Canonization of MOTHER marie eugenie

Letter #3 from The Canonization Committee, February 25, 2007

The Congregation's Canonization Committee was present at the Consistory in Rome that made final the decision to canonize Mother Marie Eugenie and four other Blesseds. The Consistory also set the dates and places for the canonization ceremonies.

Below is a letter from the Committee addressed to the Sisters which we wish to share with all of you. It was written shortly after the Consistory ended.

Rome, 23 February 2007

Very dear Sisters,

We have just left the Vatican after having assisted at the Ordinary Public Consistory that the Pope had convoked for the signing of the five Decrees of Canonization including that of M. Marie Eugenie of Jesus. To the four decrees previously announced, a fifth was added, that of Georgio Preca, a Maltese priest and founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine (M.U.S.E.U.M.).

You already know the date of the Canonization: 3 June 2007, Feast of the Blessed Trinity. What a beautiful feast for the Canonization of M. Marie Eugenie, she who, seized by the mystery of God, only adored it and allowed it to fill her whole being all throughout her life. Here is a text wherein she shares the “depth of her soul”:

"I am from God, of God, for God. God created me out of love. He has given me everything. His gaze fixed on me He has preserved me, taught me, expected that all my actions, all my thoughts, all my affections be directed towards Him...
For this He has not only given me nature, but life in Jesus Christ through baptism, through the Sacraments in which He has become so palpable to me, finally through religious life so that the life of Jesus may be established and manifested in me.

In the relationship with creatures, I must imitate Jesus, make myself indifferent to whatever He has not chosen for me, to see them as He saw them, to be an instrument for His designs and to be ready to embrace what He loves: humility, patience, poverty, subjection to the Rules, prayer and even the sufferings He may send me maintaining myself united to Him.

Why fear? I must lean on the creative and redemptive love and trust in it to attain my end. In difficulties, in dangers I must look above and not fear isolation. God is always there. His love is jealous of all my actions and I will try to give them all to Him… I must go to Him at all times and expect all help from Him." (NI 234/01)

We left at 7:30 this morning for St. Peter's Basilica to participate at the Eucharist at the Adoration Chapel at 8:30. Then, after some moments at the Vatican Library, we went towards the Bronze Door and once inside the Vatican, joined the members of the other Congregations gathered in a small room before going to the Clementine Hall where the Consistory was to be held. We found there other women, members of the feminine branch of the Society of Christian Doctrine. Little by little the hall was being filled by the members of the Consistory. We were able to greet the French Cardinal Poupard who received us with open arms and who is the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Interreligious Dialogue and Education as well as Cardinal Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Religious Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.

The celebration started at 11 a.m. with the Hour of Sext and the ceremony took place within the context of this liturgy. After the chanting of the psalms and the reading of the Word of God, Cardinal Saraiva, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, presented each of the Blessed. Regarding M. Marie Eugenie of Jesus, he underlined her conversion after hearing the words of Fr. Lacordaire and the desire within her to work for the transformation of society through the formation of the intellect and through the education of the whole person. The Holy Father listened very attentively.

Then, the Pope asked the members of the Consistory if they had anything to add to what they had expressed in writing. After a moment of silence, Benedict XVI confirmed the decision of the Consistory with the proclamation of the date of the Canonization, the 3rd June 2007, the date on which the four blessed, including M. Marie Eugenie, will be written in the Book of Saints and their feast celebrated by the Universal Church. One of the Blessed, the Brazilian, will be canonized on May 11 in Sao Paolo, Brazil during the visit of the Holy Father since he will be the first Brazilian Saint. The
ceremony ended with a prayer of intercession for the Church and with the apostolic Blessing.

That is how the ceremony took place. For us, the celebration was very moving, very intense, lived in a deep silence and a great peace as if something was already being accomplished. And this is what we keep. The Congregation is living a unique moment because from now on M. Marie Eugenie is given to us as the holy woman she always wanted to be, with a holiness that could only come from God. In 1877 she wrote: "My retreat resolution is to adore the holiness and the love of Our Lord, to try to fill my life with that holiness through fidelity to grace and a boundless trust In Jesus' love for me…" (NI 233/01)

Today the whole Congregation is experiencing great joy and great thanksgiving…and with reason! We must get to work so that the 3rd of June may be "a day the Lord has made" so that the Assumption, following in the footsteps of our first Sister, may try to permeate each day with this holiness through fidelity to grace and an unlimited trust in the love of Him, Jesus, who loves each one of us.

The Commission will go over its agenda once more to adapt it to the scheduled date of 3rd June. The other Commissions will have to start work.

We're ending this letter because we want it to go out as soon as possible. Your messages of joy are beginning to come to us. It's our joy, too. And it's getting bigger every day.

With all our fraternal affection,
Katrin, M. Paola, Cristina María

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Pope Benedict XVI and the Basilica of St. Peter, Rome

Pope Paul VI proclaiming Mother Marie Eugenie blessed at Beatification: Rome 1975

Chapel at the Mother House, Paris

Beatification Mass,

St. Peter's Basilica,

February 9, 1975

Clementine Hall with the members of the Consistory

and observers

Blessed Marie Eugenie's tomb in the chapel of the Mother House, Paris