Mother Léonie was born in L’Acadie, Québec, in 1840.

Having entered the Marianite convent at the age of fourteen, she was admitted to the religious profession in 1857, after which she taught for a few years.

In 1874, she was called upon by Father Camille Lefebvre to direct the youg Acadian women in New Brunswick in the service of the College of Memramcook; this is where, in 1880, she officially founded her Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family devoted to the service of priests.

In 1895, Bishop Paul LaRocque of Sherbrooke favored the transfer of the community by welcoming them to his diocese. The Foundress gradually came to serve more than forty houses, until God called his servant to himself on May 3rd, 1912. That very day, she had had the joy of receiving permission to print the « Little Rule » of the constitutions, which she had been patiently awaiting for twenty years. After the end of the evening meal, she suddenly went to her final sleep after saying to a sick Sister: Good bye. See you in heaven.

Remembered for her generous heart and disarming simplicity , she left more than 600 Sisters happy to walk in her footsteps by loving and serving the priesthood to the end of their lives.