BL. MARIE EUGENIE OF JESUS, FOUNDRESS

BL. MARIE EUGENIE OF JESUS, FOUNDRESS - 10 MARCH

BLESSED MARIE EUGENIE OF JESUS, FOUNDRESS

Anne Marie Eugenie was born in 1817 in Metz to a non-believing and financially comfortable family. Anne Eugenie went to Mass on feast days and received the Sacraments of initiation, as was the custom but without any real commitment. However, her First Communion was a great mystical experience that foretold the secret of her future. She did not grasp its prophetic meaning until much later when she recognised it as her path towards total belonging to Jesus Christ and the Church.

THE MEANING OF HER FIRST COMMUNION

After a prosperous period for her father, she experienced the failure of his banks, the misunderstanding and eventual separation of her parents and the loss of all security. She had to leave her family home and go to Paris while Louis, closest to her in age and faithful companion went to live with their father.

THE LOSS OF ALL WORLDLY SECURITY

Eugenie went to Paris with the mother she adored, only to see her die from cholera after a few hours of illness, leaving her alone at the age of fifteen in a society that was worldly and superficial. Searching in anguish and almost desperate for the truth, she arrived at her conversion thirsty for the Absolute and open to the Transcendent.

THE KEY TO ALL THAT IS GOOD

When she was nineteen, Anne Eugenie attended the Lenten Conferences at Notre Dame in Paris, preached by the young Abbe Lacordaire, already well-known for his talent as orator. I was truly converted, she wrote, and I was seized by a longing to devote all my strength or rather all my weakness to the Church which, from that moment, I saw as alone holding the key to the knowledge and achievement of all that is good.

FR COMBALOT

Just at this time, another preacher, appeared on the scene. In the confessional, Father Combalot recognised that he had encountered a chosen soul who was designated to be the foundress of the Congregation he had dreamt of for a long time.

He persuaded Eugenie to undertake his work by insisting that this Congregation was willed by God who had chosen her to establish it. He convinced her that only by education could she evangelize minds, make families truly Christian and thus transform the society of her time. Anne Eugenie accepted the project as God’s will for her and allowed herself to be guided by the Abbe Combalot.

THE RELIGIOUS OF THE ASSUMPTION

At twenty-two, Marie Eugenie became foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, dedicated to consecrate their whole life and strength to extending the Kingdom of Christ in themselves and in the world. In 1839, Mademoiselle Eugenie Milleret, with two other young women, began a life of prayer and study in a flat at rue Ferou near the church of St Sulpice in Paris. In 1841, under the patronage of Madame de Chateaubriand, Lacordaire, Montalembert and their friends, the sisters opened their first school. In a relatively short time there were sixteen sisters of four nationalities in the community.

THE OLD AND THE NEW

Marie Eugenie and the first sisters wanted to link the ancient and the new - to unite the past treasures of the Church’s spirituality and wisdom with a type of religious life and education able to satisfy the demands of modern minds. It was a matter of respecting the values of the period and at the same time, making the Gospel values penetrate the rising culture of a new industrial and scientific era. The spirituality of the Congregation, centered on Christ and the Incarnation, was both deeply contemplative and dedicated to apostolic action. It was a life given to the search for God and the love and service of others.

HER HAPPY DEATH

In the last years of her life, Mother Marie Eugenie experienced a progressive physical weakening, which she lived in silence and humility - a life totally centered on Christ. She received the Eucharist for the last time on March 9, 1898 and on the 10th, she gently passed over to the Lord. She was beatified by Pope Paul VI on February 9, 1975 in Rome.

THE LEGACY

Today, the Religious of the Assumption are present in 34 countries - 8 in Europe, 5 in Asia, 10 in America and 11 in Africa. Almost 1,200 sisters form 170 communities throughout the world.

The Lay Assumption - Assumption Together - made up of Friends of the Assumption and Communities or Fraternities of the Assumption, are numerous: thousands of Friends and hundreds of Lay Assumption committed to live according to the Way of Life.

Information from

https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20070603_eugenie-jesus_en.html

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Marie Eugenie may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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