Catherine Jarrige

Blessed Catherine Jarrige
Born	1754-10-04 Doumis, Cantal, France
Died	1836-07-04 Mauriac, Cantal, France
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	24 November 1996
Feast	4 July
Attributes	Dominican Tertiary

Blessed Catherine Jarrige (4 October 1754 – 4 July 1836), known as Catinon Menette, a beatified third-order Dominican of the Catholic Church.

Youth

Catherine was born on October 4, 1754 into a poor family of peasants in Doumis, Cantal. Her parents and their seven children all lived together in a single household. Still quite young, like all of the youth of her age and background, she worked in the fields with her family and at the age of 9 she was sent to work as a servant of a neighbor. There it was said that she lived a happy and even mischievous life.

It was also at this age, as was the norm, that she made her first Holy Communion, a cherished memory for the rest of her life.

In the imitation of her patron, St. Catherine of Siena, she became a third-order Dominican.

She greatly enjoyed to dance Bourrée, but she renounced it and would say while she was going around everywhere to help the poor:

"I would like that people confess as many times as I danced the Bourrée"

She spent all her life providing for the spiritual and material needs of the needy, requisitioning alms for them, and inspiring the most reticent to awaken their conscience. She was totally devoted to the most humble and poorest people, looked after them by providing them with food and clothing and generally helping and comforting them throughout her life.

During the French Revolution

Catherine is the first to help the refractory priests, those priests who refused to swear an oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.

She hid them, so that they can celebrate Mass, and she helped assist them in their work, risking her life multiple times. Once the revolutionary upheaval had passed, she continued her charitable work, until her death, in 1836. A large crowd attended her funeral, and her popularity remained very sharp still today in the region of Mauriac.

Beatification

• Père Cormier, of the diocese of Saint-Flour founded her cause for beatification. Pope Pius XII declared her Venerable in 1953.
• Catherine Jarrige was beatified on November 24, 1996 in Rome by Pope John Paul II. Her memorial is on July 4.

Bibliography

• Bienheureuse Catherine Jarrige : une amie pour marcher vers le Christ, Catinon Menette 1754-1836 - Philippe Dupuy - Éditions du Signe - 1997

Sources

• Osservatore Romano : 1996 n.45 p. 7 / n.48 p. 2-3 / n.49 p. 9-10
• Documentation Catholique : 1997 n.1 p. 1-2