CATHERINE (Marie-Catherine) of Saint Augustine. — Augustinian nun (baptismal name Catherine de Longpré), missionary in Canada, b. at St-Sauveur-le-Vicomte (diocese of Coutances, Normandy) 3 May 1632, d. at Québec 8 May 1668. Very young, in October 1644 she entered the convent of the Hôtel-Dieu at Bayeux and four years later embarked from La Rochelle for Canada; she spent twenty years at the Hôtel-Dieu in Québec, highly esteemed by Bishop Mgr de Laval, by the Venerable Marie de l’Incarnation, and by the Jesuit superiors of the mission.
Her intense mystical life, hidden until her death, is known to us chiefly through her letters and the Diary she wrote at the behest of her confessors, Frs Raguenau (q.v.) and Chastelain; tried by severe interior trials (with frequent diabolical interventions) and endowed with lofty gifts of prayer, Mother C. of St A. appears above all as a voluntary victim for the good of the Canadian Church in the colony’s most critical period. The cause of her beatification has been introduced at Québec.
Catherine II, Empress of Russia — Portrait. Copper engraving.