Pauline von Mallinckrodt

Pauline von Mallinckrodt, SCC (3 June 1817 - 30 April 1881) was a German noblewoman and the foundress of the Sisters of Christian Charity, a Catholic religious institute.

Born into the aristocratic Mallinckrodt family as the daughter of a Lutheran father and Catholic mother, from her adolescence she began to tend to the blind and sick. This venture expanded into what became a religious congregation which spread at a rapid pace; she herself traveled to a range of places to oversee its growth and development. She died in 1881 and was beatified on 14 April 1985.

Life Pauline von Mallinckrodt was born into the German nobility, as the eldest child of Detmar von Mallinckrodt (1769–1842), a politician and an Evangelical, and his wife, the highly accomplished and pious Marianna Berhardina Katharina von Hartmann (1787–1834), a Catholic. Her father was Vice-governor at Minden (1818–23) and also at Aachen (1823–29).

The distinguished parliamentarian Hermann Josef Christian von Mallinckrodt (05.02.1821-26.05.1874) was her younger brother as was Georg Detmar Ignaz Franz Daniel Wilhem von Mallinckrodt (c.1819-21.03.1881) and sister Bertha von Mallinckrodt. Her father was Lutheran; her mother a devout Catholic; Pauline was baptized as "Maria Bernardine Sophia Pauline".

In 1826 her father was transferred to Aix-la-Chapelle where Mallinckrodt attended Saint Leonard's school. Her classmates included Clara Fey and Mary Frances Schervier; one of her teachers were Luise Hensel. In the fall of 1832 she continued her studies at a French school in Liège. Following a tour through Switzerland in 1833 with her parents she returned to Aix-la-Chapelle. From this developed an institution for blind children who were provided a home in a former Capuchin convent where she took up residence after the death of her father in 1842; she was at his bedside as he died. and a decade later on 23 December 1952; the formal introduction to the cause came on 29 May 1958 under Pope Pius XII and she became titled as a Servant of God. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved it on 14 December 1982. Pope John Paul II approved her life of heroic virtue and named her as Venerable on 13 January 1983.

The miracle for beatification was investigated on a diocesan level and it received C.C.S. validation sometime later. Medical experts approved this miracle on 8 March 1994 and theologians likewise approved it on 26 June 1984 as did the C.C.S. on 6 November 1984. John Paul II approved this miracle on 14 December 1984 and beatified her several months later on 14 April 1985. The second miracle for her to be sainted was investigated in Detroit from April to 30 May 2006 and was validated on 12 January 2007.

The current postulator for this cause is Dr. Andrea Ambrosi.