote Marguerite de Gondy, marquise de Magnelais. Paris: Chez la veuve Nicolas Bvon, 1666.
Call Number: SpC. 361.7092 G637Yb1666
Among the large constellation of holy and activist women who surrounded Vincent de Paul was Charlotte-Marguerite de Gondi the marquise de Maignelay (1570-1650). Charlotte was the daughter of Albert de Gondi, duc de Retz, and his remarkable wife Claude-Catherine de Clermont (1543-1603). She was the sister of Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi, duc de Retz and general of the galleys of France. In 1588, she married Florimond d’Halluin the marquis de Maignelay who was murdered three years later. The widowed mother of two children, she devoted the rest of her long life, and most of her fortune, to supportingdevot causes.
Like Louise de Marillac-whom she resembled in so many ways-as a youth she had longed to join the Capucines when this rigorous order came to Paris. Thwarted by family opposition, she never-the-less found ways to express her ardent and penitential faith outside the cloister walls. She was a member of Barbe Acarie’s famous Paris circle. Thus, she was at the epicenter of the Christo-centric spiritual renewal of the French church one of whose most important contributions was l’age d’or of Charity.
In addition to her unfailing support of all the ministries of Vincent de Paul, she supported the work of many of the newly-established and reformed religious communities that dotted the French landscape. She was particularly interested in outreach to prostitutes, and was instrumental in founding the famous Madelonnettes Convent in Paris. However, her charity was not exercised at a safe, comfortable, and discrete distance via her checkbook, rather it was exercised wherever and whenever she found it was needed as she sought out and served the poor on the very streets of Paris. It is with good reason that Henry IV was said to have called her “the good marquise.” This was an opinion shared by Vincent de Paul.
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St. Vincent’s Reading List is recurring blog series exploring texts known to have been read and recommended by St. Vincent de Paul, those which can be presumed to have been read by him, and important works published during his lifetime (1581-1660). All materials discussed are held by DePaul’s Special Collections and Archives. The entire series may be viewed here.