MARIA della PROVVIDENZA, Servant of God. - Eugenia Maria Josefa Smet de Monthiver, foundress of the Auxiliatrices of the Souls in Purgatory, b. at Loos-le-Lille on 25 March 1825, d. in Paris on 7 Feb. 1871.
On 2 Nov. 1853, struck by the thought that there were religious women for all the needs of the Church militant, but none for the Church in Purgatory, she believed herself 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; it received many approvals and spread widely. Then, in 1856, encouraged by the holy Curé d'Ars, she founded in Paris the new Institute of the Auxiliatrices, where a fourth vow was added to the three religious vows: to pray, suffer, and work for the souls in Purgatory. On 27 Dec. 1857 she made her vows with five companions; from that moment onward, though crosses were not lacking, neither did she lack an extraordinary trust in Providence, which responded with aid and interventions that were at times extraordinary. She used to say: “I feared that five things might happen to me: separation from my family, founding a religious institute, suffering poverty, being burdened with debts, suffering from cancer; and all five, by the grace of God, befell me.” At her death she left several houses in Europe and one in China, at Shanghai. Her cause of beatification was introduced in 1936.