Mary of the Passion

Mary of the Passion in her habit .

Hélène Marie Philippine de Chappotin de Neuville (born May 21, 1839 in Nantes , † November 15, 1904 in Sanremo ), also known as Blessed Mary of the Passion (French: Mère Marie de la Passion) was a French religious and missionary who Founded the Franciscan Sisters Missionaries of Mary (FMM for short) in India in 1877 . This congregation is currently (as of 2015) one of the largest religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church .

Early life

Hélène was born in Nantes on May 21, 1839. Her family was wealthy and lived the Christian faith in a very traditional way. She received her first communion on the feast of Corpus Christi in 1850 . The death of a sister and a cousin is said to have moved her and led her to search for the meaning of life, where she was shaped by her mother's strong faith. At the age of 15, Hélène took part in the retreat of the children of Mary . Moved by the sermons of a priest, she is said to have recognized her calling to religious life. In 1858, her mother suddenly died, which meant that she had to put her monastery plans aside and take care of running the parental household.

Religious life

The first years of the order

On December 9, 1860, Hélène was able to enter the Poor Clare Monastery in Nantes . On January 23, 1861, Hélène claims to have had a mystical experience during the choir prayer, in which God invited her to live her life as a sacrifice for the Church and the Pope. As a result, she became ill and had to leave the monastery, whereupon she returned to her family.

Through her confessor in 1864 she got to know the Jesuit -influenced women's community of the Atonement Sisters of Mary (Société de Marie-Réparatrice). She joined this religious community in Toulouse in 1864 . On August 15, 1864, she was dressed and was given the name Maria von der Passion (Marie de la Passion). While still a novice , she was sent on a mission to India to the Vicariate Apostolic Madurai in March 1865 . There she made her temporary profession on May 3, 1866 . The sisters of the congregation dedicated themselves primarily to the upbringing of women and girls and were supposed to help found an independent indigenous Indian congregation. In July 1867 she was first appointed house and provincial superior for the three convents. The community developed very well. However, difficulties arose over time as there was disagreement over missionary understanding and discipline both within the community and with the Jesuits who were responsible for mission in the region. While Mother Mary of the Passion was establishing a new branch in Ootacamund , she came into conflict with the order's leadership in France, which is why she was deposed as provincial, but remained housewife in Ootacamund. At the height of the conflict, the new provincial superior who was sent from France gave the remaining sisters in Madurai the choice of whether to stay or to leave the community.

The start-up

In 1876, 20 sisters left the Congregation of the Sisters of Atonement of Mary, joined Mother Mary of the Passion in Ootacamund and, with the approval of the Vicar Apostolic of Coimbatore , Bishop Joseph Bardou, formed a new congregation of diocesan law. Mission responsibility in this area did not lie with the Jesuits, but with the Society of the Paris Missionary Seminary (Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris).

In November 1876, Mother Mary traveled from the Passion to Rome to clarify the status of the new community there. It received on January 6, 1877 from Pope Pius IX. the authorization for the foundation of the community, which was now to be called Missionaries of Mary . At the suggestion of the Roman Congregation for the Curia Propaganda Fide , Mother Mary of the Passion opened a novitiate in Saint-Brieuc , France. In 1878 the first novices were sent to India.

In 1880 and 1882, Mother Mary of the Passion returned to Rome to solve problems for the young congregation. In June 1882, she received permission to open a house in Rome. On October 4th, 1882, the feast of Francis of Assisi , she was accepted into the Third Order of St. Francis in the Roman Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli . On this occasion she came into contact with the Franciscan Minister General , Brother Bernardin de Portogruaro , who became an important supporter.

Due to disagreements within the congregation and resistance within the church, Mother Mary of the Passion was deposed as superior general of the congregation in March 1883. According to one of Pope Leo XIII. Ordered investigation, she was rehabilitated and re-elected as Superior General at the General Chapter in July 1884.

From then on the congregation began to grow steadily. In August 1885 the Congregation joined the Franciscan Family and was now called "Congregation of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary". In 1886 two new foundations took place in Ceylon, one in China and one in Paris. The constitutions were definitively recognized by the papal on July 17, 1890 ad experimentum and on May 11, 1896. The missionary zeal of Mother Mary of the Passion was overwhelming: in 1890 the congregation, which had just been papally recognized, already had 17 branches and 495 sisters. Inquiries from bishops for new foundations were received from all over the world. The sisters paid special attention to the protection of women and the social question: they worked with the pioneers in these areas with intelligence and discretion.

spirituality

Mother Mary drew her great drive from the Passion from the great secrets of faith: she traced everything back to the one, triune God of love and truth, who reveals himself to people through the Easter mystery of Christ . In union with this mystery, she lived her vocation to sacrifice in the missionary and ecclesial dimensions. Jesus in the form of the Eucharist was for them "the great missionary" and the Mother of God Mary with her "Ecce" ("Here I am") and her unconditional availability, marked the path of unconditional devotion for the work of God. In this way, She opened her congregation to universal mission, rooted in the Franciscan ideals of simplicity, poverty and charity.

Mother Mary of the Passion took a great part in the missionary work of her congregation, not only in the organizational area, but also on a spiritual level. Despite her hard work, she still found time to write several scriptures for the spiritual instruction of her sisters. In her correspondence, she followed the missionary activities of her fellow sisters around the world and made a ceaseless call to holiness. In 1900, seven of her sisters suffered martyrdom . This is said to have caused great pain for Mother Mary of the Passion over the loss, but also great joy over the strength of faith of her spiritual daughters up to the point of bloodshed.

The last few years

Mother Mary of the Passion died on November 15, 1904 in Sanremo after a short illness. At that time, the Congregation of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary consisted of more than 2,000 sisters in 86 branches on four continents. Her remains were interred in a chapel of the Generalate in Rome, Via Giusti.

Adoration and Beatification

In 1918 the informative process for the beatification in San Remo was opened and in 1941 the decree on the writings of Mother Mary of the Passion was published. On January 19, 1979, the beatification process began . The decree on heroic virtues was promulgated on June 28, 1999. On March 5th, the healing of a nun from spinal tuberculosis was recognized as a miracle at the intercession of Mother Mary of the Passion. Then she was beatified on October 20, 2002 by Pope John Paul II in Rome.

The tomb of the Blessed is in the "Blue Chapel" of the Generalate of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Rome, Via Giusti.

Remembrance day

The liturgical day of remembrance in the Roman Catholic Church is November 15, the anniversary of her death.

Web links

• Homepage of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary FMM (English / French / Spanish)
• Homepage of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary FMM, Province for Central and Eastern Europe (German)
• Biography on the homepage of the Vatican (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} biography of Mary of the Passion on the homepage of the Abbey of Saint-Joseph de Clairval .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Biography of Mary of the Passion on the homepage of the Vatican .
3. ↑ Biography on the homepage of the European province of FMM ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
4. ↑ International homepage of the Franciscan Sisters Missionaries of Mary