Company of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul

The Company of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul is a community of nuns whose work in the story is closely associated with the Casa Santa Marta. The sisters run the building, where the cardinal-electors are lodged during the conclave, and their presence gives its austere routines a human, devotional dimension. They appear not as participants in the election’s formal decision-making but as people whose labor and care sustain the setting in which it takes place.

The Sisters and the Casa Santa Marta

The Casa Santa Marta was built to replace the cramped and inadequate arrangements in the Apostolic Palace, where earlier cardinal-electors had slept in converted offices and reception rooms. The six-storey building, constructed in the south-western corner of Vatican City, contains 128 bedrooms with en suite bathrooms. In the periods between elections it serves as accommodation for visiting prelates and priests working in the Curia; during a conclave, its residents are cleared out and the building is prepared for the electors.

The Company’s sisters run the Casa and are identified by their blue habits. Their role is part of the building’s ordinary life as well as its special function during the election. When Cardinal Lomeli arrives after visiting the Sistine Chapel, he passes through the security scanner and receives his key from a sister at reception. The practical detail places the sisters at the threshold of the conclave’s secluded world: the cardinals’ accommodation depends on their ongoing service.

Service During the Papal Transition

The sisters’ presence is also visible in moments of grief. After the Pope’s death, three members of the Company stand outside his suite holding hands and crying. Their response is a quiet communal act, distinct from the officials’ handling of the death and the preparation of the formal account. It shows the sisters as witnesses to the personal loss surrounding the institutional transition.

Their work continues at meals. When Vincent Benítez is asked to bless the cardinals’ food, his prayer explicitly includes the sisters who prepared and serve it, alongside people who are hungry, sick, lonely, or unable to share the meal. The scene acknowledges their labor within the ritual life of the conclave: they remain outside the electors’ deliberations, yet their service is named in a prayer spoken by the man who will become Pope.

Institutional and Narrative Significance

The Company connects the Casa Santa Marta’s practical operation with the religious life of the conclave. Its sisters maintain a place designed to house the electors, attend to the routines that make communal life possible, and share in the mourning that follows the Pope’s death. Their work provides a contrast to the cardinals’ struggles over procedure, leadership, and Church governance: while the men debate authority and legitimacy, the sisters’ service continues in the background.

The novel gives that service a brief but distinct acknowledgment through Benítez’s blessing. By remembering the people who prepared and serve the meal, the prayer draws attention to the often-unseen labor supporting the conclave and places it within the cardinals’ act of worship. The Company’s significance therefore lies less in political influence than in its sustained presence at the material and devotional center of the election.