The Sisters of Charity of St. Paul of Chartres are a Roman Catholic religious congregation, for teaching, nursing, visiting the poor and taking care of orphans, the old and infirm, and the mentally ill. They were founded at Chartres in 1704 by Monsignor Maréchaut, a theologian of Chartres Cathedral, assisted by Mlle de Tilly and Mlle de Tronche.
There are no lay-sisters, but every sister must be prepared to undertake any kind of work. The interior spirit is a love of sacrifice and labor for the spiritual and temporal good of others. The postulancy lasts from six to nine months, the novitiate a year, after which the sisters take vows annually for three years, and then perpetual simple vows.
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Their first house formerly belonged to a sabot-maker, and this gave them the name of "Les Soeurs Sabotiers", by which they were originally known. he congregation was dispersed under the Commune at the French Revolution, but it was restored by Napoleon I, who gave the sisters a monastery at Chartres, which originally belonged to the Jacobins, from which they became known as "Les Soeurs de St. Jacques". They settled in England in 1847 at the invitation of Cardinal Wiseman.
The first Sisters of St Paul de Chartres arrived in Hong Kong in 1848. Institutions founded by the Sisters include:[1]
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