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Who is Elisabeth Bergeron?

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Born on May 25, 1851, in the village of La Presentation, Elisabeth Bergeron was baptized on the same day.


With exceptional fervor for her age, she did her "first communion" in the spring of 1859. Influenced by a very Christian family, she easily opened her heart to the love of Jesus and of the poor: at fourteen she asked to join the Sisters of Charity of St. Hyacinthe. Refused because of her young age, she must resign herself to follow her parents who, during that same year of 1865, must leave for the USA in order to solve financial problems.

Back in Quebec, five years later, Elisabeth made several attempts to join religious communities, always dealing with rejection, but without giving up her dream.

What a surprise for her when Bishop Louis-Zéphirin Moreau asked her to establish a community of teaching sisters. Despite her limited education, she accepts with humility and abandonment to Providence.

On September 12, 1877, the Sisters of St. Joseph Institute is founded in the village of La Providence.

The community will soon thrive; Elisabeth Bergeron will remain its breath until the end of her life. All agree that her goodness, gentleness, serenity, and above all, the transparency of the supernatural, of the union with God and the dynamism of charity is worthy of recognition.

She passed away on April 29, 1936. They are many who come to touch her coffin and ask for healing. "They say: She is a saint."

"God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong." (1 Co 1, 27)

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