When canonising St Marie-Eugénie de Jésus on 3 June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI attempted to summarise the significance of her life with the following words: “Marie Eugenie Milleret reminds us first of all of the importance of the Eucharist in the Christian life and in spiritual growth.”
This is because perhaps the most crucial moment in the life of St Marie-Eugénie was her First Holy Communion, which she made at the age of 12 years old. To her, it was a life-changing experience and a key moment on the road to founding a female order – the Religious of the Assumption – which would spread around the globe.
Born Anne-Eugénie in Metz, northern France, in 1817 to a wealthy but irreligious couple, the saint new little about the Catholic faith as a child, although she had been baptised as a child.
But on making her First Holy Communion, she returned from the altar and grew anxious with the fear that she could not find her mother.
Then she heard a voice within her saying: “You will lose your mother, but I shall be for you more than a mother.
“A day will come when you will leave everything you love in order to glorify me and serve this Church that you do not know.”
Her parents were soon bankrupt and separated and when Anne-Eugénie was 15 years old her mother died from cholera.
This meant that the remainder of her teenage years were spent living with relations but her life changed again when she visited Notre Dame Cathedral and listened to a Lenten sermon which made her realise she had a religious vocation.
The homily was given by the then-Abbé Lacordaire, a famous preacher in France, and Anne-Eugénie would soon become aquainted with Abbé Théodore Combalot, one of his associates who was looking for someone to help him found a religious order devoted to Our Lady and to the education of the poor.
At the age of 22, with four young companions, she founded the Religious of the Assumption, changing her name to Marie-Eugénie.
In the following 55 years – until her death in Paris at the age of 80 – Mother Marie-Eugénie founded 30 religious communities in nine countries.
She outlived more than 200 of her sisters, many of whom died from such diseases as tuberculosis, and often at a young age.
But she travelled continuously around her communities, directing, encouraging and consoling them.
This came to an end when her health began to fail as a result of old age. Her legs grew weak and she could speak only very slowly.
As she neared her final hours she managed to say: “I am looking at my Lord. It is in looking at Him that we learn how to love.”
She died surrounded by her sisters, on 10 March 1898.
Today the Religious of the Assumption has in the region of 1,300 sisters drawn from 44 nationalities.
The order has houses in some 34 countries, with a convent in Kensington Square, west London.
St Marie-Eugénie was beatified in February 1975 by Pope Paul VI before she was canonised more than 30 years later by Pope Benedict.
In his homily at her canonisation, Pope Benedict said that St Marie-Eugénie would herself emphasise the importance of her First Holy Communion “even if she was unaware of it at the time”.
He said: “Christ, present in the depths of her heart, was working within her, giving her time to follow her own pace and to pursue her inner quest, which was to lead her to the point of giving herself totally to the Lord in the religious life in response to the needs of her time.
“In particular, she realised how important it was to pass on to the young generations, especially young girls, an intellectual, moral and spiritual training that would make them adults capable of taking charge of their family life and of making their contribution to the Church and society.
“Throughout her life she drew the strength for her mission from her life of prayer, ceaselessly combining contemplation and action.”
He continued: “May the example of St Marie Eugenie invite men and women today to pass on to young people values that will help them to become strong adults and joyful witnesses of the Risen One.
“May young people never be afraid to welcome these moral and spiritual values, living them patiently and faithfully. In this way, they will build their personality and prepare for their future.”