Blessed Joséphine Leroux | |
|---|---|
| Martyr | |
| Born | 23 January 1747 Cambrai,Kingdom of France |
| Died | 23 October 1794 Valenciennes,French First Republic |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 13 June 1920 byPope Benedict XV |
| Feast | October 23 |
Joséphine Leroux (23 January 1747 – 23 October 1794), bornAnne-Josepha Leroux, was a FrenchPoor Clare, executed during the French Revolution.
She was born inCambrai,France. At the age of twenty-two, she entered the Poor Clare monastery inValenciennes, taking thereligious nameJoséphine. Her sister Marie was an Ursuline, also in Valenciennes.[1]
When themonasteries andconvents were suppressed during theFrench Revolution, she fled to her family inMons,Hainaut, as did her sister. When Austrian forces took the city, there was a brief period of peace, and Joséphine returned to Valenciennes in 1793. Since her own Poor Clare monastery had been destroyed, she and her sister resumed religious life at theUrsuline convent.[1]
The revolutionary army retook the city and in 1794, she and several other nuns were arrested on the grounds that they were emigres who had returned without permission and were running a religious school. They were condemned for high treason. On October 23, 1794 she and her sister, two other Ursulines, and two Bridgettine nuns wereguillotined.[1] The nuns went to their deaths singing theLitany of Loretto.[2]
Joséphine Leroux wasbeatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.[3]
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