ST CLAUDINE THEVENET - 3 FEBRUARY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of February

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST CLAUDINE THEVENET (SISTER MARIE DE SAINT IGNACE)

“Saint Claudine Thevenet (1774-1837) lived in Lyons all her life. Her adolescence was upset by the French Revolution, which shook her native city so violently.

"FORGIVE - AS WE FORGIVE"

One morning in January 1794, this 19-year-old girl recognised her two brothers, Louis and Francois, in a procession of people condemned to death. She had the courage to accompany them to the place of execution and to receive their last words: “…,forgive as we forgive!”

This event was certainly a decisive element in the vocation of Claudine, who already felt such sympathy for all the misery accumulated by the storm of the Revolution.

A MESSENGER FOR GOD'S MERCY

She dreamed of becoming a messenger of God’s mercy and forgiveness in a torn society, and of dedicating her life to the education of the young, especially the poorest, whose state of abandonment is more than we can imagine.

THE CONGREGATION OF JESUS AND MARY

That is why, with the enlightened support of Father Coindre, Claudine founded a Pious Union in 1816, which would become two years later the Congregation of Jesus and Mary.

MAKING JESUS AND MARY KNOWN

Today, for the greater joy of the Church, the Daughters of Mother Thevenet amount to over two thousand, present in all continents and really living by her spirit. Schools and colleges, hostels for girls and for old persons, catechetical and family apostolates, dispensaries and houses of prayer have only one purpose: to make Jesus and Mary known, while working for the social advancement of the poor…

NEVER CAUSE ANY SUFFERING

Claudine Thevenet presents herself to us as a model of love and forgiveness. ‘Let charity be the apple of your eye,’ she still says now as she liked to repeat to her Sisters. ‘Be ready to suffer everything from others and never to cause anyone suffering.'”

(Pope John Paul II at Claudine Thevenet’s beatification ceremony on October 4, 1981)