This month we begin a series on Visitation Nuns who were not only mystics, but stigmatics. One of the earliest for whom we have a short biography is the Sister we feature this month, Sister Marie-Clemence Mourade who entered her heavenly reward just 5 years after our Founder, St Francis de Sales.
Among those Visitation Sisters for whom we have information about receiving stigmata are: Sr Marie-Catherine Putigny,Sr Anne Madeleine Remuzat, Sr Suzanne-Marie de Riants de Villerey, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Sr Anne-Séraphine Boulier, Sr Marie-Marguerite Clément and Sr Jeanne-Bénigne Gojos.
On May 13, 1627 in our first Monastery of Annecy, our Sister Marie-Clémence de Mourade passed away. She was a soul of virtue and with a special election for the cross. She knew how to make good use of this precious gift, a true spouse of Jesus Christ.
Sister Marie – Clemence was the third candidate who received the holy habit in our first Monastery of Grenoble, where she entered, in April 1619. She was prone to a severe disability, but she practiced great acts of patience and obedience. Once, being bedridden with a continuous fever, she got up on the orders of our precious Mother of Châtel to help carry wood, which she did for two hours. She performed many other obediences that seemed impossible. Humble, soft, even and silent in matters of pain and contradiction, the more she received, she seemed more calm with serenity on her face.
God had engraved in her soul an attraction of grace and love for the mysteries of the Passion of Our Lord, which were the subject of her deepest thoughts. She meditated especially on that of the painful scourging, which she received on her body in distinct marks, by the effect of these extraordinary privileges that God has granted sometimes among His favorites, among others St. Francis of Assisi. She also reached a very sublime prayer and a singular gift of God’s presence.
For our Sister Marie-Clémence, recognizing and worshiping the divine hand that touched her in such a powerful way, she submitted especially with a humble patience during the fever which slowly directed her to the grave. It was the final nail that attached her to the cross of her divine Master; she was only age twenty-eight, to go to be at the eternal wedding feast, and she gave up her soul in the arms of her most beloved Mother of Chatel, then Superior in Annecy.
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