Julienne Dallaire was born in Quebec City on May 23, 1911. Since her first communion, she feels a special attraction for the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. She will continue seeking a deeper understanding of this mystery ever since. When she is twelve years old, the account of the Samaritan Woman (Jn 4:4-26) […]
Read moreAlfred Bessette was born on August 9, 1845 at Mont-Saint-Grégoire (Quebec). He was the ninth of 13 children. He was so frail when he was born that he was baptized the following day. In 1855, when he was only ten years old, he lost his father in an accident at work and two years later […]
Read moreMariette Payment was born in Montreal on January 11, 1927. When asked to speak about her childhood, she once said: “I grew up in a home filled with love, music and faith. Participation in the life of the Church was an important value for my parents.” She did all her schooling with the Sisters of […]
Read moreBorn in Troyes, Champagne (France) on April 17, 1620, the sixth of twelve children, Marguerite Bourgeoys grows up in a Christian, middle class family. She is 19 years old when she loses her mother. The following year, during a procession in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, she receives a special grace that transforms […]
Read moreBorn at Islet-sur-Mer, Quebec, on June 28, 1926, from a cultured and Christian family, Sister Marguerite Jean feels attracted to something more than what her environment proposes her. She therefore enters the community of Bon-Pasteur in Quebec City when she turns 18. Once her formation to religious life is completed, she is offered a job […]
Read moreSister Delphine (Marie-Antoinette) Fontbonne was the first superior and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States and Canada. Born December 24, 1813 in Bas-en-Basset, France, Marie-Antoinette was educated by the Sisters of St. Joseph and then entered the Lyon Community in 1832, taking the religious name Sister Delphine. […]
Read moreBorn in Verdun on October 2, 1927, Jean-Baptiste does his classical studies at the Collège Bourget of Rigaud, from 1942 to 1949. He then enters the noviciate and scholasticate of the Clercs de Saint-Viateur. He is ordained a priest on June 17, 1954. He teaches for thirty-five years, from 1954 to 1989, in the same […]
Read moreBorn in 1880 in Chambéry (France) in a well-to-do family, Claire had a happy childhood. As a boarder with the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, she is fascinated by a painting of St. Francis Xavier and dreams of being a missionary like him; wasn’t she baptized on December 3, his feast day? Unfortunately, following her […]
Read moreBorn on April 28, 1869, John Eckert begins his schooling in the neighboring school. When he is ready to go to high school, he expresses a desire to become a priest in some religious order and his parents send him to St. Jerome’s College at Kitchener (Berlin in those days), where he remains for six […]
Read moreWilliam was born on May 16, 1905, in Dover, N.H. (U.S.A.), to French-Canadian parents who had immigrated from Canada to find work in the city’s cotton mills. In 1916, his family returns to Canada for a short time. He is confirmed the following year at a parish in New Brunswick. In 1920, perhaps driven by […]
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