Born in Metz on 26 August 1817, she spent her childhood between the mansion of the Milleret de Brou and the vast property of Preisch which bordered Luxembourg, Germany and France. She was brought up in a non-believing family: her father a high ranking civil servant was a follower of Voltaire and her mother, an excellent educator, practiced only a formal religiosity. Marie-Eugénie had a real mystical encounter with Jesus Christ on the day of her First Communion on Christmas day 1829:  It was a moment which marked her deeply.

After 1830, her father went bankrupt and was forced to sell the property of Preisch and then the mansion of Metz.  Her parents separated; she went to Paris with her mother who was suddenly taken from her by cholera in 1832. She was welcomed into the home of a rich family friend in Châlons. The 17 year old adolescent experienced confusion and solitude in the frivolities that surrounded her: "I spent several years questioning myself on the basis and the effects of the beliefs I had not understood…I was incredibly ignorant of the doctrine and teaching of the Church, yet I had been instructed in the faith like others." (Letter to Lacordaire - 1841)

Her father made her return to Paris.  During Lent 1836, she was enlightened while listening to Fr. Lacordaire who was preaching at Notre-Dame that year. She told him: "Your words gave me a faith which henceforth nothing was to shake." And she would later say: "My vocation dates from Notre Dame". She was inspired by the Christian renewal of Lamennais, de Montalembert and of their friends.

Among them was Fr. Combalot whose sermons she attended in March 1837 at Saint Sulpice.  She met him for the first time at Saint Eustache. He dreamt of founding a congregation dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady to form the young women of the upper class most of whom were irreligious. She dreamt of fulfilling a religious vocation. At first she hesitated to follow him, then she agreed.

For her formation he sent her to the Visitation of the Côte Saint André (Isère) which marked her with the spirit and spirituality of Saint Francis of Sales. In October 1838 she met Fr. d’Alzon who was to found the Assumption Fathers in 1845. This great friendship lasted 40 years. Already she was clear in her mind about the basis of her pedagogy; she challenged a worldly education whose instruction was second-rate.  She desired an authentic Christianity and not a superficial gloss.  She wished to give to girls a formation of the whole person in the light of Christ.

In April 1839 two young women came together with this objective in a small apartment in rue Ferou; by October there were four of them studying theology, Sacred Scriptures and secular subjects in a house in rue de Vaugirard. One of them was Kate O’Neill, a young Irish woman, who was to be called Therese Emmanuel. Throughout her life, she was to accompany Marie-Eugénie of Jesus with her friendship and support.

In May 1841, the Sisters broke definitively from Fr. Combalot. His capricious guidance and his lack of moderation vis-à-vis the Archbishop of Paris were putting the whole project at risk. Mgr. Affre, the Archbishop, offered the assistance of his Vicar Mgr. Gros. It was a liberation. The Sisters once more took up their studies and made their religious profession on 14 August 1841.

Their poverty was great and the community was not increasing. This did not hinder Sister Marie-Eugénie from opening the first school in the spring of 1842 at Impasse des Vignes, a site which no longer exists. Then, because now the community was growing – and becoming ever more international - they moved to another house in Paris, Chaillot. At times she complains of both priests and laity who are too inward looking in their piety: “their hearts do not beat for anything big.” 

The number of foundations throughout the world increased. Rome recognized the Congregation of the Religious of the Assumption in 1867.  The Constitutions received definitive approval on 11 April 1888.
The death of Fr. d’Alzon in 1880 was the start of a solitude that she had seen as necessary in 1854: “God wishes that everything around me collapse." Sister Therese Emmanuel also leaves her on 3 May 1888 and her solitude deepened even more.

The growth of the Congregation was a heavy responsibility for her. Between 1854 and 1895 there were new communities in France and then there were foundations in England, in Spain, in New Caledonia, in Italy, in Latin America and in the Philippines. She moves from journeys, to constructions, to requests to study, to decisions…

But her constant preoccupation remained the initial intuition to which the Sisters, faithful to the call of the Lord, must always respond.  “In education, a philosophy, a character, a passion.  But what passion? That of faith, of love, of the fulfillment of the Gospel.” or again, “It is folly not to be what one is as fully as possible.” “The religious will be educators adapting themselves to the needs brought about by the evolution of life and of the Church without however abandoning the monastic observances.”

When she discovers the powerlessness of old age, “a state wherein only love remains”, she effaces herself little by little. “I have only to be good.”  Her health deteriorated. Overtaken by paralysis in 1897, only her eyes can speak. On 10 March 1898 she meets the Risen Christ, who on earth, was her only passion.
She was beatified on 9 February 1975 in Rome by Pope Paul VI.
She will be canonized in Rome on 3 June 2007, feast of the Blessed Trinity, by Pope Benedict XVI.

Based on: Jacques Fournier
‘Paris carrefour des saints’