On the Footsteps
of Iakonikonriistoha
She who beautifies the soul and makes the hearth warmer
Upon her arrival in Kébec, Canada, in 1648, Sister Marie-Catherine of Saint-Augustin deeply committed herself to the First Nations, learning their languages and discovering their cultures with respect and compassion. Her dedication to evangelization and her desire to aid the poor and the sick led her to immerse herself fully in a new culture.
Early on, her rich personality and the depth of her spiritual life became apparent. She was affectionately called "the daughter of daughters," "the most extraordinary of daughters," and was given the name IAKONIKONRIIOSTHA, meaning "She who beautifies the soul and makes the heart warmer."
A young girl lived in a village with her older brother and their mother. In the same village, vicious dogs roamed, frightening everyone, both children and adults. Unexpectedly, they would emerge from their lair and attack the villagers. They barked so loudly that it terrified everyone. Sometimes, they chased people, running after them. On some occasions, they bit many of them, and worse still, they had strangled a few. The village lived in fear.Dans un village, vivait une jeune fille avec son grand frère et leur mère. Dans ce même village, rôdaient des chiens très méchants qui effrayaient les gens, enfants comme adultes. À l'improviste, ils sortaient de leur repaire et attaquaient les habitants. Ils aboyaient si fort qu'ils faisaient peur. Parfois ils poursuivaient les personnes en courant derrière elles. Il arrivait même qu'ils en mordaient un grand nombre et, pis encore, ils en avaient étranglé certains. Le village vivait dans la peur.
Seeing this misery, the young girl, who loved all the villagers, made a suggestion to her older brother and their mother: “If we opened the basement windows of the house, the dogs could be confined in the cellar, and they would no longer endanger the lives of the villagers.” The young girl loved the people so much that she wanted to help them at all costs and was willing to endure all the inconveniences that the presence of these imprisoned dogs in the cellar might bring her.
And so it was. The older brother opened the basement windows, and the dogs took shelter in the cellar of their house. But the young girl made sure to keep the floor hatch tightly closed so that none of them could ever climb up to the upper level of the house. However, the dogs made their presence known and disturbed the young girl with their sinister barking, their foul odor, and their hateful fights, as they were incapable of living together peacefully.
The young girl took care never to open the hatch or allow any cracks to form between the basement and the upper floor, where she lived with her older brother and their mother.
Her deep desire was to remain with them, even though the dogs sometimes displayed even greater hatred toward her, longing to capture such a desirable prey, especially because she prevented them from harming the villagers. At times, instead of barking ferociously, some dogs made soft, cooing noises, like a dove, to try to soften the young girl and gain a chance to bite her. But in her profound freedom, she never yielded to their tricks, resolved to remain in communion with her brother and their mother.
Certainly, the presence of the dogs in the house caused the young girl great suffering: sleepless nights, the deafening noise, and the unbearable stench. Yet she endured it all because she had first obtained the consent of her brother and mother for it to be so. Moreover, by acting in this way, out of the great love she had for the villagers, she helped save the lives of these poor people.
Thus, the village was spared thanks to this young girl, whose name is Catherine, nicknamed Iakonikonriiostha, meaning “She who beautifies the soul.”
Germain Grenon
Priest, m.s.a.
Eloquent Testimonies
The testimonies of the time lift the veil on "the girl among girls." Writings attest to their veracity. The hospitality of the Augustinian nuns toward the Ursulines, following the fire at their monastery in Kébec on December 30, 1650, allowed Sister Marie-Catherine to closely interact with Marie de l’Incarnation. The latter, in her letters to her son Claude, describes her, as choosing to omit the extraordinary phenomena of her life and focusing instead on her virtues: “She served the poor with admirable strength and vigor. She was the most charitable girl to the sick and was singularly loved by everyone for her gentleness, firmness, patience, and perseverance. My very dear son, virtues of this kind are more to be valued than miracles1.”
