Portrait of the Underprivileged : Managing the Ignorant Substitute of Christ

Abstract

The fourth chapter tackles the means and contents of moral management aimed at the poor the Company of the Daughters of Charity helped. Focusing on the ideas and attitudes of the Company toward their benefactors, the chapter examines prejudice and love as motives in charity work and argues for the prevalence of the latter. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the contents of this moral management and finds that only a certain group of people were helped, the so called deserving poor, who were educated to become chaste and working members of society. This was not only in line with contemporary thinking of social order, but also part of the survival strategy that separated the order from erudite cloistered orders.