Bl. Catherine Jarrige

Catherine Jarrige was born in 1754 in the Auvergne, central France, to a poor farming family. As a young woman she loved dancing. She joined the Dominican Third Order, for lay people, and lived by making lace and caring for the poor and sick around Mauriac.

During the French Revolution priests who refused to swear loyalty to the new state church were hunted down. Catherine hid them in the forests, brought them food and the bread and wine for Mass, and led them at night to families who needed the sacraments. She was arrested in 1794 and released when townspeople protested. She said that if she went to the guillotine she would dance on it as she had in her youth. She died in 1836 and was beatified in 1996.

Catherine Jarrige was beatified in 1996 by John Paul II.

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