POSTEL, MARIE MADELEINE, ST.

Foundress of the Sisters of the christian schools of mercy; b. La Bretonne, Normandy, France, Nov. 28, 1756; d. Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Normandy, July 16, 1846. Postel was born in comfortable circumstances and was given the baptismal name of Julie. After attending school at Barfleur and at the Abbey of Valognes, she opened a school in La Bretonne for poor children (1774).

During the French Revolution she continued to teach religion to them and to befriend nonjuring priests. Desirous of founding a religious congregation dedicated to the education of girls, she went to Cherbourg in 1805 and gathered around her three women who began leading the religious life. The four pronounced the vows of religion in 1807, and Julie took the name Madeleine. She composed a rule for her institute, but this was replaced in 1837 by the one written by St. John Baptist de la salle for the christian brothers. Sister Marie Madeleine, as superior general, moved her community to Tamerville in 1816, and it remained there until 1832. She then established its headquarters in the abandoned Abbey of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, which has since been the location of the congregation's motherhouse. During her remaining 14 years of life she restored the abbey church and supervised the growth of her institute, which in 1846 had 150 members and 37 convents. Sister Marie Madeleine was noted for her fortitude amid many trials. As an educator she improved the unimaginative curriculum then provided for poor girls by introducing sewing and embroidery and by supplementing Guizot's Charte with subjects such as poetry and singing. She was beatified in 1908 and canonized in 1925.

Feast: July 16.

Bibliography: g. grente, Ste. Marie-Madeleine Postel, tr. k. henvey (New York 1928). sister calista, Love Endureth All Things: Life of St. Marie Madeleine Postel (pa. Cork 1953).

[w. j. battersby]