Pauline-Marie Jaricot

The Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot
Foundress
Born	21 July 1799 Lyon, France
Died	9 January 1862 Lyon, France
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church

Pauline-Marie Jaricot (born at Lyon, 21 July 1799; died there, 9 January 1862) was a French laywoman, the foundress of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary Association.

Life

Pauline-Marie Jaricot was the daughter of an aristocratic family in 19th-century Lyons, France. Her brother, Phileas, was a missionary in French Indochina (now Vietnam).^[1] At the age of seventeen, after a serious illness and the death of her mother, 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".^[2]

As a member of an association founded by the Fathers of the Foreign Missions of Paris, she was a pioneer of organized missionary co-operation. With the women employees 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 person involved.^[3][4] This eventually led to the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1822, dedicated to helping missionary efforts worldwide.^[1] On May 3, 1922 Pope Pius XI declares the Society for the Propagation of the Faith "Pontifical".^[5]

In 1826 she founded the Living Rosary Association.^[6] The fifteen decades of the Rosary were divided among fifteen associates, each of whom had to recite daily only one determined decade. A second object of the new foundation was the spread of good books and articles of piety.

She became very ill and on August 10, 1835 she was healed by Saint Philomena during a pilgrimage to Mungnano Italy, this is the miracle that began the process of beatification of Saint Philomena.

An undertaking of Pauline's in the interest of social reform involved her in considerable financial difficulties and ended in failure. She had to endure a tremendous amount of insults for bankruptcy that she had to declare in 1862 and lived the rest of her life in absolute poverty.^[6] She died on 9 January 1862 in Lyon.

St. Nizier, Lyon

Veneration

Since 1935 the mortal remains of Pauline-Marie Jaricot lie in the Church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon.^[7]

On 25 February 1963 Bl. Pope John XXIII declared Pauline Jaricot "venerable" in 25 February 1963.^[1]

In a homily on 9 January 2013, at the end of the celebrations commemorating on the 150th anniversary of her death, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, stated,"Jaricot’s 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...."^[7]

Living Rosary Association

The Living Rosary Association, founded by Pauline Jaricot in 1826, grew rapidly in France and spread to other countries during her lifetime and for years thereafter. By the mid-20th century, however, the number of members had markedly decreased, especially in the United States. 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.

By the year 2014, the Living Rosary membership numbers nearly 16 million persons of all ages, with substantial numbers in Third World countries. The organization maintains an internet website at www.philomena.org, authored by Patti Dickinson, who is universal director of the Living Rosary. A Facebook page, "Universal Living Rosary Association," is authored by noted apostolate promoter Brian J. Costello of New Roads, Louisiana.^[8]

References