Catherine Jarrige was born on October 4, 1754 to poor peasants Pierre Jarrige and Maria Célarier in Doumis. Even then, little Catherine liked to pull mischievous jokes and pranks on her friends.

Catherine worked on her family farm and in 1763 was sent to work as a servant of a neighbor, where she grew and thrive and of course, continued her reputation for pulling mischievous pranks. It was in this same year that she made her First Communion which she cherished as a crucial life event. In 1774 she worked with her older sister as a lacemaker.

It was during this time as a young adult that Catherine connected to her patron saint, Catherine of Siena, and became a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in 1776. Catherine’s spirit was full of life and joy. She loved to dance but once after one of her sister’s weddings, she pledged never to dance again. She upheld this promise her whole life as a sacrifice to God.

Catherine’s heart for the poor was unlimited in generosity. She regularly begged for alms on their behalf and devoted herself to most humble service to the poorest and sickest among them.

And then the French revolution began. In a period of anti-religious sentiment and a surge in nationalistic fervor, Catherine used her child-hood skill for mischief to help priests who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the new regime. She hid them so that the priests could celebrate Mass and she helped assist them in their work risking her life multiple times by transporting bread, wine, and vestments where needed.

Once she disguised a priest as a peasant to smuggle him to a new hiding place. Catherine covered him with wine to create the illusion that he was drunk. She told him that she would do all of the talking for whoever they might meet along the way. When a soldier neared them, she began to berate the priest as if he were her husband. The soldier came up to them and said to the disguised priest: “Citizen if I had a wife like that I’d drown her in the nearest river” and the priest responded: “Citizen so would I!”

Catherine died in 1836. Pope John Paul II beatified Catherine in Saint Peter’s Square on November 24, 1996.

Blessed Catherine Jarrige, you used your gifts of bravery and trickery to protect priests and bring the sacraments to those most in need during the French Revolution. Pray for us that we may be as brave to use the gifts God has given us for God’s service.