Mother Madeleine was born in England in 1877 and was educated in boarding schools in Belgium and the Conservatory of Music in Antwerp. After converting to Catholicism and joining the Ursuline community she was disowned by her family. Mother Madeleine answered the call to leave Belgium for the new Ursuline mission in Canada in 1914 and ten years later she went on to New York to become one of the founding members of the US Province. She served at Nativity BVM and Our Lady of Grace before she moved to Blue Point as the Assistant Superior and Directress of Novices. Under Mother Madeline’s direction, the convent took on a dimension of scholarship and spirituality and she soon extended the Ursuline ministry into Connecticut.

At the time of her death, Mother Madeleine, who predeceased Mother Stanislaus, who also co-founded the US Province, by two weeks, left behind four flourishing communities and an example of life led with personal holiness, self-sacrifice and dedication to the ideals of the Congregation – love of God and Church.