Késsinnimek - Roots - RacinesMon Petit Coin by Norm Léveillée
Blessed Dina Bélanger
In the July issue of Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines, I wrote about "my cousin", Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. That discovery, written about in that article, was the result of extensive research. I continue this research for every piece of data found on my website.
Last summer, during a PowWow at Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, I met the husband of a distant cousin, a Bélanger, my maternal ancestry. He told me about a cousin of his who had done extensive reseach on the Bélanger ancestry. He gave me his email address and told me that he would write to this cousin, asking him to send me his research.
Upon receiving his data, I made a second, important discovery. I discovered that in my mother's lineage, there was a young woman who had become a sister of the order of Jesus and Mary, a religious group of women dedicated to the care of the sick and the teaching of the young. Her name is Dina BÉLANGER, named Blessed by Pope John Paul. Her religious name was Sister Marie Sainte-Cécile de Rome. Dina was only 14 years older than my mother, Jeannette BÉLANGER who was born in 1911. Both Dina and Jeannette were descendants of Nicolas BÉLANGER, one of the first colonists in New France.
Blessed Dina BÉLANGER was born at Québec on 30 April 1897, the daughter of Olivier Octave BÉLANGER & Séraphia MATTE. Her parents lived at 168 Notre Dame des Anges in the Parish of Jacques Cartier. Dina was baptized at St. Roch, Québec. She studied music and planned to become a concert pianist. While studying in New York, Dina lived with the Religious of Jesus-Mary. She returned home and decided to enter the religious life in the Congrégation de Jesus-Marie at Sillery, where the nuns had their mother house. She entered the convent at the age of 24, in August 1921. She entered the order of Jesus-Marie in February 1922 and received the name Sister Marie Sainte-Cécile de Rome and took her final vows on 25 August 1923. As a nun, Dina BÉLANGER taught music.
On two occasions the sisters sent her to teach at Saint-Michel of Bellechasse but both times, illness brought her back to Sillery where she stayed (teaching music) until her death. She could have taught in many areas as she had excelled in all her studies but due to her having shown such great talent in music at a young age and her continued education at the Conservatory of New York from 1916 to 1918, her superiors judged her best qualified to teach music.
Dina had a brother who died at the age of 3 months. Dina's father was an auditor and her grandfather operated a grocery store in the St-Malo district of Québec. Her ancestors (Pierre, Joseph-Marie and Nicolas) all came from Charlesbourg.
Dina died on 4 Sept 1929 at the age of 38.
In 1951 her body was exhumed and placed in a lead sarcophagus where, today, many kneel to pray. On March 20, 1993, at ceremonies in Rome, Dina BÉLANGER became the first native of Québec to be Beatified by the Church. The quiet life of this talented young woman, who lived her short adult life as a sister of Jesus and Mary is the subject of her autobiography which has been translated into several languages. (1)
There are several links to information about Dina on my website.
The first is an article written by Armand Bélanger, and used here with permission of the L'Association des familles Bélanger, Inc. The original article is written in French. I translated it into English.
There are two files in my site to show the relationship between Dina and myself. The first is found at
The second will show the ancestral lineage of Blessed Dina Bélanger. This is found at
One of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary, from her convent at Sillery, Québec, has been sending me Dina's words in a series of letters. You can view these at
The first six are written in French. The following letters are written not only in French, but also in English and Spanish.
I am in humble awe of these discoveries during my genealogical research, to have found two "distant cousins" considered Blessed and soon to be named Saint, in the Catholic Church!
(1) Bélanger Database © Jim Bélanger, Permission to use granted in an Email 6/29/02
Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
Copyright © 2003 Norm Léveillée
Created 1 Feb 2003