ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 9th of January
BLESSED MOTHER TERESA OF JESUS, FOUNDRESS
Alix Le Clerc (LeClerk) (Mother Teresa of Jesus) was born on February 2, 1576 into a wealthy family in Remiremont in the independent Duchy of Lorraine, part of the Holy Roman Empire. She loved worldly vanities and dancing, spending many of her evenings partying with her young friends.
When she was in her late teens, her family moved to Mattaincourt, a manufacturing centre. At the age of 21, a sudden illness confined her to her bed. While there, her only reading material was a devotional book. From the reading and reflection she was able to do while recuperating from her illness, Alix began to feel the need for a change in her life.
She approached the pastor of the town, Dom Peter Fourier, who encouraged her in changing her ways and helping to make the world a better place. A vision of Our Lady gave Alix the direction she sought, as she felt called to care for the daughters of the poor all around them who had little or no access to education. Supported in this by Dom Peter, who himself had seen the desperate need for this among the rural populace of his parish, Alix resolved to commit her life to this goal.
She was joined in this enterprise by four of her friends, with whom she established a community where they could follow lives of simplicity, prayer, and respecting the presence of God in each girl whom they would receive for instruction. In 1597, Alix and her companions made private vows in the parish church to Dom Peter Fourier. The small community opened their first school the following July in Poussay, where they offered free education to the girls of the duchy.
Expansion of their work developed quickly, with communities being opened in Mattaincourt (1599), Saint-Michel (1602), Nancy (1603), Pont-à-Mousson (1604), Verdun, and Saint-Nicolas-de-Port (1605). All the schools took the name of Notre-Dame.
The community, which grew rapidly, followed the Augustine Rule. Alix oversaw the development of the congregation as the various houses, each in their own turn, became formally recognised.
For the rest of her life, she led the development of the spiritual and practical aspects of the lives of the canonesses in the various monasteries. She would visit each new community, to instill in them the spirit of their founding, saying to them, Que Dieu soit votre amour entier! (May God be your only love!), reflecting the deep spiritual life she maintained in the midst of her responsibilities in the congregation.
Alix died on January 9, 1622 at the monastery in Nancy. She was buried in the cemetery of the monastery in a lead coffin. The monastery in Nancy was destroyed during the upheavals of the French Revolution, and the traces of the grave were lost. With the re-establishment of Catholic institutions in France in the early 19th-century, the cause of her canonisation was taken up, but faced the difficulty of there being no remains, normally required during the process.
Various efforts were made by a number of priests to find the holy foundress' remains in the precincts of the former cloister of the monastery over the next century, without success. Despite this obstacle, the Holy See decided to proceed with the beatification of Mother Teresa of Jesus. This was done by Pope Pius XII on May 4, 1947.
In 1950 a group of young students in Nancy was exploring the basement of a building in the city and found a lead coffin buried nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) below the ground. By 1960, the remains were conclusively identified as those of Mother Teresa of Jesus, and were placed for veneration in the chapel of the Notre Dame School of the city. A special chapel was eventually built for the remains in the cathedral and they were transferred there on October 14, 2007, where they are available for veneration by the public.
The congregation spread overseas (South America, Africa, and Asia), and they now serve in 43 nations. Today, their mission has expanded to include work for human rights, such as the protection of the rights of migrants and the promotion of justice for developing nations.
In Europe, the congregation had faced a century of upheaval, starting with the French Revolution, which had closed many of their houses. Thirty of them somehow survived. In central Europe, communities were scattered, moving back and forth between Germany (founded in 1640) and Bohemia. Out of this chaos, Karolina Gerhardinger, a former student of the suppressed monastery in Stadtamhof, came to found the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1833. It currently has 3,500 members working in over 30 countries around the world.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alix_Le_Clerc
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment