CHAPTER ONE

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, France was in a state of political, social, and religious upheaval that was already several centuries old. Class distinctions had played an ominous role.

Prior to the French Revolution (1789-1799), much of France's traditional structure had weakened. Belief in Christianity became unfashionable and the rhetoric that influenced much of the nation, based on philosophic teachings by men such as Voltaire and Rousseau, specifically excluded religious concepts. Religious houses were suppressed, and church property was transferred from ecclesiastical to civil use. Bishop John McCort, in a sermon commemorating the centennial of the Bon Secours foundation in 1924, reflected:

The era of Voltaire and the Encyclopedists had wrought great havoc in the church of France. The teachings of the philosophers of the seventeenth century had weakened faith in many souls and alienated and estranged them from the church of God. The faith of their fathers, the belief in Christ and in His teachings had become the butt of ridicule and contempt. The excesses of human society and oppression of the poor had made men, and women, too, all too willing to cast aside a teaching that rebuked and condemned their lives. Many abandoned the Church, denied its teachings, ridiculed its ministers, and it was only in the home that the saving lessons of religion could be brought to many hearts. The priest would not be admitted, nor was he welcome to the dying.1

The Dark Period of Nursing, which dated from the latter part of the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, was not only felt in France. During that period, the general level of nursing fell far below that of earlier periods. According to Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia Dock in their History of Nursing: "The hospitals of cities were like prisons, with bare, undecorated walls and little dark rooms, small windows where no sun could enter, and dismal wards where fifty or one hundred patients were crowded together, deprived of all comforts and even of necessaries."2

The Paris hospitals were no exception to this state of general degradation. Again, Nutting and Dock said, "The Paris Academy in 1777 made a report upon the appalling death rate, which had first aroused the medical faculty to a sense that something was wrong, and this report exposed frightful conditions in the hospitals and made many suggestions for reform."' However, it is apparent from the history of nursing that these reforms were long delayed; the Dark Period of Nursing was not yet at an end when the Sisters of Bon Secours began their ministrations to the sick in France.

Napoleon Bonaparte, who became First Consul of France in 1799, was anxious to restore internal peace to his country. In 1801, he opened negotiations for a concordat with Pope Pius VII. One of the most important and celebrated agreements in history, it assured peace to French Catholicism by in essence making it the official faith of France. The religious orders that the revolution had dispersed were reconstructed, many new ones were founded, and the civil constitution of the clergy-that had cost Louis XVI his head-was dissolved.

In this work of religious restoration, women played an important role. Although the task of most of the new and restored institutions was the instruction and education of youth, none was exclusively devoted to the care of the sick of all classes. Under the ministrations of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the sick poor were cared for, but these sisters were not allowed to stay in the homes of the sick overnight. For those of other classes, there was no special provision made to minister spiritual help or nursing care. Centuries earlier, Saint Francis de Sales had recognized the need for religious women in caring for both the poor and the sick, but at the time sisters with perpetual vows were barred from living outside the cloister. When the Sisters of Bon Secours began their nursing ministry in the 19th century-a wider departure from precedent than the Church had ever observed-their activities were considered a radical innovation; the Church had ever demanded that nightfall should find the sisters safe in the enclosure of the convent.

Of course, a break in tradition always means that conventional practice has been found wanting. As Bishop McCort said, "To nurse the sick in their own homes, to remain in those homes night and day, was an unheard of practice in the Catholic Church, but it is Her consistent practice to conform Her discipline to the needs of the times . . . ."The Sisters of Bon Secours paid dearly for this conformity to the needs of the times, for they were looked upon with suspicion by even the holiest men in the Church and had to brave public opinion as well. But they proved by work and example that convent walls are not essential to the practice and spirit of religious life.

In 1821, Madame de Montale tried to organize a religious association specifically devoted to the sick of all classes in their homes. She gathered together a select group of young women chosen for their piety and nursing abilities. A wealthy lady, she procured for her little band of followers a residence in the Rue de Bac in Paris.* The first beginning was unsuccessful; she had thought herself capable of directing the new foundation without the safeguard of proper religious jurisdiction and her association eventually found that circumstances obliged it to disperse.

