VIALAR, EMILIE de, saint. – Foundress of the Institute of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, born at Gaillac (diocese of Albi) on 12 September 1797, died at Marseille on 24 August 1856.
Piously educated by her mother, when the latter died she was entrusted for a short time to the Sisters of Our Lady, and then recalled to take charge of the household and the education of her younger brother. Having subsequently overcome the family difficulties and received a substantial inheritance from her paternal grandfather, she was able to follow her ardent desire for religious life. After purchasing and restoring a beautiful house at Gaillac, she immediately gathered around her other generous young women, thus laying, in 1833, the foundations of her new Institute. She wished to add to its title «of the Apparition», so that the sisters might remember the angel who had revealed to St Joseph the mystery of the Incarnation. The sisters at once began to provide every kind of assistance to the poor and the sick, even in their homes, and to guide girls in piety and learning, while awaiting some new field of mission.
This opened to them in 1835, when the foundress went with some sisters to Algeria, where the cholera soon revealed their heroism and brought about numerous conversions, including among Muslims. Contradictions nevertheless arose, and the religious authorities eventually expelled them. Returning to Gaillac, she was soon able to transfer the mother house to Marseille, after a brief stay in Toulouse. She presided over the Institute for 24 years, governing it with care and greatly expanding it, so that at her death she left 42 houses, scattered throughout Europe and beyond.
She was beatified by Pius XII on 18 June 1939 and canonized on 24 June 1951.