Marie Louise Trichet

Blessed Marie Louise Trichet
Depiction of Trichet with St. Louis de Montfort, at the Daughter of the Wisdom congregation, 19th century
First Daughter of Wisdom
Born	7 May 1684 Poitiers, France
Died	28 April 1759 Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	16 May 1993, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II

Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, also known as Marie-Louise de Jésus (1684–1759), was a French Catholic figure who, with Saint Louis de Montfort, founded the Congregation of religious women called Daughters of Wisdom and since the age of seventeen devoted her life to caring for the poor and the sick. She is also referred to as the First Daughter of Wisdom. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

She was born in Poitiers, on the Clain River in west central France on 7 May 1684 and baptized at the church of St. Etienne. Her father Julien was a court magistrate in Poitiers and her mother Françoise Lecocq was deeply religious, as was most of her family. She was the fourth child and third daughter, and had seven siblings.

The eldest, Jeanne, struck with paralysis at the age of thirteen, was cured three years later during a visit to Notre Dame des Ardilliers at Saumur. Her younger brother Alexis, born just one year earlier, was ordained a priest in 1710 and later died after volunteering to minister to plague stricken inmates in a prison camp. The youngest of her sisters later joined the Daughters of Wisdom.

Marie Louise grew up in an atmosphere of religion and education, and when seven years old, was sent to the boarding school at Poitiers run by the Sisters of St. Jeanne de Lestonac to acquire the social qualifications suitable for the upper echelons of seventeenth-century France.

The area of western France where she grew up had a strong Christian tradition. Poitiers is home to Baptistère Saint-Jean, reportedly the oldest extant Christian building in France. And the historic Battle of Tours was fought just 20 km north of Poitiers in the 8th century. Poitiers was also important in that in the 15th century the French royal parliament in exile moved from Paris to Poitiers. In the 16th century, Poitiers impressed visitors because of its relatively large size, royal courts, university, prolific printing shops, religious institutions, cathedral and numerous parishes.

Yet the apparent affluence of Poitiers in the 17th century, prior to the French Revolution, had a less than royal side. France was plagued by corruption, and rampant poverty. At Poitiers, beggars, cripples and drunks were forcibly sent to a stone building called the General Hospital. The hospital inmates were only offered a common room, one bed for two or three, black bread and a stew of unknown origin - and had to wear a rough gray uniform.