Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Yvonne Aime de Jesus (1901-)

Yvonne was born in 1901 in Cosse en Champagne, France. She entered the Monastery of the Augustinians of Malestroit in 1927 and, in 1928, launched a modern clinic that opened the following year. She became novice mistress and was elected mother superior of the monastery in 1935.

Mother Yvonne was skilled at throwing the Germans off the scent. Her clinic often sheltered and treated escaping soldiers and resisters, even disguising Allied airmen as nuns. Membership in a religious order did not provide protection against deportation or death if the Germans suspected members of the order of aiding escapees. Yet, conscience drove them to assist the Resistance, if not in an organized way. 

In 1946 Mother Yvonne founded the Federation of Augustinian Monasteries and was elected first Superior General. She died in Malestroit on 3 February 1951.

No comments:

Post a Comment