Blandine Merten

Blandine Merten, (religious name Blandine of the Sacred Heart, born as Maria Magdalena Merten, 10 July 1883 – 18 May 1918) was a German Ursuline. Merten worked as a teacher from 1902 to 1908 in the secular environment while then serving as a teacher while in the religious life from her first vows profession until 1916 when ill health forced her to stop teaching. Pope John Paul II beatified her on 1 November 1987.

Life
Maria Magdalena Merten was the ninth of eleven children born to farmers. Between 1902 and 1908 she taught children in a secular environment but in November 1908 decided, along with her sister, to enter a convent of the Ursulines near Ahrweiler. Merten commenced her novitiate in 1910 and assumed the religious name Blandine of the Sacred Heart. She made her solemn vows on 4 November 1913.

Merten led a simple life with an emphasis on tending to the children entrusted to her while also associating action and contemplation with the huge devotion she fostered towards the Eucharist. In September 1916 she contracted tuberculosis and was forced to stop teaching as a result. Merten died in mid-1918 at the convent of Saint Bantus due to her tuberculosis and she was buried at the Basilica of St Paulinus in Trier. Her relics were transferred on 18 May 1990.

Beatification
The beatification process opened in Trier in an informative process on 13 November 1954 until its conclusion on 9 June 1962; her writings later received approval on 21 December 1968 while the cause's formal introduction came on 4 December 1980 in which she was titled as a Servant of God. Theologians would later approve the positio of the cause on 26 January 1983 while the Congregation for the Causes of Saints also approved it on 12 April 1983.

Pope John Paul II named her as venerable on 9 July 1983. The miracle needed for beatification was investigated from 7 March 1985 until 30 March 1985 and was validated in Rome in 1985. A medical board approved the healing to be a miracle on 25 June 1986 as did theologians on 19 December 1986 and the Congregation on 17 March 1987. John Paul II approved it on 8 May 1987 and beatified Sr. Blandine in Saint Peter's Square on 1 November 1987.