CJMLC - St Claudine Thevenet

St Claudine Thévenet (Mother Mary St Ignatius)

St Claudine Thevenet

Claudine Thévenet was born on March 30th 1774 at Lyon in France, the second child in a family of seven. Her family were extremely devout and entrusted her education to the Benedictine nuns of St. Peter's Abbey, in Place des Terreaux.

In 1789, the French Revolution broke out. One of its principal targets was the Church and Lyon, Claudine’s home city, was particularly afflicted by the violence of what became known as ‘The Terror’.

Claudine’s elder brothers joined the anti-Revolutionary forces. The last of the fighting before the fall of Lyon to the Revolutionary forces was bitter and took place close to the Thévenet home. After the fighting had subsided, Claudine went to look for the bodies of her brothers amongst the dead of the defeated army, but could not find them.

The revolutionary government in Paris ordered a brutal repression in Lyon as an example, in which those who had fought against the revolution were to be executed. Claudine eventually found her brothers in time to witness their execution. Their last words to her were: ‘Forgive, as we forgive.’ These words were to inspire Claudine for the rest of her life, although the shock of seeing the brutality of her brothers’ death, and that of her uncle, is said to have gravely affected her health.

Claudine went on to work with working class young women around Lyon, France. In 1816, with Father André Coindre, she formed a group that would become the Religious of Jesus & Mary at Lyon in 1818, an order dedicated to the education of poor girls. She took the name Mary of St Ignatius and served as superior of the order, which received papal approval from Pope Blessed Pius IX on December 31st 1847, and today runs boarding schools, colleges, and retreat houses in Europe, India and North America.

Claudine Thévenet died on February 3rd 1837 at Lyon of natural causes. She was Beatified on October 4th 1981 by Pope John Paul II, and declared by him to be a saint on March 21st 1993.

A more detailed life of St Claudine can be read here