Bl. Marie Rose Durocher

Their story

Eulalie Durocher was born in 1811 in a village near Montreal, Quebec, the tenth of eleven children. She received a good education and hoped to enter religious life, but her health was too poor. Instead, for twelve years she kept house for her brother, a parish priest in the town of Beloeil, and helped him serve the people. She organized the young women of the parish into a group devoted to prayer and service and became known for her wisdom and kindness. At that time Quebec had few schools, and many children grew up without an education or instruction in the faith. With the encouragement of the bishop of Montreal, Eulalie decided to found a religious community of women dedicated to teaching. In 1843, at Longueuil, she and two companions began the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and she took the name Marie Rose. Mother Marie Rose led her young community with great faith through poverty and hardship, but her health gave way, and she died on October 6, 1849, at the age of 38. Her sisters carried on her work, and in 1859 they came to the Pacific Northwest, where they founded schools in Oregon and Washington that have taught generations of students. Pope St. John Paul II beatified her in 1982.