Mary Catherine of St. Augustine belongs to the medical record as a figure whose work changed what could be treated.
The record lists Mary Catherine of St. Augustine as French nun and nurse of New France (1632-1668).
Mary Catherine of St. Augustine was born at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte in 1632. Her recorded nationality is France.
The circulation of the blood and the microscope arrived within a generation of each other, and medicine acquired a mechanism.
Medicine advances against a moving target, and its successes are counted in lives rather than papers.
That the work was done from France matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Mary Catherine of St. Augustine died in 1668, aged 36. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
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