page_title: Rosalie Rendu
section_title: Sister Servant
hierarchical_section_title: Rosalie Rendu / Sister Servant
caption_attribution_description: Soeur Rosalie Rendu plaque - 3 rue de l'Épée de Bois, Paris 5
context_page_description: Rosalie Rendu was a Daughter of Charity who was a leading worker and organizer of care for the poor of 19th-century Paris' teeming slums, suffering from the rapid migration of people to the cities during the course of the Industrial Revolution. She was beatified by the Catholic Church for the holiness of her life. Her feast day is 7 February.
context_section_description: In 1815 Rendu became the Sister Servant (local religious superior) of the community at the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois. Two years later the community would move to the Rue de l'Épée de Bois for reasons of space and convenience. "Her poor," as she would call them, became more and more numerous during this troubled time. She worked with the Department of Welfare established by the Napoleonic government, administering a program that provided vouchers for coal and food. She sent her Sisters into all the hidden recesses of St. Médard Parish in order to bring supplies, clothing, care and a comforting word.
  She dealt with the poor with great consideration, guessing that they are much more sensitive to the manner in which one helps them than to the help itself. "One of the greatest ways of doing good to the poor", she affirmed, "is to show them respect and consideration."  Rendu's example encouraged her Sisters.  Rendu found her strength in a saying of the founder of the Daughters, Vincent de Paul: "You will go and visit the poor ten times a day, and ten times a day you will find God there ... you go into their poor homes, but you find God there." Her prayer life was intense, as a Sister affirmed, "... she continually lived in the presence of God."
  Rendu was attentive to assuring that her companions had time for prayer, but sometimes there was a need to "leave God for God" as Vincent de Paul taught his Daughters. Once, while accompanying a Sister on a charitable visit, she said to her: "Sister, let's begin our meditation!" She suggested the plan, the outline, in a few simple, clear words and entered into prayer. Like a monk in the cloister, Rendu walked everywhere with her God. She would speak to God of this family in distress as the father no longer had any work, of this elderly person who risked dying alone in an attic: "Never have I prayed so well as in the streets," she would say.
  Superiors sent Rendu postulants and young Sisters to train. They put in her house, for a period of time, Sisters who were somewhat difficult or fragile. To one of her Sisters in crisis, she gave this advice one day, which is the secret of her life: "If you want someone to love you, you must be the first to love; and if you have nothing to give, give yourself." As the number of Sisters increased, the charity office became a house of charity, with a clinic and a school. She saw in that the Providence of God.
  In the outbreaks which followed the Revolution of 1830 Archbishop Quelen and other clergy took shelter at the Rue de l'Épée de Bois.
  To assist all the suffering, Rendu opened a free clinic, a pharmacy, a school, a child and maternal care center, a youth club for young workers and a home for the elderly without resources. For young girls and needy mothers, Rendu soon organized courses in sewing and embroidering. Soon a whole network of charitable services would be established to counter poverty.
  Rendu was very mindful of the manner of receiving the poor. Her spirit of faith saw in them our "lords and masters." "The poor will insult you. The ruder they are; the more dignified you must be," she said. "Remember, Our Lord hides behind those rags." One of Rendu's companions remarked that, "the poor themselves noted her way of praying and acting." "Humble in her authority, Sr. Rosalie would correct us with great sensitivity and had the gift of consoling. Her advice, spoken justly and given with all her affection, penetrated souls."
  Rendu's reputation quickly grew in all the districts of the capital and also beyond to the towns in the region. She knew how to surround herself with many efficient and dedicated collaborators. The donations flowed in quickly as the rich were unable to resist this persuasive woman. Even the former royalty did not forget her in their generosity. Bishops, priests, the Spanish Ambassador, King Charles X, the powerful General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, and the most distinguished men of state and culture, even the Emperor Napoleon III with his wife, were often seen in her parlor.
  Students of law, medicine, science, technology, engineeri
caption: Soeur Rosalie Rendu plaque - 3 rue de lÉpée de Bois, Paris 5
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