Maria Anna Blondin
Canadian Catholic nun and teacher, blessed (1809-1890)
Feast: 2 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Esther Blondin was born at Terrebonne, Quebec, on 18 April 1809, into a deeply Christian farming family; like most French Canadians of her time and class she could not read. As a young woman she enrolled as a boarder to learn to read and write.
As Mother Marie-Anne she founded the Sisters of St Anne to teach farmers' children. Later, targeted by the new authorities of the mother house under a despotic chaplain, she was confined to the laundry and ironing, and lived a life of total self-denial that made her congregation grow.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A foundress who accepted being pushed aside and served in silence in the laundry.
The cause
Maria Anna Blondin has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: Sisters of Saint Anne: Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Maria Anna Blondin
- Wikidata Q2467753 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Marie Anne Blondin (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.