Charles de Foucauld is not from Ardèche. He was born in Strasbourg and is best known for having been a hermit in southern Algeria where he was assassinated in 1916. And yet this son, from a wealthy family raised by his grandfather, began his quest for God at the hatch of Notre Dame des Neiges in Saint-Laurent-Les-Bains. He remains there only 7 months but binds with the bishop of the place. He was ordained a priest at the diocesan house of Viviers in 1901.
Marie Rivier, a Saint of Montpezat-sous-Bauzon
Marie Rivier is less known. She was born in 1768. And the event that will change her life is a fall. At the age of 16 months, she falls out of a bunk bed. And she breaks her femoral neck. A serious prognosis at the time. His very pious mother goes regularly to pray in a village chapel in front of the pieta: the representation of the Virgin at the foot of the cross.
Mary grows up and ends up getting out of it: she too prays to the Virgin and promises to educate young girls if she recovers. At the age of 18, she began to go to school in her village of Montpezat then with her returned to orders and settled in Thueyts with a few other nuns: it was there that she founded the congregation of the sisters in the midst of the French Revolution. of the Presentation of Mary.
The congregation was very successful and the sisters bought a house in Bourg-Saint-Andéol. This is where she died in 1838 and is where the mother house of the congregation is today.
The congregation now has more than 1,000 nuns installed in 16 countries.
About sixty people from Ardèche in private audience with Pope Francis
About sixty Ardèche residents were received with the Bishop of Viviers by Pope Francis this Saturday on the eve of the canonization. In total, ten blessed will be canonized this Sunday.