Sister Jeanne d’Arc Demers - Biographical Note

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SISTER JEANNE D’ARC DEMERS
Biographical Note

Fourth and last child of Julia and Arthur Demers, Jeanne d’Arc was born on August 12, 1925 in a home filled with joy, love and charity. Answering God’s call, she entered the Juvenate of the Sisters of Charity at the age of seventeen. After a year of postulancy and a year of novitiate, she made her first vows on July 15, 1946, taking the name of Sister Sainte-Jeanne-du-Sauveur. Postings sent her to several of the Congregation’s institutions as a teacher.

In 1963, providential events led her to her mother’s where she met Marie-Paule for the first time. With Mama Julia, now widowed, and her brother Majella, the Demers family which was so welcoming and understanding, became the “Bethany Home” to which Marie-Paule liked to return, especially during a very difficult time in her life. We then discover through Life of Love the ever deeper and spiritual friendship which binds Sister Jeanne d’Arc to the one who would be called upon to establish the Army of Mary, confiming the Lord’s words who, in 1958, had announced this select soul to Marie-Paule, giving this precise and wonderful description of Sister Jeanne d’Arc: “A little further, don’t you see, with affection, the saintly soul of your bosom friend, Jeanne d’Arc? Pure, noble, a most worthy soul, she has a deep filial devotion to her mother. Unknown to anyone, she has suffered, and I have dug deeply into her soul to the end that she might become holy, capable of understanding the Work of my Mother. As John was to me, she is that superlative friend that you have always looked to see again. She still follows your Calvary, and she retains her affection for you regardless of what those about her say.”

Mama Julia, Sister Jeanne d’Arc
and Brother Majella, the “Bethany
Home” to which Marie-Paule liked
to return, especially during a very
difficult time in her life.

Yes, a faithful “bosom friend” of Marie Paule, Sister Jeanne d’Arc was quick to understand Mary’s Work and she adhered to it wholeheartedly. The gift of herself was to find its fulfillment in this Work in which it would be possible for her to pursue the ideal of life which she always had.

From the time the Army of Mary was founded at Lac-Etchemin on August 28, 1971, Sister Jeanne d’Arc courageously supported Marie-Paule and opened the way through conferences given to nuns in various Communities. She was an efficient collaborator in the preparation of the Army of Mary Guide or Manual. With the Foundress, Fathers Denis Laprise and Victor Rizzi, she travelled the byways of the province in order to found the first Centers.

Then, through a disconcerting chain of events, but always according to God’s plan, she, along with six companions, became a Daughter of Mary at the time of the founding of the Community on May 31, 1981. A short time later, her mother, the good Mama Julia joined her and on August 15, 1981, she received from her daughter’s hands the habit of the Daughters of Mary. The heavy responsibilities followed one another with Sister Jeanne d’Arc becoming under-mistress of novices, Mistress of novices, then Superior General. A few months of rest from these responsibilities allowed her, in 1989, to accompany her mother in her last days.

Sister Jeanne d’Arc,
Daughter of Mary

The Lord then entrusted her with another great mission, that of spreading the Work through conferences recorded and illustrated on video cassettes. She was then to continue this work of extension in France by accepting to take on the responsibility of a new residence just opened. After three and a half years of “missionary life”, Sister Jeanne d’Arc returned to Quebec where she is Mother Paul-Marie’s Assistant General for the Community of the Daughters of Mary

In the year 2000, the Eucharistic and Marian Center Spiri-Maria, a place of perpetual adoration and spiritual retreats, was inaugurated at Lac-Etchemin. To Sister Jeanne d’Arc falls the responsibility of giving conferences to the retreatants. Having been with Marie-Paule since the very beginning of the Work, she bears witness to what she has seen and to the fulfillment of what is written in Life of Love..

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Life of Love, in its fourth volume, unveils the beginnings of this life of giving and renewed ardor in the service of the Lord, in fidelity to the Lord’s call and in an indestructible devotion to Our Lady.

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SISTER JEANNE D’ARC DEMERS Biographical Note

SISTER JEANNE D’ARC DEMERS
Biographical Note