Caroline Carré de Malberg

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Caroline Carrè de Malberg (1829-1891)

Caroline Barbara Carré de Malberg , born Colchen (* 8. April 1829 in Metz , † 28 January 1891 ibid) founded in 1872 together with Henri Chaumont the "Daughters of St. Francis de Sales ”.

Life

Childhood and youth

Caroline Barbara Colchen was born on April 8, 1829 near Metz in France. She grew up in a good Catholic family and surroundings, so that her Christian faith could develop very well from the beginning. Although her health was fragile, she nonetheless matured into a strong personality. An example of this is her stay in a boarding school with the Sisters of the Visitation of Mary . Despite the strict upbringing of the sisters, she never missed an opportunity to express her opinion openly when her sense of justice required it. The sisters valued her for her openness and truthfulness, but especially for her deep and heartfelt piety.

During her school days, Caroline fell ill with typhus . For a time it was even believed that she must die. However, she recovered. During this time of recovery, she came to her spiritual maturity. She found that life is best in God's hands.

marriage and family

At the age of twenty she married Paul Carré de Malberg. Although she actually wanted to become a Carmelite at the time , she accepted Malberg's marriage proposal. She came to believe that this was God's will. She gave birth to four children, all of whom were to survive. Three of the children died very early, the fourth child died at the age of thirty. Her husband was a military officer. This meant a large number of additional tasks for Caroline. In addition to her usual duties as a wife and mother, she also had to host the receptions her husband gave for his fellow officers and their wives.

Paul had a very dominant personality, which was not particularly good for marriage. Caroline felt hemmed in and thought about leaving her husband more often. However, she remained out of fidelity to her children and to her belief that the sacrament of marriage is holy. She began offering up her personal troubles to God for the salvation of her husband's soul. Paul was not a practicing Catholic, and Caroline wanted dearly that he would find his way back to the faith.

Because of this life situation and other difficulties, Caroline entrusted herself completely to God and placed her life in his hands, as she had already done during her severe typhoid fever. For them, however, this act of surrender to God's will was not easy. Until the end of her life it cost her a special effort to say to God: "Your will be done, I trust you".

Committed Christian and founding of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales

In addition to her numerous tasks as a wife and mother, she also began to be actively involved as a Christian. She worked on a voluntary basis in an association of Christian women, in an association of Christian teachers and an association of Christian widows. Because of this Christian commitment, she also met the priest Henri Chaumont. They decided to found a circle where women meet regularly to share their beliefs. The first meeting took place on October 15, 1872. In addition to Caroline and Henri Chaumont, Ms. Sallard and Ms. Mort also took part. This group met to pray together and talk about their faith. The basis for the discussions was the book of St. Francis de Sales "Instructions for the pious life", also known in the German-speaking world under the title Philothea . In this book, which is still one of the ten most-read books in Christian world literature, Francis von Sales gives concrete advice on how to live a Christian life in the midst of the world, in your family, at work - exactly what this group wanted . The group initially called themselves “Daughters of the Spirit of Jesus”, but later they called themselves “Daughters of St. Francis de Sales ”. Before long, more and more women joined the group.

The two founders worked steadily to improve their methods to better suit women in their everyday lives. The aim was to become one with Christ through constant living in the presence of God. Caroline could still see some of the fruits of her labor. What moved her most was that her husband was returning to a life of faith. The community of the “daughters of St. Franz von Sales “got bigger and bigger, so that one began to consider whether one should also expand this to other countries. One of the "daughters", Gertrude Gros, decided with three other women to go to India as missionaries, which they did in 1889. They became the first Salesian Missionaries of the Immaculate Virgin Mary (SMMI). Today these sisters work in many countries around the world.

Caroline Carré de Malberg died on January 28, 1891 after a long illness.

Today she is considered an early example of a modern lay apostolate. She helped the women around her to strengthen self-confidence with the help of faith. She used the works of St. Francis de Sales and Salesian spirituality as a basis for this .

In the process of beatification initiated for him, Pope Francis awarded him the heroic degree of virtue on May 9, 2014 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Philothea online ( Memento from July 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , May 10, 2014, accessed January 14, 2020 (Italian).