Blessed Blandine Merten
Feast Day: May 18
Maria Merton was the ninth child in a devout German family. She taught school for six years until 1908, when she and a
sister entered the Ursulines near Ahrweiler. She took the name of an early Christian martyr, and in 1913 added a fourth vow at her consecration to religious life: She offered herself as a willing sacrifice to Christ. But Blandine soon contracted tuberculosis, and in 1916 entered a sanitarium at the Ursuline convent in Trier, where she died. Calm and cheerful as she faced prolonged suffering, she wrote, “I want to love God more than any creature has ever loved him.” She was beatified in 1987.
