Gabrielle Marie’s mornings begin like most women as she slowly opens her eyes and prepares for the day ahead.

But instead of heading to an office or sending children off to school, Marie meets up with her fellow Benedictine Daughters for breakfast before spending the better part of her afternoon praying.

Mother Marie, as she is better known, is a member of a religious order of nuns based in Italy that she founded several years ago after leaving her position as mother vicar of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Ala.

That just so happens to be Mother Mary Angelica’s order.

The Napoleonville native spent 33 years by Mother Angelica’s side.

Mother Angelica founded EWTN, Eternal Word Television Network, in 1981 and began running religious programming on the station. She relinquished control of the network in 2000 and suffered a stroke in 2001.

Mother Marie is the nun many might remember who sat directly next to Mother Angelica reciting The Rosary on TV.  The story of how a girl from south Louisiana found herself sharing a TV set with such a beloved nun is an interesting one, said Ana Kearns, who served as a chaperone of sorts during Mother Marie’s recent visit to south Louisiana. Kearns is president of the Thibodaux Music Club.

“When you are around her you sense the Holy Spirt and receive many blessings,” Kearns said.

Mother Marie, whose birth name is Gayle Breaux, described how she attended St. Philomena Elementary School in Labadieville as a child. It was then that she started to feel a tug toward religious life.  After attending college in New Orleans and later traveling to work at a mental hospital in Indiana, Mother Marie wanted to come home.

“I actually returned to Assumption Parish and got a teaching job at Assumption High School,” Mother Marie, now 67, said. “I really enjoyed teaching but felt something was still missing in my life.”

Mother Marie said for a brief time she thought marriage might be her calling because she loved children, but a visit to Mother Angelica’s print shop in Alabama changed that.  “My mother wrote Mother Angelica to see if we could stop by and check it out in 1977,” said Mother Marie.

At the shop, Mother Angelica printed and distributed religious pamphlets free of cost for anyone wanting them.  “When we arrived,” Mother Marie said, “I was called to a back room, where Mother Angelica asked me, ‘What do you seek?’ ”

Mother Marie said the encounter unnerved her a bit but also drew her back to Alabama, where she joined the monastery on Aug. 15, 1978.

“This is something I didn’t think I would ever do,” Mother Marie said. “After I settled in, I asked Mother Angelica why she had asked me what she did that day a year before. She told me she had received a letter from a Gayle Breaux asking questions about joining the order. The strange thing is I never sent her a letter, so all I can figure is it was my guardian angel or another Gayle Breaux that sent it and she thought it was me.”

Mother Marie credits Mother Angelica for having a major impact on the church.  “I believe she helped saved the church in America,” Mother Marie said of her mentor’s founding of EWTN.

Something else Mother Marie addressed was how, contrary to popular belief. Mother Angelica lived by “divine providence,” basically meaning she put everything in God’s hands, including financial matters.

“The Lord always provided her with the necessary money she needed,” Mother Marie said, adding that Mother Angelica is now bedridden and barely speaks. “I actually heard a story about when she bought her first large satellite dish for the station. It cost $600,000, and when the man came to collect the money, she didn’t know what to do. Then, a member of the monastery came to her and told her that a man was on the phone. The man wanted to donate $600,000, and before you know it, it had been wired and paid for.”

Mother Marie said she prayed for a year before founding the Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will order in the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro in 2011. The hope is to bring monasteries to the United States, but that will take many financial contributions.

Ann Caldarera, Mother Marie’s sister, said she is proud of the person her older sister has become.  “It is good to know that my sister is keeping all of us in our prayers,” Caldarera said. “She is an amazing person.”

Mother Marie said anyone who would like to make a tax-deductible donation to The Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will may send checks to The Benediction Daughters of Divine Will; P.O. Box 1002; Hanceville, AL 35077.

For information, visit benedictinesofdivinewill.org

MOTHER GABRIELLE WILL BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER NEXT MONTH AT DIVINE MERCT RETREAT