On January 24, 2024, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of a decree from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints which recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840-1912), a Canadian religious sister and founder of the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.
In the Catholic Church, a miracle must be obtained through the deceased's intercession in order to be declared Blessed by the Church. An additional miracle must occur for the Church to canonize and declare that person a saint.
Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 11, 1984, during a Mass at Jarry Park in Montreal, Canada, before a crowd of nearly 300,000.
The miracle recognized for the upcoming canonization of Sister Marie-Léonie Paradis concerned an unexplained, miraculous healing by doctors of a newborn girl following "prolonged perinatal asphyxia with multi-organ failure and encephalopathy" in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, in 1986.
On October 30, 1986, the mother, at 41 weeks' gestation, arrived at the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Hospital, where she began having spontaneous contractions. A few minutes before her baby was born, doctors noticed a significant deceleration of the fetal heart rate, with signs of prenatal hypoxia. At 10:19 p.m. the baby was born without respiratory activity. After one minute of life, the heartbeat resumed, but the infant did not respond to stimulation.
The newborn was immediately resuscitated, but with poor results, and she was intubated and placed in intensive care. Just under 2 hours after delivery, she was transferred to Montreal Children's Hospital, which is better equipped for neonatal care. On the second night after delivery, between October 31 and November 1, Marie-Léonie Paradis was invoked to intercede in the baby's healing. A second invocation was asked on the following Monday, November 3. On November 9, 1986, 10 days after birth, the newborn was discharged in good health.
Today, this child, Marie-Nicole, is a young woman who teaches languages. Recognition of this miracle opened the door to the canonization of Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis.
On July 1, 2024, Pope Francis announced that her canonization will take place in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, October 20, 2024. Eleven Franciscan martyrs from Damascus and two other founders of religious communities, Giuseppe Allamano for the Missionaries of the Consolata and Elena Guerra for the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, will also be canonized that day.
Virginie-Alodie Paradis was born on May 12, 1840 in L'Acadie, a small village then part of the diocese of Montreal, now part of the diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil and merged with the city of Saint-Jean-sur- Richelieu, Quebec. Baptized under the name Virginie-Alodie, she was known as Élodie.
She was the only daughter and third of six children, four of whom would survive. Her parents, Joseph Paradis and Émilie Grégoire, worked hard to earn their living in a rural environment. She inherited the kindness and gentleness of one and the firmness and charity of the other.
To support his family, Élodie's father moved around 1845 to Rang de la Tortue, not far from the village of Saint-Philippe-de-Laprairie, where he rented a disused mill to saw wood, grind grain and card wool. When Élodie reached the age of nine, her mother decided to send her to boarding school with the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in Laprairie. That same year, her father went to California to pan for gold, and the family lived for a time in Napierville, where Élodie continued her studies, but only briefly. In 1850, she returned to the Laprairie boarding school.
Having learned from a neighbor, the young Camille Lefebvre, of the existence of a community of nuns within the Sainte-Croix family, Élodie presented herself to the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross novitiate in Saint-Laurent, near Montreal on February 21, 1854. This same Camille Lefebvre, nine years older than Élodie, would later become a Holy Cross Father, and play a decisive role in the founding of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.
Elodie was not yet 14. She was accepted as a novice under the name Sister Marie-de-Sainte-Léonie. In 1856, she taught at Sainte-Scholastique (Mirabel) and took her vows on August 22, 1857. She went on to teach, supervise and act as secretary to the superior at Varennes, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Martin (Laval).
In 1862, she was sent to New York, where the Marianites ran an orphanage, workhouse and school for the poor children of St. Vincent de Paul parish. Eight years later, she joined the American branch of the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross and went to Indiana to teach French and needlework to the sisters who were training to become teachers.
After a short stay in Michigan, Sister Marie-Léonie was called in 1874 to lead a group of novices and postulants at Collège Saint-Joseph in Memramcook, New Brunswick. This college, founded in 1864 by her compatriot Camille Lefebvre, needed recruits to "take care of the home economics and culinary department." It was here that Élodie Paradis would be able to fulfill what she considered her vocation in the current situation: to assist and collaborate with the Holy Cross Fathers in their work of educating young Acadians.
In 1874, Father Lefebvre declared, "I won't tell you how happy I am [to have at my side] at last someone on whom I can confidently rely for the care of home economics and the proper running of the culinary department, so important in a college."
The precarious material situation of the college, due to a lack of support staff essential to its smooth operation, but also the low level of education of the Acadians and the absence of establishments to welcome girls aspiring to religious life, confirmed Sister Marie-Léonie in her project. On August 26, 1877, 14 Acadian girls were welcomed into the sewing room and donned a special habit. In 1880, the General Chapter of the Holy Cross Fathers accepted the idea of a new foundation for the needs of the colleges, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family (the Institut des Petites Sœurs de la Sainte-Famille) independent of the Holy Cross Sisters.
In the opinion of Alfred-Valère Roy, Father Lefebvre's successor, the actions of Father Lefebvre and the foundress helped "save the Acadian nationality threatened and doomed to Anglicization" by both Irish Catholics and Protestants. Appointed superior of the new community, Mother Marie-Léonie repeatedly tried to obtain the approval of the Bishop of Saint John, New Brunswick, John Sweeny, for her religious family, but to no avail.
