Anne-Marie Rivier

Anne-Marie Rivier was born on 19 December 1768 in Montpezat-sous-Bauzon in the Ardèche region of southern France. At about sixteen months of age she fell from her crib and broke her hip, leaving her unable to walk. Her mother carried her each day to a chapel of the Pietà, where they prayed for her recovery. After some four years she regained the use of her legs, though she remained frail and somewhat lame for the rest of her life. That childhood ordeal, together with a strong Marian devotion, shaped her later spirituality and her trust in Providence.

As a young woman she sought admission to the Sisters of Notre-Dame at Pradelles but was refused on account of her poor health. During the French Revolution, when convents were suppressed and public worship restricted, she gathered children in homes and barns to teach them the catechism and to keep Catholic practice alive. On 21 November 1796, the feast of the Presentation of Mary, she and four companions began a religious community at Thueyts devoted to the Christian education of girls, especially the poor. That foundation became the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary.

The congregation grew through the revolutionary and Napoleonic years despite political hostility and material hardship. Rivier opened schools, formed sisters for teaching and for care of the needy, and insisted that contemplative prayer and active apostolate belong together. In 1819 the motherhouse was transferred from Thueyts to Bourg-Saint-Andéol. Contemporaries remarked on her apostolic energy; she was sometimes called the Woman Apostle. She died at Bourg-Saint-Andéol on 3 February 1838.

The institute she founded continued to expand in France and later abroad. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 23 May 1982 and canonized by Pope Francis on 15 May 2022. Her liturgical memorial is kept on 3 February.