Our Vincentian Family

Each year on the 25th of March our sister organisation with in the Vincentian Family, the Daughters of Charity renew their vows, they do this to re-affirm their commitment to their life and the Vincentian spirituality they espouse and live.

This renewal of vows has an historical basis as they are religious Sisters and not as they and others are referred to as Nuns. The difference being Nuns are cloistered and religious sisters are,historically this would have hampered the work they did when they were founded and to get around the constrictions imposed by the Church, they took annual vows on the Feast of the An-nunciation.

This practice still exists today within the Daughters, with the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and service to the poor being renewed or taken on that day. This allows them to have space and time between the expiration of one and the renewal of the other, where they can reflect on their ‘vowed’ life and make the commitment to live out the charism of Vincent de Paul and Louise De Marillac.

By Padraic Cassidy