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Liberating our world – the life and works of Pauline Jaricot What is it about young women who have a fire lit deep within them? Young women who want to respond to the needs of the world and the people around them? And because they embody the inspiration that drives them, they don’t give up, and they really do change the world. This young woman could be Greta Thunberg, who has challenged world leaders to act on climate change or it could be Pauline Jaricot, who in the turmoil of 19th century France began a worldwide movement to free people from harsh circumstances and lead them to a spirituality that gave them hope. In the language of today, Pauline became an enlightened businesswoman and property owner; agent of change and transformation; social entrepreneur; fundraising genius; spiritual writer; a spiritual mother who broke new ground; philanthropist; recruitment agent; a woman of great faith and action, love, and devotion.
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In short, a woman immersed in her world, working tirelessly to bring on ‘the good’. Pauline Jaricot (1799–1862) was born into a family engaged in the fashion industry. Her father owned a silk factory. She was set for a comfortable life but gave all that up to connect with those whose lives were marked by struggle, founding organisations that have survived to this day. Her vocation took shape in France at a time when workers were subjected to unjust practices, and the society she lived in was experiencing a turning away from the spiritual. Historian John H. Armstrong describes a moment of enlightenment that Pauline is reported to have experienced during a time of reflection and contemplation which helped her understand the direction she needed to take: “One lamp was empty, the other overflowing. The empty lamp represented France as a dying culture in the wake of the French Revolution. It revealed, to Pauline’s understanding, the nominal Catholicism of her age. She understood the second lamp to represent the
M i s s i o n To d a y – A C a t h o l i c M i s s i o n M a g a z i n e
