French, Chilean Nuns Canonized by Pontiff
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II on Sunday canonized a French nun and a Chilean nun, calling the women “daughters of light.”
The Pope elevated Claudine Thevenet, who founded the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, and Teresa de Jesus de Los Andes, a Carmelite novice who is Chile’s first saint.
Teresa de Jesus, who was born Juana Enriqueta Josefina Fernandez Solar, was beatified by the Pope during his trip to Chile in 1987. She died of typhus in 1920, three months short of her 20th birthday and six months short of completing her canonical novitiate. She was praised by the Pope for her spirituality and devotion to God.
Thevenet, who was born in 1774, was 15 when she lived through the siege of Lyon by the army and witnessed the execution of her two brothers by guillotine. She dedicated herself to relieving the suffering caused by the French Revolution.
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