Over 350 years ago St. Vincent de Paul, with St. Louise de Marillac, established the first active religious congregation, the Company of the Daughters of Christian Charity. This community was different from the cloistered nuns of the period.

"They shall practice the same virtues as those who take solemn vows in a Regular Order, though with greater difficulty as they are more exposed to the dangers of the world; hospitals being their monasteries; rented rooms, their cells; the parish church, their chapel; the streets of the city or the wards of the infirmary, their cloister; obedience, their enclosure; the fear of God, their grate; modesty, their veil."