Bl. Alix Le Clerc

Alix Le Clerc was born in 1576 at Remiremont in Lorraine. At twenty she resolved to give her life to God. She met St Peter Fourier, then parish priest of Mattaincourt, and on Christmas night 1597 she and four companions began teaching poor girls.

She opened her first school at Poussay in 1598. With Peter Fourier she founded the Canonesses Regular of Notre Dame, under the Rule of St Augustine, to educate girls. The Church approved the order in stages between 1603 and 1616, and in 1617 its first enclosed convent was set up. Alix took the name Mother Teresa of Jesus.

She was superior general until December 1621 and died at Nancy on January 9, 1622. Wars and politics delayed her beatification until 1947, 325 years after her death.

Alix Le Clerc was beatified in 1947.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.