The first nurses were Nuns

Say Little, Do Much
Nursing, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century
Sioban Nelson


"A convincing picture."—New York Times

In the nineteenth century, more than a third of American hospitals were established and run by women with religious vocations. In Say Little, Do Much, Sioban Nelson casts light on the work of these women's religious communities. According to Nelson, the popular view that nursing invented itself in the second half of the nineteenth century is historically inaccurate and dismissive of the major advances in the care of the sick as a serious and skilled activity, an activity that originated in seventeenth-century France with Vincent de Paul's Daughters of Charity.

In this comparative, contextual, and critical work, Nelson demonstrates how modern nursing developed from the complex interplay of the Catholic emancipation in Britain and Ireland, the resurgence of the Irish Church, the Irish diaspora, and the mass migrations of the German, Italian, and Polish Catholic communities to the previously Protestant strongholds of North America and mainland Britain. In particular, Nelson follows the nursing Daughters of Charity through the French Revolution and the Second Empire, documenting the relationship that developed between the French nursing orders and the Irish Catholic Church during this period. This relationship, she argues, was to have major significance for the development of nursing in the English-speaking world.

"A convincing picture."—New York Times

"The most significant contribution to the literature on nursing history in decades."—Journal of Community Nursing

"Required reading for all nurse historians who seek to understand the difficult and complex role of religious women who served nursing prior to our modern era."—Nursing History Review

"Well-researched, scholarly, clearly written, and nicely analyzed, this work makes a significant addition to the historiography of nursing."—Choice
Sioban Nelson is Senior Lecturer in the School of Postgraduate Nursing at The University of Melbourne.

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Anhelyna said:

That has never been in question - nursing was seen as a vocation .

Nuns saw it just as part of their vocation - caring for the sick whom at that time were marginalised.

Florence came into it because she believed it was a vocation , realised that training was needed and also brought the care of ill people out of the dark ages. She had a different and equally valid outlook. Frm her influence we now have a well trained professional and mainly secular, profession.

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History of the Daughters of Charity

How We Began
In 1633, a French widow named Louise de Marillac and a French priest named Vincent de Paul founded the Daughters of Charity to serve the poor of France.

Saint Vincent de Paul had organized the first "Charities" (or Confraternities) in 1617. The Confraternities were composed of women from relatively modest backgrounds, who wished to devote themselves to the service of the poor and the sick in their villages or parishes.

Saint Vincent de Paul brought these Confraternities to Paris, where the number of young women serving in them grew. In 1630, Saint Vincent de Paul entrusted these young girls to Louise de Marillac, who was already assisting him in the organization, visitation and follow-up of the Confraternities. The young women were then dispersed throughout Paris, each one serving in a different Confraternity.

Louise de Marillac quickly realized the need to bring the young volunteers together so that she could give them a better formation and accompany them in their corporal and spiritual services. With Saint Vincent de Paul’s authorization, Louise de Marillac brought the young women together, and on November 29, 1633, she received the first six Daughters into her home. This date marks the official "birth" of the Company of the Daughters of Charity.

The Daughters of Charity were unlike the established religious communities at that time. Up to this point, all religious women were behind cloister walls and performed a ministry of contemplative prayer. Saint Vincent de Paul, however, wanted the Daughters to be free to walk the streets of Paris in response to the needs of the poor, and to live among the people society had most abandoned. He recommended that his Daughters care for the poor in their homes, so that they might get to know the poor in their natural setting.

Almost two centuries later, Elizabeth Seton, the American founder of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, adapted the rule of the French Daughters of Charity for her Emmitsburg, Maryland community. In 1850, the Emmitsburg community united with the international community based in Paris, thus beginning the first American community of the Daughters of Charity.
Source:
http://www.daughters-of-charity.org/history.htm

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