Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Instruments of Healing
Saint Colette Boylet of Corbie
Abbess († 1447) Feast: March 6
Her parents named her Nicolette in thanksgiving to Saint Nicholas of Myra, to whom they had prayed for a child after many years of childlessness. Colette was an attractive, intelligent, and devout child. When she was seventeen years old, both her parents died.
Colette decided to give away her possessions, become a Third Order Franciscan, and live an austere life as a hermitess. Although she carefully obeyed the Franciscan rule, not every Franciscan community in France took the vow of poverty quite so seriously. Saint Francis himself appeared to Colette in multiple visions, and he charged her to leave her hermitage and go reform those communities. After receiving ecclesiastical permission, Colette obeyed.
However, many people resented Colette’s reminders about the dangers of wealth and the beauty of evangelical poverty. Gossips spread wild stories about her, people rejected her, and some even tried to stone her. Perhaps that’s why God granted her the grace to perform miracles. According to tradition, Colette received visions, healed the sick—including a nun suffering from leprosy—and raised multiple people from the dead. These miracles, along with her unshakeable trust in God and joyful heart, convinced many Catholics of her holiness and reminded many vowed religious of the value of poverty.
God of the poor, give us joyful hearts
to serve those in need.
