Founder of the Sisters of Christian Charity, 1817-1881
Her life
+ Pauline was born into an aristocratic family in Minden, Germany. Although her father was a Protestant, she was raised Catholic and dedicated herself to a number of charitable activities as a young woman.
+ After her mother died in 1834, Pauline began to show a particular care and concern for the sick, the blind, and the children of the poor. In 1849, she established a new religious community—the Sisters of Christian Charity—to expand her ministry of care.
+ Her new community faced many challenges, especially from the anti-clerical and anti-religious authorities in Germany and Prussia, but after only a few years, Pauline was able to send sisters to Bohemia, Italy, and the United States.
+ Pauline was totally devoted to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin, to whom her community was dedicated.
+ Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt died on June 3, 1817, and was beatified in 1985.
Worth knowing
Since 1953, the Sisters of Christian Charity have sponsored Assumption College for Sisters in Denville, New Jersey, to provide training in theology and the liberal arts for religious sisters, particularly from developing nations.
Quote
“We must courageously and confidently look for God in our suffering brothers and sisters.”—Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt
To learn more about the Sisters of Christian Charity, visit:
https://scceast.org/ (The Eastern Province of the United States)
http://www.sccwilmette.org/ (The Western Province of the United States)
Prayer
O God, by whose gift blessed Pauline persevered in imitating Christ, poor and lowly, grant us through her intercession that, faithfully walking in our own vocation, we may reach the perfection you have set before us in your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For Religious)
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Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
And today we celebrate...