country girls, and it required a superhuman self-control to go about
with downcast eyes, noticing nothing. At the weekly conference one of
the Sisters acknowledged that if she passed a troop of mountebanks or
a peepshow, the desire to look was so strong upon her that she could
only resist it by pressing her crucifix to her heart and repeating, "O
Jesus, Thou art worth it all."

One day Vincent appeared among them in great joy. He had just met a
gentleman in the street, who had said to him, "Monsieur, today I saw
two of your daughters carrying food to the sick, and so great was the
modesty of one of them that she never even raised her eyes."

It was many years before he would allow the Sisters, however great
their desire, to bind themselves by vows to the service of Christ in
His poor. When at last the permission was given, the formula of the
vows, which were taken for one year only, ran thus:

"I the undersigned, in the Presence of God, renew the promises of my
Baptism, and make the vow of poverty, of chastity, and of obedience to
the Venerable Superior General of the Priests of the Mission in the
Company of the Sisters of Charity, that I may bind myself all this
year to the service, bodily and spiritual, of the poor and sick our
masters. And this by the aid of God, which I ask through His Son Jesus
Christ Crucified, and through the prayers of the Holy Virgin."

Although vows taken thus annually did not imply a lifelong dedication,
the Sisters of Charity who returned to the world were few. Many heroic
women spent their lives, unknown and unnoticed, in the daily drudgery
of nursing the sick or trying to maintain order in country hospitals.

"The saintliness of a Daughter of Charity," said Vincent, "rests on
faithful adherence to the Rule; on faithful service to the nameless
poor; in love and charity and pity; in faithful obedience to the
doctor's orders . . . It keeps us humble to be quite ordinary . . ."

"For the greater honor of Our Lord, their Master and Patron," runs a
certain passage in their Rule, "the Sisters of Charity shall have in
everything they do a definite intention to please Him, and shall try
to conform their life to His, especially in His poverty, His humility,
His gentleness, His simplicity and austerity." Therein was to lie
their strength and the secret of their courage; before them stood
their crucified Lord, bidding them suffer and be strong.

The "Grey Sisters," as they were called by the po