Colette, Saint

Colette, Saint a French nun and reformer, whose family name was Boilet, was born at Corbie, in Picardy, January 13, 1380. From infancy she was remarkable for her piety. After having lived successively at the house of the Beguines, the sisters of the third order of St. Francis, then in a hermitage, she entered the order of the nuns of St. Clare, and conceived the thought of working a reform. Benedict XIII, Pedro de Luna, the acknowledged pope at Avignon, approved her desigi, and invested her with the necessary power to accomplish it. Shet failed in France, but succeeded in Savoy, Burgundy, the Netherlands, and Spain. She died at Ghent, March 6, 1446, and her canonization was pronounced March 3, 1807, by Pius VII. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.