RACLO, MATHILDE. – Religious of the Dames de Saint-Maur and missionary, b. at Surauville (Vosges) in 1814, d. at Tokyo in 1911.
At the age of eighteen she entered the Institute of the Maîtresses de Charité du Saint-Enfant-Jésus, founded by Fr. N. Barré and known as the “Dames de Saint-Maur.” She proved herself an outstanding educator at Bagnoles, Cette, and Bergiers, until in 1852 she set out for Malaysia at the head of a group of sisters. Having landed at Penang, she immediately set to work on the most urgent tasks, founding several houses with annexed buildings for foundling hospitals, day nurseries, orphanages, workshops, and schools for native apprentices. The same zeal she displayed in Japan, whither she had been summoned by the Apostolic Vicar in 1872, and where in 1875 she founded the house at Tokyo and in 1903 that at Shidsuoka. Thus she earned a reputation as an unparalleled teacher and mother to thousands of orphans.