Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840–1912)
Canadian sister Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.
Born Virginie Alodie in the Acadian region of Quebec, the blessed founded her institute, whose purpose was to collaborate with and support the religious of Holy Cross in educational work, in 1880 in New Brunswick.
Before founding her religious order, Paradis also spent eight years in New York serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Orphanage in the 1860s before moving to Indiana in 1870 to teach French and needlework at St. Mary’s Academy.
At the request of the bishop of Montreal, Paradis founded the Little Sisters in 1880. An important part of the the spirituality and charism of the order is support for priests through both intense and constant prayer, but also through taking care of the cooking at laundry in seminaries and rectories in “humble and joyful service” in imitation of “Christ the Servant” who washed the feet of his disciples.
Today her sisters work in over 200 institutions of education and evangelization in Canada, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, Chile, Honduras, and Guatemala.
Pope John Paul II called Paradis the “humble among the humble” as he beatified her during his visit to Montreal in 1984, the first beatification to take place on Canadian soil.
“She was not afraid of the different forms of manual work, which are the burden that falls to so many people today, while it was held in honor in the Holy Family, in the very life of Jesus in Nazareth. There she saw the will of God for her life. With the sacrifices inherent in this work, but offered out of love, she knew a profound joy and peace,” John Paul II said.
“She knew she was referring to the fundamental attitude of Christ, ‘who came not to be served, but to serve.’ She was completely pervaded by the greatness of the Eucharist: This is one of the secrets of her spiritual motivations,” he added.
The miracle attributed to Paradis’ intercession involved the healing of a newborn baby girl who suffered from “prolonged perinatal asphyxia with multi-organ failure and encephalopathy” during her birth in 1986 at a hospital in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada, according to the Vatican.
This excerpt and information regarding the other saints can be found at https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259921/these-are-the-14-people-who-will-be-canonized-saints-this-weekend