Institute of Misericordia Sisters

The Venerable Marie-Rosalie Cadron Jetté, S.M.
Detail from a portrait of Mother Marie of the Nativity ca. 1860
Born	(1794-01-27)27 January 1794 Lavaltrie, Lower Canada, British Empire
Died	5 April 1864(1864-04-05) (aged 70) Montreal, Province of Canada, British Empire

Marie-Rosalie Cadron Jetté, S.M. (née Cadron, January 27, 1794 – April 5, 1864), also known as Marie of the Nativity, was a Canadian widow and midwife who undertook the charitable care of unwed and struggling mothers between 1840 and 1864. Out of this work, she became the foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of Misericorde. The cause for her canonization is now being studied in the Vatican. Pope Francis declared her "Venerable" in 2013.

Cadron-Jetté was born and raised in Lavaltrie, Quebec, and in 1811 married Jean-Marie Jetté. They had 11 children, several of whom died young. In 1827 she moved to Montreal and in 1832 her husband died of cholera. From 1840, in collaboration with Ignace Bourget (then Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Montreal), she engaged in the charitable care of unwed mothers. At this time in Montreal, unwed mothers and those associating with them attracted a significant social stigma. Cadron-Jetté operated initially out of her own home and the homes of her children, and later, with the aid of other women, worked from a series of buildings known as the Hospice de Sainte-Pélagie. In 1848, she took religious vows, along with several other women, and founded a Roman Catholic religious institute known as the Sisters of Misericorde, dedicated to the care of unwed mothers and their children. In 1849 she obtained formal midwifery qualifications. In 1853 the Misericorde Sisters built a convent on the corner of Dorchester Boulevard and Saint-André Street, and she lived there the remainder of her life.

Cadron-Jetté died in 1864. After her death, Ignace Bourget, with whom she had worked closely throughout her life, proposed that Cadron-Jetté be considered for canonization by the Roman Catholic Church. Over a century later, in 1989, the proposal was put into effect and her canonization cause was opened.