Saturday’s Saint

Saint Marie Eugénie de Jésus

Anne Eugenie Milleret, later to become Sr. Marie Eugenie of Jesus, was born in Metz, France on August 26, 1817. She grew up in a family that had no interest in religion or Jesus Christ, but that was passionate about politics and social justice. They must have gone through some of the motions though since she received her first Communion on Christmas 1829 at age twelve.

I want to seek God and his Love, and to give myself generously in God’s service.
~Saint Marie Eugénie de Jésus

Her First Communion was a life-changing experience of grace. Throughout her life she spoke often of this moment because she recognized it as the original grace from which everything else flowed.

What draws down the grace of God is a life woven out of ordinary acts. It is work; physical work. It is the effort to do it well in the spirit of obedience. It is self-forgetfulness.
~Saint Marie Eugénie de Jésus

When she was fifteen, Marie Eugenie’s parents separated and she moved to Paris with her mother and brother, only to see her mother die of cholera shortly afterwards. Her father then sent her to live with relatives whose great interests proved to be money and pleasure. Her father then sent Marie Eugenie to live with very Catholic cousins in Paris. She found the cousins’ piety narrow and stifling.

Keep me, Lord, from occupying myself in planning and arranging everything that I have committed to your wisdom and love. Take my natural anxieties from me so that only one remains – that of doing each of my duties as it arises, according to the light and grace I receive at that moment.
~Saint Marie Eugénie de Jésus

One day, her cousins invited her to the cathedral to hear a Lenten sermon preached by a priest famous for his eloquence and influence with the youth. His way of speaking of Christ and the Church led to her conversion.

He sends each day a new thought to our mind, a more gentle feeling to our heart. Just the right thought and feeling that we need for the weakness of the present moment, because His treasures are inexhaustible and His graces as varied as our miseries each day.
~Saint Marie Eugénie de Jésus

At the age of 22, with four other young women, she founded the Religious of the Assumption. Her life and work spanned most of the nineteenth century and quickly spread internationally. She taught that our faith in Jesus impels us to get involved in contemporary social issues and that all action should flow from a life of love and prayer.