According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Alix Le Clerc was the sole daughter of Jean Le Clerc and Anna Saguay, born on February 2nd, 1576 at Remiremont in Lorraine. Her father was the lord of Roville-aux-Chênes, issued from a family ennobled in 1512 by the duke Antoine de Lorraine.

A well endowed and pretty young lady, she enjoyed a happy and careless youth, amusing and dancing herself away, until a serious sickness, along with pious readings, made her reflect upon her wasteful existence. Only after an apparition of the Virgin Mary during High Mass, that she became concious of her vocation. Supported by her parish priest Pierre Fourier, canonized in 1897, and two noble ladies, against her father's wishes, she with other young girls founded La Congrégation de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, adopting the name of Mother Marie de Jésus. Next, she opened the first school for the instruction of girls.

Her endeavours progressed well so that at the time of the French Revolution, there were 84 monasteries and 4000 nuns. Outside of, France, in the rest of Europe and the Americas, in 1947 there were 1427 institutions with 15,400 nuns. Many chapels and monasteries in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Brazil are dedicated to her. Presently, this religious community is known as the Canonesses of St-Augustine of the Congregation of Notre-Dame.

Deceased at 46 in Nancy on January 9th, 1622, Rome has dedicated the 9th of January as her Day. Many miracles that baffled medecine were attributed to her; Pope Leo XIII venerated her on February 21st, 1899 and Pope Pius XII beatified her on June 20th, 1943. Her sainthood is imminent.