Bl. Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840-1912)
A humble servant of the Lord and His ministers. Marie-Léonie was born in L’Acadie, Quebec to a poor miller family. She was educated by the Sisters of Notre Dame. At the age of thirteen, Marie-Léonie entered the religious community of the Marianites of Holy Cross. With them she taught and ministered in Quebec, New York, Indiana, and New Brunswick. During her time in New Brunswick, Marie-Léonie gathered other women around her, and with them she founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. These Sisters devoted themselves to caring for priests, particularly through housekeeping. Until her death at age seventy one, and despite frail health and frequent illnesses, Marie-Léonie persevered in her tasks of humble service to Christ, His Church, and His priests.
Prayer
O God, who made Blessed Marie-Leonie Paradis an example of devoted and humble service to your Church’s ministers, grant us, we pray, the grace to imitate her virtues, that, faithfully walking in our own vocation, we may reach the perfection you have set before us in your Son.