Mary of Providence, Servant of God

MARY OF PROVIDENCE, Servant of God. - Eugenia Maria Josefa Smet di Monthiver, foundress of the Auxiliatrices des âmes du Purgatoire, born at Loos-le-Lille on 25 March 1825, died in Paris on 7 February 1871.

On 2 November 1853, struck by the thought that there were religious women for every need of the Church militant, but none for the Church suffering, she believed she was called to fill that void. While waiting, she founded an association of persons who would offer prayers and good works for the souls in Purgatory, which received many approvals and spread widely; then in 1856, encouraged by St. John Vianney, the Curé d'Ars, she founded in Paris the new Institute of the Auxiliatrices, where to the three religious vows a fourth was added: to pray, suffer and work for the souls in Purgatory. On 27 December 1857 she took her vows with five companions; from that moment, though crosses were not lacking, neither was there lacking in her an extraordinary trust in Providence, which responded to her with helps and interventions that were at times extraordinary as well. She used to say: "Five things I feared might happen to me: to be separated from my family, to found a religious institute, to suffer destitution, to be burdened with debts, to suffer from cancer; and all five, by the grace of God, fell to my lot." At her death she left various houses in Europe and one in China, at Shanghai. Her cause for beatification was introduced in 1936.

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