Eugénie Smet

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Eugénie Smet (born March 25, 1825 in Lille , † February 7, 1871 in Paris ) was a French Roman Catholic religious founder. She is at the beginning of the Society of Helpers (SA) and is venerated as a blessed in the Catholic Church.

life and work

The young benefactress

Eugénie grew up as the third of six children of an upper-class noble family in Lille and Loos . Her uncle Jean-Baptiste Smet was mayor of Lille from 1830 to 1832. After seven years at boarding school with the Sacred Heart Sisters in the Rue Royale in Lille, she lived with her family in Loos from 1843 and devoted herself to charitable activities for a decade in order to meet the proletarian misery of the new industrial society in a Christian way, or collected in contact with them several bishops donated money for missionary and other church purposes. Significant for her temperament is her inspection of the inns, in which, to the horror of her father, she had signs put up with the inscription: “Here we are not cursed!” ( Ici on ne jure pas !).

The founder of the order

From early in red on underwent two threads their spiritual life, even that strengthened by numerous amazing experiences confidence in the Providence (Fr .: Providence ), the other is the concern for the souls in purgatory (which they believed prayer for help come to have, because she believed God condemned to powerlessness by the principle of justice). At the age of 28 she decided to found a Congregation for the Salvation of Souls in Purgatory, to which she obtained the consent of Pope Pius IX. and caught up with the pastor of Ars . A first small community was constituted in January 1856 in the rue Saint-Martin in Paris and lived there under the most difficult conditions until, at the end of June (also with the support of Archbishop Auguste Sibour and a patroness), it moved to the rue de La Barouillère (today: 16 , rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste de La Salle ), where the motherhouse of the congregation still stands.

Building the Congregation

The now founded congregation was called Institut Sororum auxiliatricum animarum in Purgatorio degentium (helpers of the poor souls in purgatory). In addition to the prayer activity, the community was at the service of the poor and the sick. She declined the suggested teaching activity. In the same year the first vows were taken, in January 1858 the perpetual vows. Eugénie took the religious name Marie de la Providence ("Mary of Providence"). In 1859, with the help of the Jesuit Hippolyte Basuiau (1824–1886) , the congregation took over the amended statutes of the Society of Jesus , enjoyed the assistance of the Jesuit Pierre Olivaint (1816–26 May 1871, executed by the Paris Commune ) from 1866 and was executed in 1869 by Rome accepted.

Spread of the helpers

The expansion of the community (including Amélie Baltard, daughter of Victor Baltard and widow of the sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart, and from 1861 a sister of Eugénie) went through Nantes (1864), Shanghai (1867, at the request of the Jesuits) during the founder's lifetime. and Brussels (1870). In the German-speaking area there was the first branch in Vienna (1897); the first German community settled in Munich in 1982. There is now also a Swiss community in Lucerne . Other foundations were Budapest (1990), Sândominic, Romania (1992) and Barasat , India (1995). The congregation is currently represented in 22 countries on four continents.

Death and beatification

Eugénie died in February 1871 after several years of suffering in Paris, besieged and bombed by the Germans, of breast cancer at the age of 45. She was beatified by the Pope in 1957. They are remembered in the Church of Notre Dame de Grâce in Loos.

literature

  • Ambroise Matignon: Notice sur la Révérende Mère Marie de la Providence, fondatrice de la Société des religieuses auxiliatrices des âmes du purgatoire . V. Lecoffre, Paris 1873, 1875, 1884, 1896, 1907.
    • (German) The Venerable Mother Mary of Providence (Eugenie Smet). Your life and work for the poor souls in purgatory . Rauch, Innsbruck 1894.
    • (also) Eugénie Smet. The life of the Blessed Mother Mary of Providence, Eugénie Smet (1825–1871) founder of the cooperative: «Comforter of the poor souls». Gotthard Media, Lauerz 2010.
  • Auguste Hamon (SJ): Les auxiliatrices des âmes du Purgatoire 1856–1909. Vol. 1. Révérende mère Marie de la Providence . Beauchesne, Paris 1919.
  • Caroline C. Morewood: Eugénie Smet. Mère Marie de la Providence. Foundress of the "Helpers of the Holy Souls" . Sands & Co, London 1927.
  • Eugenie Smet Maria of Providence. Founder of the Society of Comforters of the Poor Souls (1825–1871). Habbel, Regensburg 1929.
  • Thérèse Gardey de Soos: Eugénie Smet. Marie de la Providence Beekeeper. François-Xavier De Guibert, Paris 1996.
    • (German) Eugenie Smet. Blessed Mary of Providence. Founder of the Helpers of the Souls in Purgatory (1825–1871) . Provincialate of the Province of Central Europe of the Congregation of Helpers, Vienna 1997.
  • Philippe de Lignerolles and Jean-Pierre Meynard: Histoire de la spiritualité chrétienne. 700 auteurs spirituels. Editions de l'Atelier, Paris 1996, p. 236.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Smet, Eugénie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marie de la Providence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French founder of the order, helper and blessed
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Lille
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1871
Place of death Paris