MEEÛS, ANNE de. - Foundress of the Religious of Perpetual Adoration and of the Work of Poor Churches, born in Bruxelles in 1823, died there on 15 June 1904.
At the age of 20, struck by the squalor of many churches with regard to vestments and altar furnishings, she conceived the idea of an association of pious persons who would revive, through public adoration, faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and would help to provide altars and churches with worthy vestments and furnishings. Thus arose (1848), under the direction of Fr J. B. Boone, the Association of Perpetual Adoration and the Work of Poor Churches, raised to the rank of archconfraternity for Belgium in 1853, for the whole world in 1873, and honoured, on 20 July 1895, with the title of Prima-primaria.
M. soon understood that, in order to support and promote this work, a special religious Congregation was necessary, one that would devote itself seriously to it and serve as an encouragement; and she founded (1857) the Religious of Perpetual Adoration, whose Constitutions were approved by Pius IX in 1872. M. was its superior general until her death. Besides adoration, the religious devote themselves to catechisms, preparation for first Communion, and workshops for sacred vestments.