Vialar, Émilie de, Saint

VIALAR, Émilie de, Saint. - Foundress of the Institute of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, b. at Gaillac (diocese of Albi) on 12 Sept. 1797, d. at Marseilles on 24 Aug. 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 called back to attend to the running of the household and the education of her little brother. Having later overcome the family difficulties and received a substantial inheritance from her paternal grandfather, she was able to follow her ardent desire for the religious life. Having bought and restored a fine house at Gaillac, she immediately gathered around herself other generous young women, thus laying in 1833 the foundations of her new Institute, to which she wished to add the title "of the Apparition," so that the sisters might recall the angel who had revealed to St. Joseph the mystery of the Incarnation. The sisters soon began to bring every kind of relief to the poor and the sick, even in their own homes, and to guide young girls toward 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 cholera soon brought their heroism to the fore and provoked numerous conversions, including of Muslims. Contradictions arose, however, and the religious authority went so far as to drive them out. Having returned to Gaillac, she was able shortly afterward to transfer the mother house to Marseilles, after a brief stay at Toulouse. She presided over the Institute for 24 years, governing it with care and spreading it widely, so much 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.

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