Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt

Pauline von Mallinckrodt, SCC (3 June 1817 - 30 April 1881) was a German noblewoman and the foundress of the Sisters of Christian Charity, a Catholic religious institute. Born into the aristocratic Mallinckrodt family as the daughter of a Lutheran father and Catholic mother, from her adolescence she began to tend to the blind and sick. This venture expanded into what became a religious congregation which spread at a rapid pace; she herself traveled to a range of places to oversee its growth and development. She died in 1881 and was beatified on 14 April 1985. Pauline von Mallinckrodt was born into the German nobility, as the eldest child of Detmar von Mallinckrodt (1769-1842), a politician and an Evangelical, and his wife, the highly accomplished and pious Marianna Berhardina Katharina von Hartmann (1787-1834), a Catholic. Her father was Vice-governor at Minden (1818–23) and also at Aachen (1823–29). The distinguished parliamentarian Hermann Josef Christian von Mallinckrodt (05.02.1821-26.05.1874) was her younger brother as was Georg Detmar Ignaz Franz Daniel Wilhem von Mallinckrodt (c.1819-21.03.1881) and sister Bertha von Mallinckrodt. Her father was Lutheran; her mother a devout Catholic; Pauline was baptized as "Maria Bernardine Sophia Pauline". In 1826 her father was transferred to Aix-la-Chapelle where Mallinckrodt attended Saint Leonard's school. Her classmates included Clara Fey and Mary Frances Schervier; one of her teachers were Luise Hensel. In the fall of 1832 she continued her studies at a French school in Liège. Following a tour through Switzerland in 1833 with her parents she returned to Aix-la-Chapelle. Upon her return from Switzerland her parents wanted her to integrate into aristocratic circles and, despite finding social functions a distasteful affair, she did so. Her mother grew ill to the point where Pauline accompanied her to a health resort in Bad Schwalbach.