A painting of the venerable servant of God Pauline Jaricot (1799-1862)
By Agenzia Fides
Sep 22 2020
VIENNA – A painting of the venerable servant of God Pauline Jaricot (1799-1862) will have a place of honor on the wall in the meeting room of the National Direction of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Austria.
In Vienna, the conference room is called the “Paulinum” hall because it is the place where the painting is located. The painting has a particularity: Pauline Jaricot is represented with the Rosary in her hand because she is the one who invented and promoted the “Living Rosary”, offering the Marian prayer for the mission of the universal Church (in 1826); its figure indicates the sphere of the world because Jaricot founded the Council for the Propagation of the Faith (1822), which will become the Association of the Propagation of the Faith and will then be elevated to the rank of “Pontifical Society” in 1922.
The artist Clemens Maria Fuchs painted the large portrait of Pauline Jaricot, foundress of the Pontifical Mission Societies, for “Missio Austria” (the Direction of the Austrian PMS). “The ‘Mother of the World Mission’ – as Pauline is called – will soon be blessed”, “Missio Austria” points out with satisfaction. In fact, on May 26, Pope Francis authorized the publication of the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to the intercession of Pauline Marie Jaricot, paving the way for her beatification.
The awareness campaign on missionary October and towards World Missionary Day – observes “Missio Austria” – cannot fail to rediscover and make known the life, charisma and work of the young woman from Lyon who is today a model for the Church of the 21st century: Pauline Jaricot, already at the age of seventeen had already very clear in mind the capillary and universal dimension of the faith and she united the awareness that prayer is a transcendent force that moves mountains in her extraordinary spiritual experience and the charity of Christ is a global language, which reaches – thanks to the life of the missionaries who proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth – to every man and woman, in every corner of the planet.
Pauline Jaricot replied “Here I am, send me” to God’s call to give life: “Here I am, send me” (Is 6,8) is the theme of the Pope’s message for World Mission Sunday in 2020. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 21/9/2020)
