Élodie Paradis was born on May 12, 1840 in Acadie, Lower Canada, the only daughter of a family of six children. When she is nine her mother sends her to a boarding school in Laprairie, run by the sisters of Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The same year her father leaves for California to look for gold. […]
Read moreBorn in France from a noble background in 1623, François de Laval was trained and educated by the Jesuits. During those formative years he learned about the order’s missionaries in North America and was impressed by their missionary zeal. He was ordained a diocesan priest in 1647. After spending more than a year in Rome […]
Read moreCatherine of Saint-Augustin was born on May 3, 1632, in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Normandy (France). She is raised by her maternal grandparents who are used to offer hospitality to the poor and sick and teach Catherine the virtue of charity. As early as age three, she expresses a strong desire to do God’s will and at age […]
Read moreBorn on July 2, 1876, in Kaysersberg (Upper Rhin), the youngest of four children of a Catholic family of modest means, Joseph Staub spends his childhood in Alsace-Lorraine, which was at the time part of the German empire. In November 1890 he enters the juniorate of the Assumptionists in Mauville, France. On September 8, 1896, […]
Read moreLouis-Zéphirin Moreau was born premature on April 1, 1824, in Bécancour (Lower Canada). Because of his poor health, his parents felt he was unsuited for farm work and, on the advice of their parish priest, push him to study, first in Bécancour and then at the Séminaire of Nicolet. Though, in November 1845 he is […]
Read moreMary Ellen Tucker, in religion Sister Mary Providence, was born in County Sligo, Ireland, on October 2, 1836. She enjoyed a privileged upbringing and was educated by the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. The death of her mother and a family financial disaster resulted in the family immigrating to Montreal, Quebec. Blessed Mother Marie-Anne […]
Read moreBorn on May 31, 1909, Mother Anselme takes her vows with the Sœurs de Charité de Sainte-Marie in 1928. She teaches for six years in schools run by the sisters in Torino. During the war in Ethiopia, she accepts to go help in the hospital of Gimma (Ethiopia). In 1941, during the British occupation, […]
Read moreBorn in Sainte-Marie de Beauce, Quebec, the fourth of a family of ten children, Gabrielle joins the Ursuline Sisters in 1945, at the age of twenty-one. She is assigned to St-Eugène d’Argentenay, Lac St-Jean, where she begins her long career as an Ursuline sister, combining teaching with studying. Her many qualifications and her participation in […]
Read moreVital Grandin was born on February 8, 1829, in Saint-Pierre-la-Cour, France. His parents were hotel-keepers and farmers. From an early age he feels a religious vocation and in 1846 enters the Petit Séminaire, with the intention of becoming a parish priest. In 1850 he decides to become a missionary and enters the Grand Séminaire in […]
Read moreBorn on November 26, 1923 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Alice Gallagher is introduce to the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul through her older sister Marguerite who entered the congregation in 1942. Alice received her teaching certificate before entering the congregation on August 14, 1943. As a postulant, she taught at St. John’s School […]
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