In September 2025, Sr Vivienne Keely CHF was fortunate to be invited to visit several sites associated with St Vincent de Paul in France.
In the summer of 1617, St Vincent was in the parish of Châtillon near Lyon in France.
He became convinced of the need for organized assistance to the disadvantaged and, on 23 August 1617, he called together a small group of women to visit the poor and sick in their homes. This was the first Confraternity of Charity. Vincent composed the Guidelines or Rule for the group while staying in the parish house on the rue Colbert. What appears now to be one large house was in fact two, and is now owned by the Daughters of Charity. The room in which Vincent slept is now a chapel where Sr Vivienne and her companions were privileged to share the Eucharist. On an external wall is a plaque which reads in translation:
“In 1617, St Vincent de Paul, curé of Châtillon-les-Dombes, lived in this house. At 36 years old, in this parish, his public life took off. To respond to the needs of the poorest, he created in Châtillon the first Conference of the Ladies of Charity.”
A painting memorialises the giving of the Rule to the group. Vincent is standing in the centre of a semi-circle of the women. A notary, dressed in black, is seated on his left. On the right of Vincent is a noblewoman with her hand outstretched to receive the copy of the Rule.
For Sr Vivienne, this was a particularly poignant visit because Margaret Aylward, foundress of the Holy Faith congregation, as a lay woman, established the first group of Ladies of Charity in Dublin in 1851.
