André Bessette was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1845. By the time he was 12 he was an orphan who had to take care of himself. He traveled to the United States and worked for a time in a textile mill in New England. But he soon returned home to Canada with a dream of entering religious life.
More than 300 years ago, around 1656, Kateri lived in what is now the state of New York. Her mother was a Catholic and a member of the Algonquin tribe, and her father was a Mohawk warrior. At the time, this Native American nation did not believe in the Christian God.
Many of our greatest saints and holy people knew that they could raise others up by helping to educate them. Eulalie Durocher was one such person. Born on October 6, 1811, at Saint Antoine-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada, she was the youngest of 10 children. Her parents valued education, and her mother, who had studied with the Ursuline Sisters in Quebec City, taught all of her children. Eventually young Eulalie attended a boarding school with the Notre Dame Sisters and began to dream of becoming a nun.
She was born Marie de Lajemmerais in Quebec in 1701. Her father died when she was only 7, and she and her four brothers and sisters and their mother were very poor. Her great-grandfather paid for her to be educated by the Ursuline nuns in Quebec for two years, and when she returned home, she helped support her family and taught her brothers and sisters.