Encuentra Calendar of Saints
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September 23

Emilia Tavernier Gamelin (1800–1851)

Founding widow

Widow and Canadian founder, Emilia Tavernier Gamelin responded to her own losses by opening her heart to all kinds of suffering.

Biography

Orphaned since she was a child, she learned to prepare a "king's table" at home for the poor. After losing her husband and three children, she did not close herself in pain: she welcomed elderly women, the sick, orphans, people with disabilities and victims of epidemics. She founded the Sisters of Providence to continue these works. During a cholera epidemic he contracted the disease while serving and died in Montreal in 1851.

Practical advice

Turn personal sadness today into comfort for another person experiencing a similar loss.

Example of

Family lifeSelf-givingFounding spirit

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