Marie-Élisabeth Turgeon
Canadian nun (1840–1881)
Feast: 17 August (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 9 October 2013 — Heroic virtue declared — title Venerable (decree list, 2013)
- 17 September 2014 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2014)
Who they were
Élisabeth Turgeon was born in Beaumont, Quebec, on 8 February 1840. She founded the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary to teach in the small villages of the diocese of Rimouski, and gave herself to prayer, teaching and works of charity, though sick for much of her short life. She died on 17 August 1881.
The miracles
Michel Boucher — Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, Canada — from November 1991
In November 1991, aged 38, a man from Trois-Pistoles was diagnosed with a rare cancer that is normally incurable in adults and given between two months and a year to live. After prayers for Mother Élisabeth's intercession his condition improved, and he went into complete remission.
Her beatification in Rimouski on 26 April 2015 was the first held in Canada without the Pope present.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of Michel Boucher was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 17 September 2014, opening the way to beatification. Beatification followed on 26 April 2015 by Cardinal Angelo Amato, for Pope Francis.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Marie-Élisabeth Turgeon
- Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary - the cause for canonisation
- Cath.ch - Élisabeth Turgeon beatified in Rimouski
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q3587924 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Marie-Élisabeth Turgeon (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.