Marguerite Naseau

{{short description| French nun}}

File:Marguerite Naseau .jpeg

Marguerite Naseau (July 1594 – February 1633){{cite book |last= Dinan | first= Susan E. |author-link= |date= 2006|title= Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-century France: The Early History of the Daughters of Charity| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5mKdQq4I83kC|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Farnham (United Kingdom) | publisher= Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. | page=ix| isbn= 978-0-754-65553-4}} was a French nun and the first member of Daughters of Charity.{{cite book |last= Diefendorf | first= Barbara B. |author-link= |date= 15 July 2004|title= From Penitence to Charity: Pious Women and the Catholic Reformation in Paris| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=bsDzSjJ9YlYC|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Oxford | publisher= Oxford University Press | page=213| isbn= 978-0-198-02558-0}}

Biography

Marguerite Naseau was born in a peasant family in July 1594 in Suresnes.{{cite book |last= O'Donnell | first= Catherine |author-link= |date= 15 September 2018|title= Elizabeth Seton: American Saint| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JgFeDwAAQBAJ|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Ithaca, New York| publisher= Cornell University Press | page=235| isbn= 978-1-501-72601-9}}{{sfn| Dinan |2006|p=81}} She did not have formal education. As a self-taught, she started reading by asking help from the passers-by “in learning letters, words, and pronunciation.” She then taught others including the uneducated girls.{{cite book |last= Gillan Muir | first= Elizabeth|author-link= |date= 1 January 2019|title= Women's History of the Christian Church: Two Thousand Years of Female Leadership| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=i2WUDwAAQBAJ|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Toronto | publisher= University of Toronto Press | page=249| isbn= 978-1-487-59384-1}}{{cite book |last= McNamara | first= Jo Ann |author-link= |date= 1996 |title= Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gMk_ZujVEjUC|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Cambridge | publisher= Harvard University Press | page=482| isbn= 978-0-674-80984-0}}

In 1630, after she heard the preaching of Vincent de Paul, she approached him to serve in Parisian Confraternity of Charity.{{cite book |last= Halvorson | first=Michael |author-link= |date= 2008|title= Defining Community in Early Modern Europe| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DupeQSAoZDYC|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Farnham (United Kingdom) | publisher= Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.| page=69| isbn= 978-0-754-66153-5}}{{sfn| Dinan |2006|p=41}} She later got his permission to provide charitable works in Paris and around for the needy as she did before in her village.{{cite book |last= Meyers | first= Debra |author-link= |date= 11 June 2014|title= Women and Religion in Old and New Worlds| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MUrJAwAAQBAJ|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Oxon | publisher= Routledge | page=80| isbn= 978-1-317-72161-1}}

She played important role along with de Paul and Louise de Marillac in transforming the Parisian Confraternity of Charity into a benevolent organization. The works of Daughters of Charity were expanded on a large scale in terms of its size and coverage.

Her practical skills such as “cooking and healing expertise” immensely contributed for the advancement of charitable works of Daughters of Charity. This made her as a model for other members in the organization.{{cite book |last= Bellitto | first= Christopher M. |author-link= |date= 8 April 2016|title= Reforming the Church before Modernity: Patterns, Problems and Approaches| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HPjsCwAAQBAJ|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= Oxon | publisher= Routledge | page=202| isbn= 978-1-317-06949-2}}{{sfn| Dinan |2006|p=41}}

In February 1633, while working among the plague-stricken in Paris,{{sfn| Halvorson |2008|p=70}} she died of “plague after sharing a bed with a sick girl”.{{cite book |last= Kuuliala | first= Jenni |author-link= |date=22 October 2019|title= Lived Religion and Everyday Life in Early Modern Hagiographic Material| url=

https://books.google.com/books?id=wI64DwAAQBAJ|access-date= 25 May 2022|location= London | publisher= Springer Nature | page=98| isbn= 978-3-030-15553-7}}

References

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Category:1594 births

Category:1633 deaths

Category:Daughters and Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul