22 October - Rustrel, the factory of our Lady of the Angels
At a very young age, Pauline Jaricot thought about what should be done to give the worker his dignity as a man, a father and a Christian. In fact, Christians were concerned about the situation of workers and sought to restore social harmony and cure pauperism. They denounced the worsening condition of workers in industry. Fréderic Ozanam, founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, was concerned about the social question, criticised economic liberalism and, together with others, sought social progress based on the realisation of the Christian principles of brotherhood and charity. According to him, the question that agitates the world today "is the struggle of those who have nothing and those who have too much" (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 329). How can we give a little "free time", a little "salvation" to the working class in the movement of social Catholicism? What can be done so that the worker can regain his dignity as a man, as a Christian, as a father? How can we give the worker back his dignity as a man, how can we make the father of a family taste the sweetness and the charms of his domestic home? How can we restore the husband to the wife, the father to his child and "God to man, whose happiness and end he is? (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 340) Should one organize a Christian factory?
Charity is no longer enough; justice must intervene, hence the desire for a free association of workers. Especially in the north of France, people began to denounce the exploitation of workers by those who possessed the means of production, where human beings were treated like vile cattle. (Mgr Giraud, Cambrai, 1845; see Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 330). In 1843, the Archbishop of Paris, Denis-Auguste Affre, denounced this new slavery to which an economy of profit tended to crush the industrial workers. This was the beginning of a social Catholicism that was echoed by Ozanam. The bishops were mainly concerned with moral and spiritual principles and were generally hostile to socialist doctrines and silent on the idea of workers' associations, which Ozanam in particular advocated. Their hopes were mainly placed in the restoration of faith and a return to religion
In Pauline’s day, the silk industry employed some 40,000 workers, 30,000 of whom were weavers called canuts. They crammed themselves and their families into narrow dwellings in the Croix-Rousse and Saint-Georges districts. The Place des Terreaux, near which the Jaricot family lived, was the real commercial centre. (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 323). With the arrival of mechanical trades, children were in great demand. The interests of the employers overlapped with those of the families who obtained a supplementary salary, to the great detriment of the children's education and health. The law regulating work from 1841 was poorly applied. Women were also in demand, even though the law required the authorisation of the husband to whom the salary belonged. In Lyon, silk workers worked from 14 to 16 hours a day, sometimes even more. They could work from 3 a.m. (in the summer) or from 5 a.m. (in the winter) until nightfall, even as late as 11 p.m.!!! Sunday was the only day off. The conditions in the workshops were deplorable, unhealthy and poorly lit. [The low wages and periods of unemployment created an insurmountable problem for many single women forcing them into situations of sexual exploitation. Prostitution developed especially among the silk workers. Pauline saw all this with her own eyes, especially when she went to the traboules and streets of Lyon to collect the weekly penny for the Propagation of the Faith. (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 323).
The workers organised themselves to find remedies for their distress, but their life was difficult. There was a framework of “mutual help” societies, brining workers together and pooling their contributions. For a monthly contribution, they received help in the event of illness, unemployment or old age. This system, long in place in Lyon, made it possible to set up a system of “mutual obligations" (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 324). In November of 1831 and later during the strikes from 1833 onwards, tensions and conflicts broke out between the workers' mutualists and the republicans, whose activity in Lyon took the form of banquets, secret societies and newspapers. (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 324). Even if this mutual resistance movement was disorganised after the repression that followed the days of 1831, mutual assistance continued to develop. Pauline wondered whether it was not necessary to go further, by transforming Christian workers into apostles who would transform society in depth thanks to the spirit of the Gospel. The ideal, according to her, would be the creation of Christian factories where all the rules, including mutual aid between workers, would be based on the Gospel.
Pauline Jaricot wanted to create a company, Notre-Dame des Anges, in connection with the Perre-Allioud family. In fact, she will continually provide monetary funds, which instead of serving her project, will be used for other acquisitions and dissipations. Even though Pauline advised her close collaborators to be prudent, she only received a reply that concealed the maliciousness of a consolidation of a coalition of old foxes, who were working together to found a new company, exploiting the idea of the Banque du ciel and Pauline's participation (Sœur Cécilia Giacovelli, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 244). Pauline was told that a Christian heart cannot harbour any feelings of hatred and revenge. (Sister Cecilia Giacovelli, Pauline Jaricot. Biographie, Paris, Mame, 2005, p. 244). And even though Pauline pointed out that there is 'an immeasurable difference between a feeling of revenge and blind trust' (Sœur Cécilia Giacovelli, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 244), Pauline's money was embezzled, as well as that of the friends and small shareholders who had trusted her to participate in her project. These were mainly people belonging to the network of the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary.
On April 3rd, 1856, the "Société des Forges de Sainte-Anne-d'Apt" was founded. Its principal aim was the transformation of cast iron from the blast furnaces of Rustrel into iron and sheet metal. However, things became complicated and the company was seriously compromised. Pauline understood that her project was entering a critical, even disastrous phase, particularly for the small shareholders she had invited to participate in the venture. Barely six months after its foundation, the Society demonstrated a loss of more than 100,000 francs, due to an unspeakable squandering of funds. There were only 600 francs left in the coffers and a quantity of goods on sale which does not exceed 9,000 francs. On the other hand, the debts to be settled for real estate and labour amounted to 500,000 francs. (Sœur Cécilia Giacovelli, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 246.) Swindlers and thieves ruined Pauline and deprived her of all of her wealth and her dream of a just and humane workers project. Her beautiful project of a Christian factory where the Gospel would be the fundamental point of reference, in order to transform the workers into virtuous workers and apostles was destroyed. Pauline was to die a victim of other’s greed. She was ruined and vilified but never lost confidence in her divine Spouse. This will lead her to deepen her meditation on the mystery of the cross.