Her followers, dedicated to meeting the need which they saw existed, were undefeated and they reassembled soon afterwards in a modest lodging in the Rue Cassette, and there, under the eye of none but God, the cradle of the future Bon Secours institute was constituted. These women spontaneously placed themselves under the direction of Josephine Potel, selected as the most capable of directing the group according to the spirit of God. The group sought to be recognized as a religious community, making their appeal to Father Desjardins, vicar general of Paris. Because of their previous failure under Madame de Montale, he at first treated them coldly; but in 1822, he finally presented their persistent pleas to Monsignor de Quelen, archbishop of Paris, who agreed to put the association on trial for one year. He confided the members to the care of Father de Pierre, pastor of the Church of St. Sulpice, and it was under this man that the sisters received the sound and durable religious instruction that throughout the years would form the foundation of the community.

The probationary year passed. During the next three months, Archbishop de Quelen listened to testimony from clergy and laity regarding the sisters and finally made up his mind. He not only took the congregation of sisters under the wing of the Church, but he named himself the group's founder.** On January 19, 1824, he provided the statutes that were to rule the new congregation. The profession ceremony for the first 12 women was held on January 24, 1824, in the Lady Chapel of St. Sulpice in Paris, and it was there that the seeds of Bon Secours were sown. The archbishop placed the newly professed sisters under the invocation of Our Lady of Help Christians, with the title of the Sisters of Bon Secours. The 25-year-old Jos6phine Potel, who received the name of Sister Marie Joseph, was appointed the first superior general by the archbishop. At a sign from the archbishop, the newly professed sisters kissed their mother general's hand and were embraced by her, epitomizing the warm interrelationship that has been the hallmark of Bon Secours.

Three words characterized the beginnings of Bon Secours: humility, poverty, and charity. Sometimes the sisters lacked the barest necessities of life, and their food was of the plainest. According to the Abridged History of the Sisters of Bon Secours, "when a sister came home, she took off her dress and gave it to another sister who was going to take her turn."' Even though it was very poor and humble, the sisters loved to return to the convent because they could experience the happiness of being with their other sisters for a time.

Shortly after their profession, the first sisters left their lodgings in the Rue Cassette and rented a house in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs. The house provided better facilities for community living, but was scantily furnished and too small for the ever-increasing number of postulants. Mother Potel welcomed the newcomers with her only recorded words, "But my poor children, I have no beds for you!"' Mattresses had to be placed on the floor until the sisters found another-and this time a larger- house at Number 7 Rue Cassette. Here they had their first chapel with official authorization for daily mass.

Soon, Mother Potel's health began to fail. Despite the skill of a notable physician and the devoted care of the sisters, she died May 6, 1826. Father Desjardins, who had been given charge of the new congregation, consulted Mother Potel and took the initial steps to obtain legal status for the congregation and its recognition by the French government. He asked Father Debrosse, a learned Jesuit, to draw up the constitutions based on the original statutes outlined by Archbishop de Quelen. Also, Mother Potel, with the advice of Father Desjardins, chose her successor, 33-yearold novice Angelique Geay (Sister St. Antoine). She had already shown proof of great ability as well as deep piety, but when asked by Father Desjardins to make a retreat and to prepare herself not only for her profession but for the role of superior, she at first contemplated leaving the congregation at the thought of the responsibility. She felt that as a novice, she was still free to leave. At that time the community had increased to 28 professed sisters and 10 novices, and she knew her task of controlling the laity that had crept into the community during Mother Potel's illness would be difficult. Finally, she accepted what was God's will and made her retreat; she made her profession on May 5, 1826, the day before Mother Potel's death. On May 9, she was appointed second superior general by Fathers Desjardins and de Pierre and was given the name Mother Marie Joseph-which name was taken by successive superior generals for many years.***

To this day, Mere Geay is honored as the great organizer of the young congregation. Working with Father Desjardins, she obtained for it the legal guarantee that would secure its future. On January 15, 1827, the congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours of Paris, the first sisterhood established in France exclusively for nursing the sick, was recognized by the civil government of France, a government that had long been opposed to religious organizations that reminded it of the old regime and aristocracy.

