MARIA della PASSIONE. — In the world Elena Chappotin, foundress of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, b. in Nancy on 21 May 1839, d. in S. Remo (Imperia) on 5 March 1904.
After a long period of waiting and severe domestic trials, she entered the Congregation of the Religious of Mary Reparatrix at Toulouse in 1865; already the following year she left for India, where she was superior at Tuticorin and then provincial of the Madura mission, causing its works to flourish again and multiplying them with tireless zeal. Recalled to Rome in 1877, she founded, with the blessing of Pius IX, the new Society of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (victims, adorers, and missionaries), which in 1885 was affiliated with the Third Order of St Francis; in 1896 Leo XIII approved its constitutions, written by the foundress. M. della P. governed her foundation until the end of her life, multiplying its houses and works with a rapidity and firmness that are truly marvelous, in Europe and especially in the missions of Asia (India, Burma, Ceylon, China, Mongolia, Japan), Africa (Madagascar, Zululand, Madeira, Mozambique, Congo, Tunisia), and the two Americas. The processes for her beatification were begun in 1923.