Canadian Sister Marie-Leonie Paradis to be canonized on Oct. 20

Canadian Sister Blessed Marie-Leonie Paradis, founder of the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family of Sherbrooke, will be declared a saint on Oct. 20.

Born Virginie Alodie on May 12, 1840, in L’Acadie, Quebec, Blessed Marie-Leonie founded her institute to collaborate with and support the religious of Holy Cross in educational work, in 1880 in New Brunswick.

Today her sisters work in over 200 institutions of education and evangelization in Canada, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, Chile, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Pope Francis made the announcement at a consistory of cardinals in Rome on July 1.

She was beatified in Montreal on Sept. 11, 1984, by Saint John Paul II, during his visit to Canada.

Also to be canonized on Oct. 20 are 11 martyrs from Damascus (including eight Franciscans and three lay faithful murdered in 1860 by Druze Muslims), as well as two other founders of religious communities: Giuseppe Allamano for the Consolata Missionaries and Elena Guerra for the Oblate dello Spirito Santo.

A statement from Bishop Serge Poitras, the Canadian bishops’ Episcopal Coordinator for the Causes of Saints in Canada, said, “the Church in Canada is greatly pleased with the happy news of the canonization of Blessed Marie-Leonie Paradis.”

Born in 1840, she entered the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross at the age of 14, becoming a teacher in Varennes, Saint-Laurent of Montreal, Saint-Martin of Laval, then in New York.

In Michigan she taught French Canadians who emigrated in large numbers to the United States.

She always felt a call to support priests in their ministry, said Bishop Poitras, and “events led her to found a new community which was recognized in 1896 by the Bishop of Sherbrooke: the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.”

The consecrated women “ensure the service of presbyteries and religious institutions,” said the bishop, and “through their life of prayer and collaboration, they accompany priests in their ministry. In their self-giving, their goal is to serve Christ in the person of the priest on the temporal and spiritual plane. Many women have heard the same call and have dedicated themselves to this mission.

Mother Mary Leonia died on 3 May 3, 1912, in Sherbrooke, Que., at the age of 72.

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