The concordat of 1801, which restored peace to French Catholicism, could not entirely prevent future revolution. Social upheavals continued, and so did physical hardships. Disease-especially choleric outbreaks-swept through France, afflicting all classes of people. These circumstances were largely responsible for Bon Secours' devotion to helping the poor; during these periods of social crises Mere Geay often was heard to say, "What shall we do for the poor? It is for the poor I am concerned. "7

During the early years of her administration, Mere Geay bought a larger house in Rue Notre Dame des Champ-just across the street from the sisters' previous dwelling and once the Hotel de Pons. The same energy she offered to the poor and the sick was found in her efforts to provide for the welfare of the sisters. The property had a large garden and plenty of space for expansion, which was to prove important in later years. Still the motherhouse, it is now also the provincial house of the Bon Secours sisters in France.

Because Mere Geay had friends among both the rich and poor, several of the former helped her clear the debt on the new property. Mere Geay, always anxious to foster the spirit of poverty among the sisters, wished only the best for God's temple, the chapel. She said, in a sentence that is still very much remembered in the congregation, "All my ambition is that we should be poor in everything, but that God should be treated as God. "' When she had paid off the debt on the new convent, she wished to erect a chapel adjoining it as a fitting monument for the worship of God. In May of 1843, the cornerstone for the new chapel was blessed by Archbishop Affre, successor to Archbishop de Quelen who died in 1839.**** Eighteen months later, on October 9, 1844, the chapel was solemnly consecrated. It still ranks among the most beautiful of Gothic style structures in Paris.

The sisters' lives of dedicated service soon bore fruit and as their work became known, they received requests for their services from many parts of Paris and outlying towns. Many demands were made on Mere Geay to send her sisters to new areas. Trying not to spread their services too thin, and with an eye to preserving the pristine spirit of the congregation, she assisted in the founding of other communities. She often sent out two or three sisters who stayed long enough in a town to train a group of women in the spirit and practice of religious life and the duties of a nursing sister. Frequently, these new communities took the name of Bon Secours-two of these, the Sisters of Bon Secours of Lyons and the Bon Secours of Chartres, still exist.

The sisters were welcomed into the homes of the sick, both rich and poor alike. These were the days when the rich would not go to hospitals where such appalling conditions existed and when the poor sought hospitals only as a last unavoidable resort. That the work of the congregation met a great need of the people is shown by the fact that during the cholera of 1832, L'Ami de la Religion on April 19, 1832, stated that: "The Nursing Sisters of the Rue Notre Dame des Champs are unable to answer to the calls made upon them.. . they are all, even the novices, busy night and day. And they are unwearied in their care of the poor of the neighborhood; to them they never refuse anything."9

For the remainder of the 1830s and until another revolution erupted in France in 1848, the sisters continued their work and established new foundations. During the revolution of 1848, they cared for the wounded in the streets of Paris and in the former palace of the exiled king, Louis Philippe. The palace had been transformed into a temporary hospital to avoid destruction by revolutionaries. Here the sisters worked for six months, nursing the wounded and preparing the way for priests to reach the dying. An eyewitness wrote: "Under these deplorable circumstances it required great moral strength and a deep sense of religion to act as these good Sisters did."" The sisters were later able to say that not one of the wounded confided to their care had died without the grace of God.

In 1859, a Bon Secours sister happened to accompany a patient on a visit to the village of Ars. While there, the sister asked the saintly cure, Father John Vianney [Cure d'Ars], for his blessing on the congregation and especially for the superior general. He said, "She is a saint, yes, she is a saint; you will not have her long with you now, because she is ripe for heaven."" Mere Geay, as well, was to prophesy her own death. In April of 1860, before leaving Paris to visit one of her foundations, her last exhortation to her sisters was: "Love one another.. . . I shall embrace you now for on my return I shall be unable to do so."" While on her visitation at Abbeville, she became seriously ill. Before she died on April 27, 1860, she bestowed her blessing on the entire congregation, saying: "With all my heart I bless you all, those of the present and those of the future."" She had governed Bon Secours for 34 years. Them secret of her power was a firmness tempered by kindness and a heart open to all suffering. She was instrumental in instilling in the congregation that spirit of detachment, simplicity, zeal, and charity that became its unique hallmark.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870,***** the sisters served on the battlefields and in temporary hospitals, even taking wounded men into their convents; the sisters also served during the communistic reign of terror of 1871. During that time, Archbishop Darboy of Paris, many priests, and other religious persons were executed, but the Bon Secours sisters were unmolested. They had cared for people of all classes and political views, from local townspeople to leaders of the Church and State, among them King Louis Phillippe himself in his last illness.

