Blessed Dina Bélanger RJM 

Dina Bélanger’s life was short but of extraordinary spiritual intensity. From the human point of view one could say that it was a life without historical significance, but looked at it with the eyes of faith, hers was indeed a fruitful life. Baptized on the same day of her birth, April 30th, 1897, she so lived to its ultimate consequence the grace of the sacrament of Christian initiation that she could say with St. Paul: «It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.» Her childhood and youth developed normally in a Christian family setting in her native city of Quebec, Canada.

A gifted musician she became a notable pianist whose concerts were greatly applauded. But while cultivating her intelligence and developing her talents, she was also growing in intimacy with the Lord whose voice kept making itself heard with increasing urgency.

On August 11th, 1921, she entered the novitiate of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, Sillery, Quebec, where she was professed on August 13th, 1923.

Her Autobiography, written at the request of her Superiors, permits us to penetrate the secret of Dina Bélanger’s prayer. Her soul, which was that of an artist and a musician, expressed itself in a prayer which is a song of love and praise and which reaches out to the whole world, to «all souls» as she herself said.

Her three passions: love, suffering, and souls became an ardent supplication to give glory to the Holy Trinity whose love took more and more possession of her. To pray with Dina Bélanger is to enter into the prayer of Christ who offers himself continually to the Father for the redemption of the human rate. It is to entrust oneself to Mary who is the surest way to go to Jesus.

Dina died on September 4th, 1929 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 20th, 1993.