Bl. Sophie-Thérèse de Soubiran La Louvière

Sophie-Thérèse de Soubiran was born in 1834 at Castelnaudary, in southern France, into a noble family. At twenty she gave up her plan to become a Carmelite nun to carry out her uncle's idea of founding a béguinage, a community of devout laywomen.

In 1864 in Toulouse she turned the community into a religious congregation, the Society of Mary Auxiliatrix, devoted to prayer and to caring for poor girls.

Later she was accused of mismanagement and removed from leadership. In 1877 she entered another order, Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, as Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, and lived the rest of her life humbly. She died in Paris in 1889. A year later her successor cleared her name. Pius XII beatified her in 1946.

Removed from the community she founded, on charges later shown to be unjust, she accepted the humiliation and spent her remaining years as an ordinary sister in another order.

Sophie-Thérèse de Soubiran La Louvière was beatified in 1946.

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