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The creative genius of an authentic Lyonnaise, a committed mystic, a pioneer in her time.

  • Antoine JARICOT is from SOUCIEU EN JARREST, from a family of farmers. He moved to Lyon at the age of 14 as an apprentice silk folder. Over time, in a context where the silk industry was stimulated by Napoleon, he grew rich, and then found himself at the head of a comfortable trade. He owns several properties.

  • Jeanne LATTIER, silk worker, is from the popular district of Saint-Paul in LYON. She met Antoine for the first time, during the Stations of the Cross on the hill of Fourvière, on March 17, 1782. It was love at first sight. She was 20 and Antoine was 27 when they married on April 9, 1782.

  • Pauline will grow up in the well-off environment of the Lyon bourgeoisie, in a family attached to Christian values, believers and practitioners with concern for the poor, faithful to the papacy and the monarchy.

  • His itinerary will go through a particularly turbulent period of history, both politically and socio-economically, as well as ecclesially.

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Historical context

 

  • From 1799 to 1862, the date of Pauline's death, France experienced the Consulate in 1799 and the 1st Empire in 1804 with Napoleon I, then the two Restorations with Louis XVIII in 1814 and Charles X in 1824, and finally the July Monarchy. with Louis Philippe d'Orléans from 1830.

  • In 1848, Napoleon Bonaparte presided over the Second Republic and then established, from 1852 to 1870, the Second Empire.

  • In this first half of the 19th century, the era of industrialization gave birth in France to a new social class, poor, miserable, forced to work at will.

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  • In Lyon, on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse, the canuts, silk craftsmen, are harnessed to the looms, work 17 hours a day with mediocre incomes possibly leading their daughters to prostitute themselves to support them.

  • The JARICOT family, which in 1815 moved to 21 rue Puits Gaillot, moored between the parish of Saint NIZIER and the parish of Saint POLYCARPE, could not ignore the living and working conditions of this underprivileged population, often despised and exploited.

  • At the beginning of the 19th century, the Church of France was weakened by the measures voted against it in the wake of the Revolution of 1789: civil constitution of the clergy inducing refractory priests and sworn priests, suppression of the budget for worship. A wave of dechristianization impoverished the Church of France which had to undergo anticlerical opposition. The concordat signed in 1801 between Pius VII and Napoleon establishes a modus vivendi but attributes to the latter, who appoints the bishops, the supremacy of power.

  • Catholics are divided between two currents of opinion: that of ultramontanes faithful to the Pope and that of Gallicanism which aims at a certain autonomy of the Church of France vis-à-vis the Holy See.

  • It is in this environmental context that Pauline JARICOT will grow and evolve and that her personality and choices take shape.

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Childhood and Adolescence

 

  • Pauline JARICOT had a happy childhood and adolescence with attentive parents, caring and protective brothers and sisters. At the age of 10 she was sent to boarding school at Fourvière in a small private school where a priest dispensed catechesis. On April 16, 1812, she received the sacraments of confirmation and communion in Saint Jean Cathedral. (Picture 4)

  • From 13 to 17 years old, she frequented the exclusive world of silk products. She leads a worldly, carefree and festive life between her father's house, the property of Tassin, domain of Sophie who became Mrs. Zacharie PERRIN - a rich silk manufacturer - and the castle of Saint Vallier where resides Marie-Laurence wife of Mr CHARTRON, the main local silk manufacturer.

  • Pauline is beautiful, rich, coquettish. She has health and reputation. But, comments Monsignor CRISTIANI, one of her biographers, there is a depth of seriousness and tragedy in her under the aspect of coquetry and lightness.

  • On Palm Sunday 1816, Pauline went with her sister Sophie to the church of Saint Nizier to take part in the Eucharistic celebration. That day, Abbé WÜRTZ preached on “the illusions of vanity, being and appearing”.

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