Similarly, Bishop de Laval, in a letter to the Superior of Bayeux, expressed his admiration and esteem: “There is great reason to bless God for His guidance over our Sister Catherine of Saint-Augustin; she was a soul He chose to communicate very great and particular graces. Her sanctity will be better known in heaven than on this earth, for surely it is extraordinary2.”
A Life That Was Contagious
After the death of Sister Catherine, her superior, Mother of Saint-Bonaventure of Jesus, expressed her astonishment upon learning of all the extraordinary favors God had granted the young nun. While this can be explained by her path of humility, it remains that Sister Catherine was so imbued with solid virtues that those around her believed that virtue was born with her. Indeed, her kindness of heart ensured that anyone in need of assistance found in her consolation, a safe refuge, and a patient ear. In her role as a hospital worker, she was often in the presence of people whose spiritual needs were as great as their physical ones. Many, after meeting Sister Catherine, testified to the salvific effects of their encounter with her and their conversion to God. Indeed, her charity, marked by gentleness, won hearts over to God even as she adapted herself to the moods of each person. If her community sisters saw in her an accomplished nun, a companionable sister graced by nature and faith, it remains that everyone was edified by her exemplary conduct.
A Life Identified with Christ
[1]This entirely supernatural inclination propelled her onto the path of self-offering and conformity to Christ's sentiments: “Let us obey as He obeyed, let us be humble of heart, let us suffer as He suffered, let us live as He lived (...), let His charity be the model for ours5.” This progressive formation of Christ within her willingly plunged her into a Pauline spirit: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). It was in this near-permanent state of communion with Christ that Sister Catherine lived. She never hesitated to proclaim that prayer was the source of all virtues and that, outside of her privileged moments of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, short prayers kept her in a state of interiority and familiarity with the divine. Not only was she “the one who made the interior more beautiful and the heart warmer” for others, but she also allowed God to beautify her. In this way, this woman-disciple continually renewed herself in the proximity and contemplation of the Son, full of grace and truth, the pure reflection of the Father’s glory (cf. Jn 1:14), in the communion of the Spirit.
A Marian Life
From her earliest childhood, Catherine lived in the presence of the one she called: “my holy Virgin”6. She conversed with her familiarly, asking for advice: How would you do this, holy Virgin, in such and such a situation? What would you say? What would your prayer be? It is hardly surprising that at the age of 10, she made her first Marian consecration and a second one in 1648. Though marked by the Eudist spirit, her consecrations show how deeply Catherine wished to live in the manner of Mary and to commune profoundly with the life of the one who gave birth to the Redeemer. Likely inspired by the same source, she spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to Canadian soil.
During the arduous journey of 1648 aboard the ship Le St-Joseph, Sister Catherine attributed her recovery from the plague to the Virgin Mary. She carried with her a boxwood statuette given by her maternal grandmother, and it was to this “good Mother” that she turned, imploring her recovery if it were God’s will7. Sister Catherine’s Marian devotion regularly included the meditative prayer of the Rosary. Through this practice, she communed with Mary in the mysteries of the life of the Son and entrusted to the Mother and the Son her mission of evangelization.
A Life of Mystical Offering
The life of Marie-Catherine of Saint-Augustin was written by Father Paul Ragueneau, S.J.8, in 1671, just three years after her death. This first biographer portrayed Sister Catherine as a person “sanctified by temptation and the obsession of the devil, then suffering for sinners and the souls in purgatory”9, without following a chronological order. This approach (a thesis-driven narrative) has created and still creates the impression that Sister Catherine’s life was merely a series of mystical experiences in a perpetual battle between God and the Devil.
However, it was not until 1658 that “Catherine received her first call to suffer for sinners, for the salvation and redemption of Canada. It was then that the cross of Jesus was presented to her. The following year, she offered herself as a victim for Canada, and this vocation to suffering became actualized. In 1660, Catherine began to suffer from the demons, becoming their jailer, host, and victim”10. At the heart of these mystical experiences, as a victim offered for the salvation of souls of an entire people, she plunged into the depths of a ministry of inner liberation. God showed her the wounds of sinful humanity and associated her closely with the redemptive mission of the Son. He granted her charisms enabling her to see the lamentable state of certain individuals, to intercede for their deliverance, to mystically imprison the evil spirits that plagued them, and to bear the painful cross of their presence.
