Louise NICOLLE -  

Louise Nicolle is a living illustration of the social action of the Catholic Church which developed in the North of France in the middle of the 19th century. She was born on June 9, 1847 in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux into a wealthy family. Very devout but in poor health, she renounced becoming a nun. In 1867, she established her first patronage. The creation of other charities followed, all of which were geared toward women.

She took advantage of the fact that she was a woman and her family were all in the same boat

She took advantage of her social position to go à the meeting of the bosses amandinois so that they provide work to young girls désœuvrées. In 1874, she created a work-at-home system to provide an income for the girls. This allowed them to stay at home while making crochet and lace for the city's industrialists. She also created the dowry work: the most assiduous girls at the patronage received a financial pledge which was the basis of their dowry. The objective was to give them an education, allowing them to become respectable wives and mothers. In 1889, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 42

Louise Nicolle had a chapel built, where she was buried in 1948 and which bears her name, as does a street in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. Proposed for beatification in the 1930s by the Dominicans, Louise Nicolle was declared a servant of God by the Vatican.