In the village of Sainville in the territory of Chartres in France, Blessed Marie Poussepin, virgin, who, to assist pastors of souls, to educate girls, and also to help the needy and the sick, founded the Institute of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Lifespan: 1653–1744
Beatified: 20 November 1994 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 24 January
She resolved to work “for the benefit of the parish, to instruct the young, and to serve the poor sick.”
Marie Poussepin was born at Dourdan, France, on 14 October 1653, into a prosperous family of artisans, and grew up in an environment of deep faith. Her father, Claude, assisted in the administration of the parish, while her mother, Julienne Fourrier, served as treasurer of the Confraternity of Charity, devoted to caring for the sick poor.
From childhood Marie was imbued with this spirit and chose to place herself at the service of those most in need, joining the Dominican Third Order in her native Dourdan. She knew how to recognise the living presence of the Lord of the universe in the least of his people. To serve the poor is already to live the beatitude of the Kingdom.
She wished to make her entire life an offering of love, as the text of the Constitutions she gave to the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin — the congregation she founded at Sainville — makes clear. Together with her companions, apostolic religious women, she resolved to work “for the benefit of the parish, to instruct the young, and to serve the poor sick.”
After a life of ninety years wholly dedicated to others, marked by suffering and self-renunciation — a life in which she described herself, in her own words, as merely “the worker of Providence” — she died on 24 January 1744.