Saint Colette

Life story

Colette was born on 13 January 1381 at Corbie in Picardy, France, with the baptismal name Nicole Boellet. Her father worked as a carpenter for the local abbey. She was orphaned young and lived a devout life, trying first a community of lay women and then the Franciscan Third Order.

In 1402 she received the Third Order habit and lived as a recluse beside the church at Corbie until around 1406. At that time the Western Church was divided, with two and then three men claiming to be pope. She asked to reform the Poor Clares along the strict poverty of their early days, and in 1406 she received permission from Benedict XIII, who is not now counted as a legitimate pope.

The first monastery to follow her reform was founded at Besançon in 1410. In the following years she travelled through France, Savoy and Flanders and founded about eighteen monasteries. Together with Father Henri de la Baume she also began a reform among the male Franciscans. She died at Ghent on 6 March 1447. The sisters who follow her reform are known as Colettine Poor Clares. She was beatified in 1740 and canonised on 24 May 1807. Her reform spread beyond her lifetime, and Colettine monasteries were later founded in other parts of Europe, keeping the strict poverty she had asked for. She is remembered as one of the key figures of Franciscan reform in the fifteenth century.

Works and witness

• Lived as a recluse at Corbie from 1402 until around 1406
• Reformed the Poor Clares towards their early strict poverty
• Founded her first monastery at Besançon in 1410
• Founded about eighteen monasteries in her lifetime
• Canonised in 1807

Patron of

Expectant mothers, Sick children

Saints from the same country

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joan of Arc, Saint Francis de Sales

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1912), entry on Colette
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.