In his paper prepared for the International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy held in Chicago, 1893, Professor Leon LeFort, surgeon at the Hotel Dieu, Paris, gave an insight into the state of nursing in France in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Among other things, he stated that the laicization of hospitals was a deplorable measure, for the spirit that inspired it meant only to banish religion from the hospitals. But even taking the care of the sick in hospitals out of the jurisdiction of religious did not encroach on the work of the Sisters of Bon Secours. Engaged in private nursing in the homes of patients, they were unhampered in their work and were able to fulfill the dual purpose of their apostolate, which was, "Nursing the sick in their own homes with the hope that the corporal works of mercy might be a preparation for the higher spiritual work of healing souls."" Having won the respect of the government, they were not in danger of being suppressed.

In addition to the approval of the government it was important to the sisters to have the approbation of the Holy See. Mere Geay had expressed a great wish for this approbation but was advised to wait because of the unusual nature of the vocation of the Sisters of Bon Secours. In January of 1864, Mother Sainte Cecile, the third superior general, had felt the time had come to apply for it; and with the advice and support of Archbishop Darboy of Paris, and many other high ranking prelates and clergy, she petitioned the Holy See for approval of the congregation. On July 1st of the same year, the congregation received its first Brief of Commendation from the Church under Pope Pius IX. On the 50th anniversary of the congregation on January 24, 1874, the superior general made an appeal to the Holy See to obtain final approbation. The sisters were again supported in their appeal by many archbishops, bishops and priests and most especially by the Marist Fathers, one of whom had prepared the documents which were to be sent to Rome and another of whom undertook to represent the congregation before the Holy See. The sisters' lives and work were themselves witnesses to their cause. After more than 50 years of trial the seal of approbation was given. In June 1875, the congregation received a Definitive Decree of Approbation from Pope Pius IX. This news was received with great joy for it meant that further stability and recognition had been achieved.

One more step had to be achieved for the approbation of the constitutions. A temporary canonical approbation of these was obtained on March 9, 1877, while Pope Pius IX was still the ruling Pontiff. Rome moves slowly and it was not until July 4, 1933, that the Holy See definitively approved and confirmed the constitutions. This was during the Pontificate of Pius XI. In the intervening years three other popes had ruled and Europe had witnessed many upheavals culminating in World War 1. Since the year 1824, the congregation of Bon Secours has spread throughout France and other countries. The first foundation made outside of France was in Dublin, Ireland on May 6, 1861, and since that time houses have been established in various parts of Ireland. The Irish province currently has a flourishing mission in Peru, South America. The sisters went to England in August 1870, and amid many hardships the first house of the congregation was opened in London. Other houses have since been opened in England, particularly in the south. In later years a foundation was made in Scotland which forms part of the English province.

*As stated in Bon Secours Sisters in Ireland, 24th January, 1974, 150th Anniversary of Foundation of Bon Secours Congregation.

**In later years the archbishop loved to say that he considered the foundation of the Sisters of Bon Secours one of the most signal glories of his episcopate

***This custom, of honoring the memory of the foundress and first superior general, was a tradition followed by all succeeding superior generals until recent years. Late in the 1950s, a decision was made that superior generals retain their own religious names to avoid confusion in legal and other matters.

****During the cholera epidemic which was to follow the Franco-Prussian War, in addition to going out to care for victims of the cholera, the sisters used their convents-and even the motherhouse-to house the sick.

*****Archbishop de Quelen sent for the sisters to care for him in his last illness, saying, "My sisters, give me your 'Bon Secours.' "It was during this illness that the archbishop recommended the sisters wear as part of their habit the "little white cuffs," because he thought the addition of white linen more pleasant to the sick.