Catherine of Parc-aux-Dames
Feast: 4 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Catherine was born Rachel, to a Jewish family of Louvain. Instructed in the faith as a small child by the duke of Brabant's chaplain, Master Rayner, she fled home at about seven after a vision of our Lady, when her parents meant to send her away, and he took her to the Cistercian nuns of Parc-aux-Dames, where she was baptised and given the name Catherine.
Her parents appealed to the bishop, the duke and Pope Honorius to have her back, but the archbishop of Cologne and the abbot of Clairvaux opposed them, and she stayed at Parc-aux-Dames until her death in the early thirteenth century, known for visions and miracles.
The miracles
The source does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A convert from Judaism who became a Cistercian nun near Louvain.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
- Butler's Lives of the Saints, ed. Thurston and Attwater (1956), vol. II - 4 May
- Wikidata Q4217471 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.