Marie Anne Blondin

Bl. Marie Anne Blondin, S.S.A.
The Blessed Marie-Anne in 1888
Religious and Foundress
Born	Esther Blondin (1809-04-18)April 18, 1809 Terrebonne, Lower Canada, British Empire
Died	2 January 1890(1890-01-02) (aged 80) Lachine, Quebec, Canada
Venerated in	Catholic Church (Canada and the Sisters of Saint Anne)
Beatified	April 29, 2001, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
Feast	January 2

Marie Anne Blondin, S.S.A., was a Canadian teacher who became the foundress of the Sisters of Saint Anne, established in 1850, dedicated to educating the rural population of the Province of Canada. She has been beatified by the Catholic Church, the last step prior to canonization.

She was born Esther Blondin on 18 April 1809 in Terrebonne, Lower Canada, to Jean-Baptiste Blondin and Marie-Rose Limoges, simple farmers who lived on a country road called Côte Terrebonne on the edge of the Mille Îsles River. At the age of 20, she became a domestic servant to a local merchant to help support her parents. Shortly after that, she was hired to work for the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, who staffed the parochial school of the town. Having grown up illiterate, she learned how to read and write from the Sisters of the convent. In 1833 Blondin was accepted into the novitiate of the Congregation, but had to leave soon after her admission for health reasons.

Later that same year, Blondin accepted the invitation from another former novice of the Congregation, who was running a parochial school in Vaudreuil, to join her in teaching there. Within a few years, she had become the principal of the school, then known as the Académie Blondin, where she trained teachers for the rural schools of the province.

Over the years, Blondin found out that one of the causes of the widespread illiteracy in the French-speaking community was a certain Church ruling that forbade that children be taught by members of the opposite sex. Unable to finance two schools, many parish priests chose to have none. In 1848 Esther presented to the Bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget, a plan to found a religious congregation "for the education of poor country children, both girls and boys in the same schools". Despite the novelty of the suggestion, and possible violation of Church rules, since the Canadian government was in favor of such schools, he authorized the experiment. She obtained the commitment of several young women for this endeavor and a novitiate was opened to form members for the proposed new congregation on 13 September 1848. Due to the death of Emilie Forté on 1 August 1849, only a few days after her admission, the first postulants of the congregation numbered nine, when they received the religious habit of the new Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Anne, as it was originally named, on 15 August 1849. This group included Bourdin, who received the religious name of Sister Marie Anne.