Blessed Madeleine Fontaine and Companions
Feast: June 27
Martyred during the French Revolution, Mother Madeleine Fontaine, 71, and Sisters Francoise Lanel, Therese Fantou and Jeanne Gerard, all in their
40s, were Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
Their community at Arras cared for the town’s sick and ran a girls’ school. In 1793 their goods and school were confiscated, but they refused to take an oath demanded by the Revolutionary Convention.
Arrested in February 1794, they were executed in June.
The nuns went to the infamous guillotine singing “Ave Maris Stella”; they were beatified in 1920.
