Pauline Jaricot

Contents

Pauline Jaricot was a French Catholic laywoman who organized networks of small donations and prayer for mission, founded the Living Rosary, and endured financial ruin without abandoning the poor.

Pauline Marie Jaricot (22 July 1799[3] – 9 January 1862) was a French member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She also was the founder of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and the Association of the Living Rosary. Pope John XXIII ratified the first step of her beatification process, declaring her venerable.[4] On 26 May 2020, Pope Francis recognized a miracle attributed to her intercession as the final requirement for beatification. The ceremony was celebrated on 22 May 2022 in Lyon by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.

Life

Origins and formation

Jaricot was born into a prosperous silk-manufacturing family in post-revolutionary Lyon. After an affluent adolescence, serious illness and a sermon on vanity prompted a deeper conversion sustained by the Eucharist. She made a private commitment to chastity, adopted a simpler life, visited people in poverty, and organized women employed in silk workshops. Her vocation remained lay and did not depend upon founding a religious congregation or assuming clerical authority.

Vocation and service

To support foreign missions arising from the Church's baptismal mandate, Pauline invited each participant to contribute a small weekly sum and recruit ten others, creating widening circles of shared responsibility. The work became the Association for the Propagation of the Faith and eventually one of the Pontifical Mission Societies. In 1826 she established the Living Rosary, groups whose members each prayed a decade so that the whole Rosary became common intercession joined to missionary formation.[1]

Pauline Jaricot was born in Lyon, France, on 22 July 1799, the youngest of seven children of Antoine and Jeanne Jaricot. Her father owned a silk factory in Lyon. Her brother, Philéas, was a missionary in Quangnam.[4] At fifteen years of age Pauline was introduced into the social life of the city. Subsequently, a sermon on vanity made a deep impression on her.

At the age of seventeen, a serious fall left her with nerve damage which affected her movement and speech. Then her mother and older brother died. Jaricot isolated herself while her health continued to deteriorate. Her condition, now thought to be Sydenham's chorea, slowly improved.[5] She began to lead a life of intense prayer, and on Christmas Day, 1816, took a vow of perpetual virginity. She established a union of prayer among pious servant girls, the members of which were known as the "Réparatrices du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus-Christ".[6]

Pauline went on to become a pioneer of organized support for Catholic missionary work. Along with women employed in the silk factory run by her sister and brother-in-law, she resolved to help the missions with prayers and a small weekly contribution of one penny a week from each participant.[7][8] The seed grew and other groups joined to help all missions. This eventually led to the founding in 1822 of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, dedicated to supporting missionary efforts worldwide.[4] On May 3, 1922 Pope Pius XI declared the Society for the Propagation of the Faith "Pontifical".[9]

Pauline's spiritual director for many years, was the priest Saint John Vianney. In 1822, she arranged for the printing and distribution of religious literature, convinced that information about the missions should be publicized. Later, the future Society would publish the Annales, a periodical which contained reports from various mission territories aimed at increasing interest in the Society and in the missions.

Afflicted by a serious illness, Pauline travelled on pilgrimage to Mungano, in Italy. There, on 10 August 1835 she was healed, and was convinced that she owed this recovery to the intercession of Saint Philomena.

Around 1845 Pauline purchased a blast furnace plant which she intended to be run as a model of Christian social reform. A building adjacent to the plant accommodated the families, and close by was a school and a chapel. However, she left the management to people who proved to be dishonest, and in 1862 she was forced to declare bankruptcy. Having exhausted all her money, she spent the rest of her life destitute.[10] She died on January 9, 1862, in Lyon.

Christian witness

Jaricot later invested in an industrial project intended to provide just work and humane conditions. Dishonest managers ruined the enterprise and left her responsible for debts; years of appeals to reimburse investors exposed her to ridicule and misunderstanding. The failed plan should not be recast as a secret success. Her witness lies in accepting accountability, seeking restitution, and remaining faithful when admired initiatives no longer protected her reputation.

Illness, poverty, and dependence marked her final years, though the prayer and mission networks continued beyond her control. She died in Lyon on 9 January 1862. Her methods anticipated broad lay participation in the Church's mission: modest gifts and intercession become ecclesial when joined in communion. They do not reduce evangelization to fundraising, for her purpose was encounter with Christ and solidarity among baptized peoples.

Ecclesial recognition

Cause and present status

John XXIII recognized Jaricot's heroic virtues in 1963. Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to her intercession in 2020, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided at her beatification in Lyon on 22 May 2022. Her current status on 30 August 2026 is Blessed. The worldwide standing of the Pontifical Mission Societies does not by itself make her a Saint or extend her cult universally.[2]

Liturgical and devotional scope

Beatification permits Pauline Jaricot's limited public cult in authorized places, notably Lyon and communities connected with the Pontifical Mission Societies; it does not establish universal veneration. Her proper observance follows local calendars. The Living Rosary and mission collections may honor her charism, while claims of healing must respect the Church's investigation and not treat devotional publicity as proof of a canonization miracle.