Possessed by God, supported by the Virgin Mary, the saints of heaven, and her “spiritual directors” both on earth11 and in heaven12, Sister Catherine deeply embraced the sentiments of Christ Jesus, communing intensely with the mystery of the Cross. Her entire life, rooted in the determination to do only God’s will, was like a perpetual Eucharist, during which she continually offered herself as a pleasing sacrifice to the Father “for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.” Feeling at times inhabited by sentiments incongruent with her Lord’s life, she found refuge in the merciful heart of God, pouring out her doubts and intimate sorrows to her spiritual director. Having experienced the benefits of mercy, she wished the same encounter for even the most hardened hearts.
Her long journey of humility, lived in great discretion, culminated in her mystical union with the Holy Spirit in 1664 and, subsequently, in her transformative union until her death in 1668. Sister Catherine was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 23...
Footnotes:
1. Quebecen. Beatificationis et Canonizationis servae Dei. Mariae Catharinae a Sancto Augustino (in saec. Catharinae Symon de Longprey) Monialis professae sororum Hospitalarium a misericordia O. S. Augustini. († 1668). Positio super introductione causae et virtutibus ex officio concinnata. Romae : Sacra Congregatio pro causis sanctorum officium historicum (67). 1978, p. 86; HUDON, Léonidas. Vie de Marie-Catherine de Saint-Augustin 1632-1668. Une fleur mystique de la Nouvelle-France. Montréal : Bureau du Messager canadien. 1907, p. 249.
2. Positio, ibid., p. 136 ; Hudon, ibid., p. 248
3. Tout particulièrement le père François Malherbe, jésuite et le père Jean-Eudes qui, dès 1632, vint au pays pour la prédication. C’est de ce même Jean-Eudes qu’elle aurait subi l’influence en écrivant sa première consécration mariale en 1642; consécration que lui-même avait faite le 25 mars 1624. (Positio LXXVII)
4. Ragueneau, Paul. La vie de la Mère Catherine de Saint Augustin Religieuse hospitaliere de la misericorde de Québec en la Nouvelle-France, composée par le reverend père Paul Ragueneau de la Compagnie de IESUS. Paris : Florentin Lambert. Avec approbations & Privilege du Roi. M. DC. LXXI. p. 68.
5. Ibid. p. 55.
6. Ibid., p. 24.
7. Cette statue en buis de 9 pouces, réputée miraculeuse, est conservée et vénérée au monastère des Augustines de l’Hôpital Général de Québec sous le vocable de Notre-Dame de protection. Elle a été donnée lors de la fondation de ce monastère en 1693, par les sœurs Augustines du monastère de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.
8. Ragueneau, op.cit.
9. Hudon, Léonidas. Vie de Marie-Catherine de Saint-Augustin 1632-1668. Une fleur mystique de la Nouvelle-France. Montréal : Bureau du Messager canadien. 1907, p. XIX.
10. Cf. Boucher, Ghyslaine. Dieu et Satan dans la vie de Catherine de Saint-Augustin 1632-1668. Hier-Aujourd’hui 21. Montréal : Bellarmin / Tournai : Desclée & Cie. 1979, p. 17
11. Pour la plupart des Jésuites, Mgr de Laval fait également partie de ceux qui l’ont accompagnée et de qui elle a reçu des confidences et des demandes de prière.
12. Le Père Jean de Brébeuf que sœur Catherine n’a pas connu sur la terre est devenu du haut du ciel, son protecteur et directeur (Ragueneau, op. cit., p. 113). Il l’a favorisée de grâces particulières : réception de la communion (Ibid. p. 92-93), explication de toute la cérémonie de la Dédicace et de la consécration de l’église de Québec (Basilique), le 18 juillet 1666, alors qu’elle n’était pas présente à la célébration. (Ibid. p. 94)
Le Centre de Catherine de Saint-Augustin est situé au : 32 rue Charlevoix Québec (Québec), G1R 5C4.
