Blessed Catherine Jarrige

Catherine Jarrige (4 October 1754 – 4 July 1836) – known as Catinon Menette in her local dialect – was a French Roman Catholic and Dominican tertiary who was beatified in 1996. Jarrige spent her childhood on her farm in Cantal until the death of her mother prompted her to begin lacemaking in Mauriac. She became a Dominican tertiary in Mauriac and began tending to the needs of the poor. The French Revolution did not hinder her charitable works. Alongside her care for the poor and needy, she protected the priests who refused to pledge their allegiance to the new regime. Catherine Jarrige was born on 4 October 1754 to poor peasants Pierre Jarrige and Maria Célarier in Doumis. She was the youngest of seven children. Her mother died in 1767. Jarrige worked in the fields with her parents and siblings. In 1763 she was sent to work as a servant of a neighbor. There it was said that she lived a pleasant and even mischievous life. In 1774 she went to Mauriac with her sister Toinette to work as a lacemaker. Jarrige also imitated her name patron, Catherine of Siena, and became a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in 1776. She liked to dance the Bourrée, but renounced it. She performed the dance at her sister's wedding, but pledged the next morning to never do it again - and she never did. Jarrige spent all her life providing for the spiritual and material needs of the poor, and she went about collecting alms for them and inspiring the most reticent to awaken their conscience. She was devoted to the most humble and poorest people and provided them with food, clothing, and spiritual comfort. The French Revolution, brought a period of anti-religious sentiment and a surge in nationalistic fervor. Jarrige helped the priests who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the new regime. She hid them in the forests of the Auze valley, and guided them at night to administer the sacraments to families.