Blessed Rosalie Rendu
Today is the feast of Blessed Rosalie Rendu, Daughter of Charity (1786-1856). Jeanne Marie Rendu was born September 9, 1786 at Confort, a district of Gex in the Jura Mountains. She was the eldest of four girls. Her parents, simple living mountain people and small property owners, enjoyed a certain affluence and true respect throughout the area. Jeanne Marie was baptized the day she was born in the parish church of Lancrans. Jeanne Marie Rendu was three years old when the Revolution broke out in France. From 1790 it was mandatory for the clergy to take an oath of support for the civil Constitution. Those who refused to take this oath were chased from their parishes, put to death, or forced into hiding to escape their pursuers. Jeanne's family hid those who stayed to minister to French Catholics, claiming that they were hired farm hands. Jeanne made her first Holy Communion one night by candlelight in the basement of her home celebrated by one of these covert priests. Her ...