Today's Saint of the Day for the letter 'D' is a tribute to our friends in Canada, as we will feature one of their own.
Blessed Dina Belanger, also known by her religious name Marie of Saint Cecilia of Rome, was born in Quebec in 1897. The full name given to her at baptism was Marie-Marguerite-Dina-Adelaide. Her parents raised her in the faith, teaching her her prayers and taking her to Mass. At the age of 14, she entered a convent boarding school. At first, she was very homesick and her parents offered to take her home again. However she persevered and was soon moved to make a private act of consecration to God.
In 1913 she asked her parents and two priests for permission to enter the Notre-Dame order's novitiate. The priests counseled her to wait. Dina was a talented musician and had been learning piano and music from the nuns from the time she was eight until 1914. She went to New York in 1916 to study music. She returned to Canada upon her graduation in 1918.
During this time, Dina's spiritual life was not dormant. She became a Third Order Dominican, taking the name of St. Catherine of Sienna. She then entered the Religieuses de Jésus-Marie at Niagara Falls in 1921where she assumed the religious name of Marie de St. Cecilia de Rome. She made monastic vows two years later. During her first mission in 1923, where she taught piano, she contracted Scarlet Fever. She recovered enough to be able to resume her teaching duties. However, the fever degenerated into tuberculosis. She said that her illness allowed her to further deepen her relationship with Jesus.
She was asked by her Superior to write her biography in 1924 soon after falling ill. In a vision, she heard Jesus tell her, "You will do good by your writings." She continued her writing until just a few months before her death. She recovered and fell ill again a couple times before she dies of her illness on September 4, 1929.
Her feast day is Sept. 4.
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