Saint Marie-Madeleine Postel

Marie-Madeleine Postel (28 November 1756 – 16 July 1846), born Julie Françoise-Catherine Postel, was a French Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of Christian Schools. Postel was also a member from the Third Order of Saint Francis and had served as a schoolteacher after the French Revolution where she oversaw the education of around 300 children. The Revolution saw her use her then-disbanded school to house fugitive priests despite the great risk that posed to her own life. Postel's beatification was celebrated in 1908 and Pope Pius XI later canonized her in mid-1925. Julie Françoise-Catherine Postel was born on 28 November 1756 in Barfleur, Normandy, to the fisherman Jean Postel and Thérèse Levallois. Postel was the aunt to Placide Viel. The Benedictine nuns oversaw her education in Valognes after her initial schooling and it was during that time that she discerned a call to serve God in the religious life; she took a private vow to remain chaste as a step forward in this dream. Postel founded a school for girls in Barfleur in 1774 that became a center for underground religious activities during the French Revolution for those who were unwilling to support the new regime. This school had been shut down at the Revolution's beginning. Authorization was granted to her to keep the Blessed Sacrament in her house as the conflict continued and she carried it on her person at times to provide the Viaticum to those who were ill and at the verge of death. The Jacobins often suspected her but never made allegations and left her alone. The end of the Revolution saw Postel take up teaching and catechizing in Cherbourg where she taught around 300 children.