Among the marginalized

A woman among the humble... A woman who took action for the right to an education. A woman who belonged to the resistance! In Esther Blondin, the women of today salute a woman of her word who was able to make choices and live with their consequences. A woman who spoke her mind before the authorities and never submitted slavishly to them. A woman whose story lives on through generations of Quebec women engaged in shaping Quebec society. A tenacious woman, born from a strong and fruitful people.

Esther Blondin had the same concerns as many women and community organizations today. The efforts presently being devoted to the social economy are echoed in the prophetic intuitions of the 19th-century women who rose to the social challenges of their time with courage and boldness.

Prayer

    In your meditations, you often reminded your daughters of the mystery of the tree. “The more deeply a tree sends its roots into the soil, the more chance it has to grow, to stand tall and to bear fruit.” Today’s women live out this spirituality. Believing in the seed. Watering the young plants. Continuing to hope, against all odds, that life will triumph. Like you, attentive to the needs of the excluded, and like the women of yesterday, standing alongside their people in their aspirations, we too stand tall, dignified and resourceful, finding ways to ensure respect for rights and freedoms. Thank you, Esther Blondin, and your 19th-century sisters who helped give women today access to knowledge and opened the way to working for a more just society.

• Opening page of this section
• A congregation dating back to 1850
  • 1858
  • 1886
• Esther Blondin, our foundress
  • The foundress
  • Life in the shadows
  • Out of darkness
  • Woman of courage and tenacity
  • Prophet for her time
  • Among the marginalized