Saint of the Day: Bl. Dina Belanger

 

Religious Sister (1897-1926)

Her life

+ Dina was born in the Saint-Roch district of Quebec, Canada. Educated by the Notre Dame Sisters, she was an excellent student and a gifted musician.

+ At the age of 11, she had a mystical experience which led her to dedicate herself to Christ and to the service of the Church, although it would take her several years to discern what this would mean.

+ After she graduated in 1914, she moved to New York to study piano and composition, receiving her degree in 1918. She returned to her parents’ home and performed concerts to raise money for charity. During these years, she discerned that God was calling her to religious life and she entered the Congregation of Religious of Jesus and Mary in Quebec in 1922.

+ Given the religious name “Sister Maria di Santa Cecilia Romana,” she professed religious vows in 1923.

+ Assigned to teach music in one of the order’s schools, she contracted tuberculosis and scarlet fever (the result of caring for a sick child). Her health began to deteriorate quickly, but during this time she wrote a spiritual autobiography and composed music intended to express her union with Jesus.

+ Having professed her perpetual vows in 1928, Blessed Dina Belanger died on September 4, 1929, in the Jésus-Marie Convent in Sillery. She was beatified in 1993.

For reflection

“My task throughout eternity, and until the end of the world, is and will be to radiate, through the most Holy Virgin, the Heart of Jesus in all souls.”—Blessed Dina Belanger

Spiritual bonus

On September 4 we also remember Saint Nicolò Rusca. A priest of the diocese of Como, Itlay, he worked to help implement the decrees of the Council of Trent in a region where Protestant reforms and ideas were taking hold. Falsely accused of being involved in violent acts against Protestant ministers, he was arrested in July 1618 and died from abuse and torture in prison in Thusis, Switzerland, on September 4. He was beatified in 2013.

Prayer

Father of everlasting goodness, You put into the heart of Blessed Dina Belanger the burning desire to offer you on behalf of all mankind, the infinite riches of the Heart of Jesus present in the Eucharist, and, to live, like Mary, closely united to Him whom she loved with an undivided heart.

May we, like her, find our joy in faithfully doing your Will, and since you revealed to her your great desire to pour out upon the world the abundance of your graces, hear the prayer which we make for your greater glory, and which we entrust to her intercession. Amen.

(from the website of the Religious of Jesus and Mary)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.