© Sister Mary/Monastic Family of Bethlehem
Sister Marie (Odile Dupont) was born on 22 June 1922 in Le Havre. She was the third of six children in a solidly Christian tradition: her father (François Dupont) was a Benedictine oblate of the Benedictine Abbey of Pierre-qui-Vire (Yonne; France); his mother (Marie-Thérèse Caillard) is a Dominican Tertiary [bubble link].
Between 1930 and 1933, Odile lived in a sanatorium in the Pyrenees to treat bone tuberculosis.
Then she was entrusted to the Dominican teachers of Le Havre (Seine Maritime; France). They build their faith daily through the reading of the Gospel and the study of St. Thomas Aquinas o.p., with commentary and experience.
Thus, during her childhood and adolescence, the Lord persistently made her hear His call to a life of prayer.
During the war years, she was preparing for the diploma of nurse-social worker at the Chaptal school in Paris [link bubble]. Father Jourdain Bonduelle, O.P., a friend of the family, helped her in the progressive discernment of her vocation. In 1944-1945, Odile participated in the animation of the first Catholic Action teams (JICF) of the diocese of Rouen. She then spent two years in the Aravis (Savoie; France) to treat a relapse of tuberculosis from her childhood.
On 2 February 1946, the end of the war and the improvement of her health allowed her to enter the monastery of the Dominican Sisters of Les Tourelles in Montpellier. She received the name Sister Marie-Catherine on 2 July 1947. From the first years of her Dominican novitiate, she began to seek a life of deeper solitude, silence, and contemplative prayer. From October 1949 to January 1950, she spent three months in solitude near the Community of the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary in Blüsch, Switzerland. During this stage, Sister Marie-Catherine received spiritual help from Father Marie-Dominique Philippe [bubble link] who sometimes came to visit her from Fribourg where he taught philosophy and theology. It confirmed his call for solitude.
© Sister Mary/Monastic Family of Bethlehem
With the agreement of her prioress of Les Tourelles, Mother Bernard, she joined in the first days of March 1950 the community of hermits of Mary Immaculate at Le Perthus in the Pyrenees (France). There, in a harsh and wild landscape, immersed in the Gospel and continual prayer, she discovered the simplicity and purity of a solitary life inspired by the Desert Fathers. She remained at Le Perthus until 27 October 1950. At the request of the bishop of Perpignan, Monseigneur Bernard, and the prioress of Les Tourelles, Odile returned to the monastery of Les Tourelles in Montpellier (Hérault; France).
On 1 November 1950, Odile was at the monastery of Les Tourelles, where she no longer had a canonical commitment. Six days later, she joined the bus of pilgrims from Rome on her way back to France, in which were among others her parents and a Dominican father, Father Ceslas Minguet, in order to participate in the foundation project initiated by lay pilgrims in Rome.
From 10 November 1950 to the beginning of January 1951, Odile was at the Dominican monastery of the Epiphany (near Soisy-sur-Seine; France) dependent on Les Tourelles where, with Father Minguet and a group of other sisters, she prepares the small new foundation. In the last weeks of January, she took sculpture classes in Paris in anticipation of developing a craft for the fledgling community. On 2 February 1951, a sending Mass for the foundation was celebrated in Paris by Father Minguet, followed by a day of prayer and adoration.
Twelve weeks after the promulgation of the dogma of the Assumption, the foundation began in the village of Chamvres in Burgundy, on 3 February 1951.