Sister Marie de la Providence
Blessed Eugénie Smet or Sister Marie de la Providence was born in Lille on March 25, 1825 into a deeply Christian family. Her faith in God’s faithfulness grew early on, giving her perseverance in the many trials she faced.
After ten years of apostolic life in Loos-les-Lille, she discovered her mission within the Church at the service of Divine Providence on All Saints Day 1853.
Inspired by the holy priest…
Faced with the difficulties of founding a congregation in line with her spiritual intuition, she asked her friend Henriette Waymel, who was due to visit Ars in August 1855, to ask the Curé d’Ars about this laborious project.
The answer was not long in coming: “Tell her that she will establish an order for the souls in purgatory when she wishes.
Two months later, the same confirmation came from Abbé Toccanier: “The parish priest thinks it was God who gave you the idea of such sublime devotion”.
Arriving in Paris in January 1856, she decided to found the Institut des Auxiliatrices des âmes du Purgatoire with the dual aim of “helping all good whatever it may be” and “reaching from the depths of Purgatory to the furthest reaches of the earth”.
As adversity continued, she kept in touch with the holy priest, who never stopped praying for her and urging her on. The crosses you have,” he tells her, “are flowers that will soon bear fruit.
This community cannot fail to succeed… If God is for you, who will be against you?… A house that rises on the cross will no longer fear storms or rain: this is the divine seal”.
When she turned her congregation towards the Christian education of children, she received further encouragement from Ars: “You thus realize in its fullness the spirit of Jesus Christ, relieving at the same time his suffering members on earth and in purgatory”.
In 1859, marked by her schooling at the Sacré-Cœur in Lille, she adopted the rules and constitutions of the Society of Jesus for her institute.
Without ever having met him
After the Holy Curé’s death, the work continued and expanded. In 1863, she founded a house in Nantes; on August 4, 1867 – the anniversary of the Saint’s death – she received a call to mission in China; in 1869, she founded a house in Brussels. She died at the age of 45 in Paris on February 7, 1871, forty days before the terrible Commune uprising.
In 1957, Pius XII beatified her, saying of her: “That charity towards suffering souls should be intimately united in Eugénie Smet with the most concrete, active and universal apostolate is undoubtedly a striking feature of her spiritual physiognomy and the particular stamp that God willed to give her.
She exercised her charisma as a founder under the undeniable influence of the Curé d’Ars, though she never met him! A new and touching expression of the communion of saints in his life. Communion which has as its source the Charity of Christ Himself: it is this which unites the saints…
From Annales d’Ars no. 337 [mars-avril 2012].
