Catherine de Bar was born at
Saint-Dié,
Lorraine in northeastern France, on 31 December 1614, the third child of Jean and Marguerite de Guillon de Bar. They belonged to the lower nobility. At the age of seventeen, Catherine joined the
Annonciade at
Bruyères, taking the name Sister Catherine of Saint-John the Evangelist. Two years later, she was made mother-superior there. In May 1635, Mother de Bar, and the
nuns of the convent in
Bruyères were forced to flee before the Swedish army. Some nuns exhausted by hardships fell ill with the
plague. Catherine de Bar and five other nuns found shelter with the
Benedictines in
Rambervillers. Invited to join that religious community, they did so, Catherine taking the new name of "Mechtilde". In 1653 in Paris This was the first society formally organized for the
Perpetual Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament == Works ==