Blessed Pauline Marie Jaricot: Founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith

In 1926 Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday for the whole Church with the first worldwide Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927.  World Mission Sunday is celebrated on the next-to-last Sunday during the month of October throughout the world to support missionaries and their work.   That missionary effort is due, in large part, to the work done by a French woman named Pauline Marie Jaricot.

Pauline was born on July 22, 1799, youngest of seven children.  Her mother was a homemaker, and her father owned a silk factory.  Her family was devoted to their Catholic Christian faith.  In fact, one of her brothers, Philéas, was a missionary priest in the southeast Asian nation known today as Vietnam.

As a young girl, she enjoyed dressing in fine clothing and taking part in fancy parties of the city.

One day, however, she heard a sermon about vanity, or self-love, and how that can distract a person from focusing on their spiritual journey.  Pauline took the priest’s words very seriously.  Soon, she sold her jewelry and gave the money to the poor, and she gave away her beautiful dresses.  She then began to dress in a simple purple dress.  To put her faith into action, she visited the sick in a hospital for people with incurable diseases.

When she was seventeen, Pauline began to live a life of intense prayer, and on Christmas Day in 1816, she took a vow of perpetual virginity.  She also established a group of girls devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This group’s primary function was to increase the prayer lives of its members.

Pauline is most famous for her passion for the work of missionaries throughout the world.  Because her family ran a silk factory, Pauline enlisted the women employees of the factory to each contribute a penny a week to help fund Catholic missionaries.  Pauline’s efforts eventually led to Pope Pius XI establishing the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1922, a worldwide pontifical organization.

Pauline Jaricot also founded the Association of the Living Rosary. 

At the end of her life, Pauline bought a blast furnace plant to help poor workers and their families.  Unfortunately, the people she trusted to care for the enterprise proved failed to do their jobs.  As a result, Pauline had to declare bankruptcy and lived the rest of her life in severe poverty.

Pauline Jaricot died on January 9, 1862 in Lyon, France.  Pope Francis, a pope noted for his intense devotion to the missionary spirit of the Church, approved Pauline’s beatification that took place on May 22, 2022.  

Blessed Pauline Jaricot’s feast day is January 9.  She is the patron saint of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith as well as the Association of the Living Rosary.