Overview

Marie-Anne Blondin was a teacher who became foundress of the Sisters of Sainte Anne, established in 1850, dedicated to teaching the rural population of Canada. Blondin found out that one of the causes of the widespread illiteracy in the French-speaking community was a certain Church ruling that forbade that children be taught by members of the opposite sex. Unable to finance two schools, many parish priests chose to have none. the Bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget, agreed to the experiment to teach boys and girls together. However, Abbé Louis-Adolphe Maréchal was appointed as chaplain to the community and took a dictatorial approach which resulted in a forced resignation of Marie-Anne Blondin and her reassignment to Lachine motherhouse in 1854 where she remained for the rest of her life. She was beatified on 29 April 2001.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• Congregation of Sisters of Saint Anne

Notes

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