Rosalie Rendu, DC (9 September 1786 – 7 February 1856) was a French Catholic member of the Daughters of Charity who organized care for the poor in the Paris slums during the Industrial Revolution.

The eldest of four girls, she came from a family of small property owners which enjoyed a certain affluence and respect throughout the area.

Her godfather by proxy was Jacques Emery, a family friend and future Superior General of the Society of Saint-Sulpice (Sulpicians) in Paris.

[2] The death of her father, 12 May 1796, and that of her youngest sister, at four months of age, on 19 July of the same year, shook the entire family.

Her mother gave her consent that Jeanne-Marie, in spite of her young age, might spend some time at this hospital.

Having decided to join the Daughters of Charity, on 25 May 1802, Rendu arrived at the Motherhouse on the Rue du Vieux Colombier in Paris.

[4] As a young sister, Rendu had a delicate constitution that was weakened by the sustained seclusion required of the novices, and by a lack of physical exercise.

On the advice of her physician and that of her godfather, the Abbé Emery, Rendu was sent to house of the Daughters of Charity on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois-Saint-Marcel in the Mouffetard District.

[1] In 1815 Rendu became the Sister Servant (local religious superior) of the community at the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois.

She worked with the Department of Welfare established by the Napoleonic government, administering a program that provided vouchers for coal and food.

She sent her Sisters into all the hidden recesses of St. Médard Parish in order to bring supplies, clothing, care and a comforting word.

She would speak to God of this family in distress as the father no longer had any work, of this elderly person who risked dying alone in an attic: "Never have I prayed so well as in the streets," she would say.

[6] To assist all the suffering, Rendu opened a free clinic, a pharmacy, a school, a child and maternal care center, a youth club for young workers and a home for the elderly without resources.

Bishops, priests, the Spanish Ambassador, King Charles X, the powerful General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, and the most distinguished men of state and culture, even the Emperor Napoleon III with his wife, were often seen in her parlor.

[6] Students of law, medicine, science, technology, engineering, teacher‑training, and all the other important schools came seeking from Rendu information and recommendations.

She directed their apostolate, guided their coming and going in the suburbs, and gave them addresses of families in need, choosing them with care.

Her cousin, Eugene Rendu, said wrote of her: "Sister Rosalie's principal character trait was her common sense, pushed to the point of genius.

[7] Rendu also formed a relationship with the Superior of Bon Saveur in Caen and requested that she too welcome those in need.

When order was reestablished, Rendu tried to save a number of these people she knew and who were victims of fierce repression.

She was ready to refuse this individual honor but Jean-Baptiste Etienne, Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, made her accept it.

After the funeral rite at St. Médard Church, her parish, a large and emotional crowd followed her remains to the Montparnasse Cemetery.

L'Univers, the principal Catholic newspaper of the time, edited by Louis Veuillot, wrote as early as 8 February: "Our readers understand the significance of the sadness that has come upon the poor of Paris.

Le Constitutionnel, the newspaper of the anticlerical left, did not hesitate to announce the death of this Daughter of Charity: "The unfortunate people of the 12th district have just experienced a regrettable loss.

The official newspaper of the Empire, le Moniteur Universel, praised the kindly actions of this Sister: "Funeral honors were given to Sr. Rosalie with unusual splendor.

Many visitors came to the cemetery to meditate and pray but had difficulty locating the common gravesite reserved for the Daughters of Charity.

On the simple tomb surmounted by a large Cross are engraved these words: "To Sister Rosalie, from her grateful friends, the rich and the poor".