PLACIDA VIEL, BEATA. — Born Eulalia Victoire at Quettehou (diocese of Coutances) on 26 Sept. 1805; died at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte on 4 March 1877.
Her life within the family, steeped in piety, and her habit of gathering her contemporaries to instruct them in catechism and guide them toward goodness earned her the nicknames of “little saint” and “good Victoire.” These qualities also prepared her early for the religious life, which she embraced at the age of sixteen in 1833 by entering the recently founded Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Schools of Mercy. During her novitiate and early years of formation, her qualities so impressed the foundress, St. Mary Magdalene Postel, that on the day of her profession, 21 Sept. 1838, she was chosen as counsellor and novice mistress. In 1846 she succeeded the foundress as Mother General. The numerous and lengthy journeys she undertook across various European countries, both to collect alms for the construction of the motherhouse and to promote her Institute, led to a flourishing of new houses and vocations. Above all, however, she devoted herself to the formation of her sisters, in whom she embodied to perfection the spirit of the Rule and the charity owed to children and to the most deprived.
She was beatified by Pius XII on 6 May 1951.