Date Published:
Juky 2008

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge

Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge. The Order of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge was founded at Caën, France, in 1641, by a missionary, St. Jean Eudes. The constitutions of the order received the approbation of the bishop of Bayeux, in 1670, in accordance with the authority he had received from Pope Alexander VII in 1666. Its general end, in common with that of all other congregations in the Catholic Church, is to serve God by a perfect imitation of the virtues of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother. But the special and peculiar aim of the Daughters of Our Lady of Charity, whereby they are distinguished from others, is to imitate, as exactly as possible, the ardent charity of Jesus by the rehabilitation of young girls and women fallen into licen­tiousness, the preservation of young girls who are exposed to moral dangers, the correction of young girls, sent by civil or family authorities, and the sanctifica­tion of those who willingly accept a life of penance in imitation of Mary Magdalen. The order has five mon­asteries in Canada and two in the United States.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Volume VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 12.