This fine study of Vincent de Paul (1580–1660), founder of the Congregation of the Mission or Lazarists (usually called Vincentians today), is most welcome. As the author points out, amidst the expanding literature on early modern Catholicism, the role of de Paul has been relatively understudied. She sets out to remedy this by telling the story of the foundation and growth of his Congregation of the Mission. The book is not strictly a biography, and it covers cursorily de Paul’s life prior to his taking a position in 1613 with the influential Gondi family who possessed extensive lands in and around Paris. In the few years before this he had acquired valuable pastoral experience in various parishes among the rural poor. The author stresses three principal characteristics of de Paul: a non-mystical piety that emphasized charity and humility, administrative skills, and an ability to network in order to secure support for his projects.

The principal areas of de Paul’s ministry were three: evangelization of the peasants or rural poor, clerical formation and education, and the creation of confraternities of charity. As chaplain in the Gondi household, de Paul felt a responsibility for the peasants on their lands, and with several associates he began in 1620 to conduct missions in their parishes. Eventually the small group organized in 1625 with the support of the Archbishop of Paris and then, with some difficulty, secured papal approval in 1633 after they had acquired as a mother house the former priory of St. Lazare in Paris the previous year (hence Lazarists). They were a congregation of priests, not a religious order, and they took vows for only one year, to be renewed annually. In their missions they avoided the more flamboyant features of missions often employed by the Jesuits and Capuchins that normally lasted only a week. Their missions continued for from two to four weeks and consisted in more catechesis than sermons. They usually concluded with the formation of a confraternity of charity. The Lazarists also generally avoided controversy with Protestants, which Vincent thought did not produce much in the way of results. The mother house was responsible for 550 missions from 1630–72, and many others were organized by satellite authorities.

In the mid-1630s Lazarist ministry turned to clerical education, starting with the provision of retreats first for ordinands and then generally for diocesan clergy. By the death of de Paul, they conducted eleven diocesan seminaries, and after his death the missions would be subordinated to seminaries and parishes. The Lazarists contributed significantly to the renewal of the French clergy in the seventeenth century. Through their missions the Lazarists established many parish confraternities of charity. Out of them eventually emerged the Daughters of Charity founded jointly by de Paul and his good friend Louise de Marillac. Like the Lazarists, they were a congregation with simple private vows renewable annually. They were not a religious order, which would have required them to observe the discipline of cloister, and so they were able to enter the homes of the poor. De Paul had a high regard for the role of women in the church, and he normally left the governance of the Daughters up to Marillac.

By 1643 de Paul enjoyed a substantial reputation, and he was appointed to two bodies that enabled him to exercise influence over ecclesiastical appointments. The Duchess of Aiguillon, Richelieu’s niece, named him vicar general for the extensive ecclesiastical lands that she held, and this enabled him to provide many benefices and parishes with worthy priests. That same year he was appointd to the Council of Ecclesiastical Affairs which oversaw the appointment to the major positions in the French Church. The author judges that in this area his influence was only moderate and was exercised mostly in non-political appointments. The 1640s saw the outbreak of the Jansenist crisis that split the French Church. Early on de Paul adopted a strongly anti-Jansenist position, and, not a theologian or writer, he played an important role in marshaling the forces against the Jansenists.

The book is not always easy to read, and it presumes knowledge of seventeenth-century France. The author might have provided more context and some comparative material. The Daughters of Charity, for example, were the most significant of a number of active women’s congregations that appeared in France in the seventeenth century. But these are minor quibbles regarding a major contribution to the study of Catholicism in early modern France.