Colette Broyet lived during the great Church schism when there were two men claiming to be Pope: one in Rome and one in Avignon.
Her
father worked as a carpenter for the Benedictine Abbey of Corbie in
French Picardy. Both parents were older and prayed earnestly to St.
Nicholas of Myra to conceive. On the birth of a daughter, they named her
Nicolette. Left an orphan at seventeen, Colette distributed what little
she had to the poor, and with the help of her guardian, the Abbot of
Corbie, moved into a small hermitage and joined the Third Order of Saint
Francis.
In her cell, Colette lived a life of austerity and
prayer becoming known for her holiness. In a vision, St. Francis asked
her to reform his order. Heartsick at the prospect, the twenty-five year
old girl hesitated, only to become blind for three days, and then deaf
for another three. Taking this as a sign that she must take up her
mission, in 1406 she left her seclusion and under the direction of her
confessor, Fr. Henry de Baume, set about to try to explain her mandate
only to realize that, if she was to succeed, she must be invested with
the proper authority.
She visited Peter de Luna, who under the
name of Benedict XIII was then considered the true Pope by the French,
though illegitimate according to Church history. Luna was so impressed
with Colette that he professed her in the rule of St. Clare and invested
her with the necessary authority for her mission.
With these
credentials Colette visited convents in France, Savoy and Flanders
inviting these to return to the original rule of St. Clare. Still, at
first she met with violent opposition. Bearing all with joy she
persevered and, after a while, began to make a difference as convents
accepted her revised rule. In all, she founded seventeen new convents,
and several houses of Franciscan friars also accepted her reform.
An
energetic reformer, mystic and miracle worker, Collette died in
Flanders at age of sixty-seven after foretelling her own death. She was
canonized in 1807.
Photo by: DirkVE
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