Sister Charlotte
Jenny’s healing nun is called Sister Charlotte, who gave her life to the Order of St. Vincent de Paul in France and the many who have received healing through Jenny’s hands, may well bless her name.
Often clients have taken home with them the name of Sister Charlotte and called upon her for healing in their hour of pain, which she always answers.
Michael felt drawn to put out this message to honour this tireless and loving soul who gives so much relief and joy to so many through Jenny’s healing hands.
Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
A congregation of women with simple vows, founded in 1633 and devoted to corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Their full title is Sisters or Daughters of Charity (the founder preferred the latter term), Servants of the Sick Poor.
The term "of St. Vincent de Paul" has been added to distinguish them form several communities of Sisters of Charity, animated with a similar spirit, among whom they rank in priority of origin and greatness of numbers.
They have always been popularly known in France as "the Grey Sisters" from the colour of their habit, which is bluish grey, but are not to be confounded with the Grey Nuns, a community will known in Canada and New England.
They are not infrequently called the sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, though a recent French congregation having this saint for their patron, bears that name.
Vincent de Paul (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660) was a Catholic priest dedicated to serving the poor, who is venerated as a saint.
Vincent de Paul (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660) was a Catholic priest dedicated to serving the poor, who is venerated as a saint.
De Paul was born in Landes, Gascony, France, to a peasant family. He had three brothers and two sisters.
De Paul studied hard humanitieson Dax, France with the Cordeliers and he graduated in theology at Toulouse. He was ordained in 1600, remaining in Toulouse until he went to Marseille for an inheritance. In 1605, on his way back from Marseille, he was taken captive by Turkish pirates, who brought him to Tunis and sold him into slavery. After converting his owner to Christianity, Vincent de Paul was freed in 1607.
After returning to France, De Paul went to Rome to continue studying until 1609, when he was sent back to France on a mission to Henry IV of France; he served as chaplain to Marguerite de Valois. For a while he was parish priest at Clichy, but in 1612 he began to serve the Gondi family. He was confessor and spiritual director to Mme de Gondi, and he began giving peasant missions on the estate with her aid.
In 1622 De Paul was appointed chaplain to the galleys, and in this capacity he gave missions for the galley-slaves.
De Paul founded the Lazarists, and with Louise de Marillac he founded the Daughters of Charity. He also fought against the Jansenist heresy.
Towards the end of his life, De Paul suffered from serious ill-health, and he died on 27 September 1660.
In 1705, the Superior-General of the Lazarists requested that the process of his canonization might be instituted. On 13 August 1729, Vincent was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XIII. He was canonized nearly eight years later by Pope Clement XII on 16 June 1737. In 1885, Pope Leo XIII gave him as patron to the sisters of Charity. He is also patron to the Brothers of Charity.
St. Vincent's body was exhumed in 1712, 53 years after his death. The written account of an eye witness states that "...(t)he eyes and nose alone showed some decay." However, when the body was exhumed again during the canonization in 1737 it was then discovered to have decomposed due to an underground flood.
His bones have been encased in a waxen figure which is displayed in a glass reliquary in the chapel of the headquarters of the Vincentian fathers in Paris. His heart is still incorrupt, and is displayed in a reliquary in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Paris.
In 1737, his feast day was included in the Roman Calendar on 19 July, because his day of death was already used for the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian. It was originally to be celebrated with the rank of "Double", which was changed to the equivalent rank of "Third-Class Feast" in 1960.
In the Novus Ordo calendar, he is remembered with a memorial on 27 September, Cosmas and Damian having been moved to 26 September to make way for him, as he is now better known in the West.
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