Veneration

Pauline Jaricot's spiritual writings were examined in Rome and approved by a commission of theologians on 27 May 1925. This led to the cause for her beatification to be formally opened on 18 January 1930, when she was granted the title of Servant of God.[11]

Since 1935 Pauline Jaricot's mortal remains lie in the Church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon.[12] In a homily on 9 January 2013, at the end of the celebrations commemorating the 150th anniversary of her death, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said that her "heroic virtues do not consist in a series of miraculous events, but in that fruitful fidelity to Christ, to whom she devoted herself both in good times and in … difficult … moments"[12]

On 26 May 2020, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Pauline Jaricot's intercession, the final requirement for beatification.[13] Her beatification was celebrated with solemnity on 22 May 2022 in the Eurexpo stadium, Lyon, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presiding on the Pope's behalf.[14][15]

The Association of the Living Rosary

In 1826 Pauline Jaricot had founded the Association of the Living Rosary.[10] The fifteen decades of the rosary were divided among fifteen associates, each of whom had to recite daily only one determined decade. She expanded the organization's work to include the distribution of prayer leaflets, holy pictures, medals and rosaries. The Association of the Living Rosary grew rapidly in France and spread to other countries during her lifetime and for years thereafter. In 1832, Pope Gregory XVI granted it canonical approval.[16]

Despite fluctuations over the years in different parts of the world, in 2014 the membership of the Association of the Living Rosary numbered nearly 16 million persons of all ages, with substantial numbers in Third World countries. The organization maintains an internet website at philomena.org, authored by Patti Dickinson, who is universal director of the Living Rosary. A Facebook page, Universal Living Rosary Association, is authored by apostolate promoter Brian J. Costello of New Roads, Louisiana.[17]

In the United States, the number of members had markedly decreased by the mid-20th century, but the organization was revived through the efforts of Patti and Richard Melvin of Dickinson, Texas, and 28 other devotees who renewed the practice of organizing 15 persons to each pray one of the 15 Decades of the rosary.

References

  1. 1.Papal message to the Pontifical Mission Societies — Official message describing Jaricot's founding work, prayer, charity, and enduring missionary legacy
  2. 2.Pope Francis on Pauline Jaricot's beatification — Official papal address confirming the 22 May 2022 beatification and Jaricot's missionary charism
  3. 3.Birth certificate from Cotes aux Archives municipales de Lyon F411 n° 172 (number 172 is the one for Pauline Marie Jaricot) 2 E 91 : Naissance le 22 juillet 1799 à Lyon midi [Page du registre d'état civil numérisée. http://www.fondsenligne.archives-lyon.fr/ark:/18811/v88xnffxoq89nvdq [archive]] F975 no 29 : Décès le 9 janvier 1862 à Lyon 5
  4. 4.[4.2][4.3]Brinker, Jennifer."Society for the Propagation of the Faith foundress is example of worldwide missionary vision", St. Louis Review, 23 May 2012 Archived 2015-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
  5. 5."Blessed Pauline Jaricot", Missio
  6. 6.Weber, Nicholas. "Pauline-Marie Jaricot." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 4 Apr. 2013
  7. 7.Windeatt, Mary F.: Pauline Jaricot: Foundress of the Living Rosary and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc.: 1993)
  8. 8.Address of John Paul II to Mission Societies, 15 May 1997
  9. 9."Commemoration Day for Pauline Jaricot, foundress of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith: 9 January in Lyon", Agenzia Fides, 9 January 2012
  10. 10.[10.2]"150th Anniversary of Pauline-Marie Jaricot’s death", Agenzia Fides, 9 January 2013.
  11. 11.Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 184.
  12. 12.[12.2]"Pauline Jaricot, fruitful fidelity to Christ and farsighted commitment to evangelization", Agenzia Fides, 10 January 2013
  13. 13."Church promulgates new decrees for Causes of Saints" Vatican News, 27 May 2020
  14. 14."Cardinal Tagle to lead beatification of Pauline Marie Jaricot". cnn. Archived from the original on 2021-11-19. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  15. 15.Ramos, Kayla (2021-10-21). "Cardinal Tagle To Preside Beatification of Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot in France". My Pope Philippines. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  16. 16."Emmons, D.D., The lasting legacy of Ven. Pauline Jaricot, Our Sunday Visitor, October 8, 2014". Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  17. 17.Universal Living Rosary Association.