DIEPPE, France (AP) – The mayor of a city in France’s Normandy region says a 103-year-old nun known as the “White Angel” to allied soldiers injured during a failed World War II raid has died.
The city of Dieppe in Normandy said that a tribute to Sister Agnes-Marie Valois will be held on April 24 at the Canadian cemetery. The ceremony is set to be attended by the Canada ambassador to France.
Most of the soldiers killed or captured during the Aug. 19, 1942 raid in Dieppe were Canadian, as were the troops the French nun and nurse cared for.
Dieppe Mayor Nicolas Langlois says flags have been lowered to half-staff in the city to pay tribute to “a great lady of our history.”
Valois, who took vows as a nun in 1936 and also worked as a nurse at the Dieppe hospital, was living in retirement at a monastery when she died Thursday.