Shrine Celebrates New Saint
Shrine of St. Joseph the Worker
By Bro. Richard Cote, OMI

St. Joseph the Worker Shrine celebrated the canonization of St. Marie-Léonie Paradis on Mission Sunday, October 20. Br. Richard Coté, O.M.I., Shrine Historian and Oblate Museum Curator prepared a display in the lobby with a statue of the new Canadian saint and a first-class relic.
St. Marie-Léonie, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family of Sherbrooke, QC, came to Lowell, MA in 1900 where she established the first mission of her order in the United States. These women dedicated to prayer and domestic service principally in rectories, seminaries and bishops’ residences were invited by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to staff the rectory at St. Jean Baptiste Church. These sisters followed the Oblates when they opened rectories at St. Jeanne d’Arc, Notre Dame de Lourdes, St. Joseph Shrine, and a formation house on Andover Street all in Lowell. The same group served at the Novitiate and later the Oblate Infirmary/Residence in Tewksbury, MA for 100 years! A Triduum in honor of St. Marie-Léonie is being planned for May 2025 at St. Joseph the Worker Shrine with Fr. Louis Lougen, OMI as presider.