March 15 — Louise de Marillac was born on August 12, 1591, in Paris. From an old Auvergne family but only ennobled in 1569 in the person of her grandfather Guillaume de Marillac. The Dominican Sisters gave the young Louise the education usually given to young noble girls: to know God, to read, to write, to paint.
It was most likely at this time that Louise was familiar with the spirituality of the famous Catherine of Siena, which would later be reflected in her spiritual writings. A few years later, probably after the death of her father Louis I de Marillac on July 25, 1604, Louise was placed by her uncle and guardian Michel de Marillac (1560-1632) in a Parisian home for young noblewomen. She then frequented the Capuchin nuns of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the "Daughters of the Cross", and, thinking of becoming one of them, made a vow to serve God and her neighbor. But Michel de Marillac, seeing in Louise a new opportunity to get closer to power, chose to have her marry Antoine Le Gras, then secretary of the Queen Mother's commandments, Marie de Medici. Thus, on February 5, 1613, Louise de Marillac married Antoine Le Gras in Saint-Gervais church. In October, the young woman gave birth prematurely to a son named Michel Le Gras. Born on October 18, 1613, Antoine and Louise Le Gras' son became a lawyer at the Parliament and then on June 25, 1652, "advisor to the King in his Court of Mint in Paris".
But the Le Gras family's happiness was short-lived: in 1622, Antoine fell seriously ill. Believing that through this illness God was punishing her for not giving herself to Him as she had promised to do when she was younger, Louise experienced a long period of depression and spiritual nightmare. However, on the day of Pentecost 1623, while Louise was praying in the church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, her spirit was enlightened and her doubts dissipated in an instant. On that day, she became certain that her place was at her husband's bedside. Stricken by tuberculosis, Antoine Le Gras died on December 21, 1625.
A year before the death of her husband, at the end of 1624 or the beginning of 1625, Louise met Father Vincent de Paul. When Antoine died, Father Vincent gradually succeeded in turning Louise towards the salvation of others rather than towards her own piety or maternal concern. He solemnly made her his missionary to the Ladies of Charity. This was the beginning of the company of the Daughters of Charity. Louise made a vow to offer herself totally to the service of Christ in the person of the poor. Bound by a close collaboration and a great friendship, Louise and Monsieur Vincent respond together to the calls of the most destitute of their time, thanks to the new company they have established together: education of abandoned children, help for the victims of the Thirty Years' War and the Fronde, care of the sick at home or in hospitals, service to galley slaves and the mentally handicapped, instruction of the filles du peuple, participation in the creation of the Hospice du Saint-Nom de Jésus and the General Hospital in Paris. She died on 15 March 1660, at the age of 69.
