Life in the shadows

Mother Marie Anne was called back to Saint-Jacques, where for a year her name did not appear in the record of the sisters and their ministries. As she expressed it, she was reduced to “zero.” In Saint-Jacques, in 1859, she was named sacristan. She remained in the background, doing various manual tasks needed by the community. In 1890, after living very humbly for 30 years, Mother Marie Anne died at the Motherhouse in Lachine, where it had been located since 1864. Before dying, she repeated that she had forgiven Father Maréchal.

      Last year, as Your Lordship knows, I had no part in the offices, I remained a zero the entire year; this year, there was enough confidence in me to give me two offices, along with the assistance of those who were first in these offices last year. These offices are the parish sacristy and the vestry. (Mother Marie Anne to Bishop Bourget, October 17, 1859)

photo : General Archives
Mother Marie Anne in 1888, almost 80 years of age.

• 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