Foundress of the Religious of the Assumption to be Canonized

December, 2006 - Pope Benedict XVI has formally recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Marie Eugenie Milleret, the foundress of the Religious of the Assumption.  This means that she will be canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 2007.

Blessed Marie Eugenie, born in Metz, France in 1817, founded the Religious of the Assumption in Paris in 1839.  Under her leadership, the group grew from a very few sisters to a world-wide organization dedicated particularly to the education of young women. Her vision of a society transformed by education and contemplation, a world in which “no one oppresses another,” proved very attractive in the 19th century and remains so today. At her death in 1898, the sisters numbered over a thousand and were found in six countries; today they may be found in thirty-five countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as in North and South America.  In the United States they live and work in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Dioceses of Worcester, MA and Las Cruces, NM.

The miracle attributed to Blessed Marie Eugenie concerns a child in the Philippines who was born with a condition that prevented the two halves of her brain to join.  Normally, such children have very little ability to walk or talk or otherwise develop.  The child’s family and the Assumption Sisters prayed for Blessed Marie Eugenie’s intercession.  Now, nearly twelve years later, the two halves of the brain have still not joined, yet the child is able to walk, talk and go to school.  Outside experts have not been able to explain this development scientifically, and thus the Congregation of the Causes of Saints proposed it as a miracle.  Pope Benedict XVI signed the document that completed the process of inquiry into the miracle on Saturday, December 16, 2006.
Blessed Marie Eugenie was beatified by Pope Paul VI in Rome on February 9, 1975.  On that occasion he said in his homily that her message was still relevant to the world:  “She is our contemporary in the problems that she lived with and the solutions that she attempted to bring to them.  The saints, because they are the intimates of God, do not become outdated!...Dare to be holy!”

For more information on her and her canonization, and to get to know more about the Assumption Sisters, please go to www.assumptionsisters.org