Biography
Born to the French nobility, the daughter of Baron Charles de Trenquelléon and Marie-Ursule de Peyronnencq de Saint-Chamarand, she was related through her mother to Saint Louis IX; she was baptized when only a few hours old. Her father, the baron, fought on the side of King Louis XVI in the French Revolution in 1791, which led to exile for him and his family to England in November 1791, then Spain in 1797, then Portugal in 1798, back to Spain in 1800, and finally a return to France in 1801. Adèle made her First Communion on 6 January 1801 in San Sebastian, Spain, and received Confirmation on 6 February 1803 from the bishop of Agen, France. In her early teens, Adèle began to feel a call to religious life, and wanted to join the Carmelites, but her mother convinced her to wait till she was grown to make the decision. On 5 August 1803 Adèle and some like-minded friends founded the Little Society, an informal group for spiritual study and support which Adèle encouraged by active correspondence, and which by 1808 had about 60 members, laity and priests. Adèle started visiting the area sick at home, and brought poor children to her home to teach them the faith. Learning of a group founded by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade in Bordeaux, France, the Sodalities of Our Lady, that was similar to the Little Society, Adèle began corresponding with Chaminade. By 1809 the Society had been modified to be more like Chaminade's Sodality. On 20 Born: 10 June 1789 in Castle of Trenquelléon, Feugarolles, Lot-et-Garonne, France Died: • 10 January 1828 in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France of natural causes • buried at the Marianist Sisters convent in Agen