She would confidently say: ”The Blessed Virgin will cure me!”

On December 13, 2021, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Marie Rivier (1768-1838), founder of the Community of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary (1794). John Paul II beatified her on May 23, 1982. This recognition opens the way to her canonization.

This nun from the diocese of Viviers in Ardèche (southeastern department of France) founded her congregation at the time of the French Revolution, when many monastic orders were being dissolved and the religious dispersed!

A lively child, the future saint was the victim of an accident in April 1770, when she was barely 16 months old: she fell out of bed, seriously injuring her hip. The fall left her handicapped. For four years she begged the Virgin Mary to heal her, praying before a statue of the Pietà.

"If you heal me, I will bring you children, I will teach them," she promised the Virgin Mary. Despite the anticlerical social climate, on November 21, 1796, she founded the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, dedicated to the education of children and young people, especially the poorest and most neglected. "The good seed that you sow in their hearts will benefit in its time, I have experienced it... so have courage...", she repeated to her sisters.

She opened many rural schools and led missions and spiritual retreats. When she died at 69, Marie Rivier had founded 141 schools in 14 dioceses and more than 350 sisters had joined her to continue her work. Today, the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary number 988 in 18 countries around the world.

Adapted and translated from: Aleteïa