The book “Histoire des Équipes Saint-Vincent. Des femmes au service de la charité depuis 400 ans” (“The History of the Saint Vincent Teams. Women at the Service of Charity for 400 Years”) has just been published in French by the Salvator publishing house. Its three co-authors are Claire Renauldon, Chantal Crépey and Laurence de la Brosse, three French AIC volunteers and, in Laurence’s case, a former AIC International president. They have produced together a very well documented and easy-to-read book, which recounts our history from the Confraternities of Charity in 1617 up to the AIC groups of today. It naturally focuses more on the history of AIC groups in France, but also shows the birth of the confraternities in Italy and Poland, and the development of AIC from 1971 until the present day.
Indeed, after celebrating the 400th anniversary of AIC in 2017, AIC France realized the need to write a book about this history, as it had never been done before. Such a book would provide more visibility to our local groups and give a better understanding of our mission.
In addition to the research carried out about past centuries, numerous testimonies were collected about more recent years. This work took four years. Today the resulting book, containing a wealth of information and experience, is there for each volunteer and serves to make AIC better known.
Who among us has never thought: “we are not well-known enough!” So let us seize the opportunity of the release of this book and be imaginative in distributing it. AIC needs to make itself known; our service to people living in poverty depends on it.
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