Saint of the Day: St. Marie-Eugénie de Jésus

Foundress of the Sisters of the Assumption (1817-1898)

Her life

+ Born in Metz, France, Eugénie Milleret was raised in a family with no faith, although she did receive first Holy Communion on Christmas 1829.

+ As a young woman, she had a conversion experience and felt called to religious life after hearing the Lenten sermons of the Dominican priest Henri Lacordaire in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

+ Although she with Visitation nuns for a brief time, she did not make vows as a religious. During a pilgrimage in 1825, she felt called to establish a teaching institute.

+ In 1839, she founded a congregation that came to be known as the Congregation of the Assumption. The community in 1888.

+ Saint Marie-Eugénie died on March 10, 1898, and was canonized in 2007.

For reflection

“Each of us has a mission on earth. It is simply a question of seeking how God can use us to make his Gospel known and lived.”—Saint Marie-Eugénie

Vocations

To learn about the Religious of the Assumption, visit: http://www.assumptionsisters.org/

Spiritual bonus

On March 10 we also remember Saint Macarius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. At his guidance, the Emperor Constantine and his mother, Saint Helena, build or restored churches on the sacred sites associated with the life of the Savior in the Holy Land. Saint Macarius died in 325.

Prayer

O God, who called blessed Marie-Eugénie to seek your Kingdom in this world through the pursuit of perfect charity, grant, we pray, through her intercession that we may advance with joyful spirit along the way of love. 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.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For Religious)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.