In 1895, she met Bishop Paul LaRocque of Sherbrooke, Quebec, who was looking for domestic staff for his seminary. He agreed to receive the Little Sisters' motherhouse and novitiate into his diocese. Following the Bishop's approval, and after 21 years in Acadia, the foundress and her 90 nuns settled in Sherbrooke on October 5, 1895. On January 26, 1896, Bishop LaRocque granted canonical approbation, consecrating the Institute.
From then on, Mother Marie-Léonie applied herself to giving a rule of life to her Institute and developing in the sisters a spirit of smiling simplicity, generosity and fraternity. Bishop LaRocque would say that she spent her whole life giving of herself: "She always had her arms open and her heart on her sleeve, a good Sister Adorer of the Precious Blood laugh on her lips, welcoming everyone as if they were God himself. She was all heart."
Mother Marie-Léonie, although a foundress, wanted to remain a simple Sister of the Holy Cross; it was only on October 2, 1904, to please the bishop and her daughters, that she decided to wear the habit of the Little Sisters. Her main recommendation to her daughters was that it was necessary to help the priest materially and spiritually, venerating in him the very person of Christ.
It was in this spirit that Mother Marie-Léonie created the atmosphere of the Holy Family of Nazareth, one of purity and peace, order and discretion.
Although she had no formal education and was guided by adoration of the Eucharist and the reading of the Gospel, she taught a large number of young girls to read and write, guiding them toward the religious, a task both sublime and humble.
The Institute was a great success, and Mother Léonie's golden jubilee saw the inauguration of the new Sisters' House on July 21, 1907.
In 1959, the Institute reached its highest number of professed sisters, 1103 Little Sisters of the Holy Family. From then on, the number of admissions began to gradually decline, but the needs of the various institutions remained unchanged.
Seriously ill with malignant cancer, Mother Marie-Léonie endured everything for a long time without showing it until her health suddenly deteriorated and, after receiving the last sacraments, she died on May 3, 1912 in Sherbrooke, on the eve (9 days) of her 72nd birthday, after leading her community for 32 years.
On the morning of her death, she had the joy of receiving permission to print the Institute's "Petite Règle" (the Little Rule) patiently awaited for 20 years. When supper was over, she died suddenly after saying to a sick woman in the afternoon, "Goodbye to heaven!"
During her lifetime, she presided over 38 foundations in Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario and the United States, most of them in colleges, a few in bishoprics. At the time of her death, the Institute had some 635 members.
Her funeral was truly triumphant. She was buried in Sherbrooke's Saint-Michel Cemetery, and exhumed on October 4, 1935 for transfer to the Mother House of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in the same city.
Since May 31, 2017, Mother Marie-Léonie's relic has been in St. Michael's Cathedral in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where the faithful can pay their respects and pray.
After the beatification on September 11, 1984, the site was named an oratory, since Mother Marie-Léonie could be prayed to. In 2017, the sale of the General House in Sherbrooke led to the transfer of Blessed Marie-Léonie's relic. On December 10, 2017, under the altar in the south transept of Sherbrooke's St. Michael's Cathedral, the large relic containing the mortal remains of Mother Marie-Léonie was installed in its shrine. Bishop Luc Cyr blessed it during evening Vespers.
Mother Marie-Léonie's charism of service was so contagious that over 2000 women followed her. Their apostolate flourished in over 200 educational and evangelizing establishments in Canada, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, Chile, Honduras and Guatemala.
On the official website of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, we read: "Following the example of Mother Marie-Léonie, we Little Sisters of the Holy Family seek to become personally involved in the spiritual and material support of priests, so that they can concentrate on their own mission. Thus committed to the service of the Church, we cultivate charity by choosing a life of piety and dedication.
"Over time, the situation has changed and we have adapted.. Our succession in Central America has enabled our community to continue supporting priests in institutions and, above all, in parishes. When we are no longer able to carry out our tasks due to age or illness, we continue to carry out our mission through prayer. This is an important part of our consecrated life. We use it for the good of the world, especially the priesthood.
"In 1962, the first mission was founded in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The following year, a Honduran woman joined the community. She was the first, but not the last. The vocations from Central America were so numerous that, in 1975, a central house was inaugurated in Miraflores. Still in the 1960s, other nuns were sent to Brazil, Chile and Haiti.
"The experiences of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family as missionaries in these places proved positive and enriching, but did not bring any new vocations to our Institute. A new mission began in Guatemala in 1990.
"Since 1880, 185 mission sites have been served. Today, 16 remain, including 1 in Quebec, 13 in Honduras and 2 in Guatemala. The central house in Honduras was rebuilt in 2021 to meet the evolving needs of this growing community. It is in these new generations of Mother Marie-Léonie's daughters that Canadians and Americans have placed their trust to ensure the Institute's continuity and the fulfillment of its mission."
Sources: www.centremarie-leonieparadis.com
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/paradis_elodie_14E.html
ww.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/marie-leonie-paradis.html
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