EUGENIE MILLER ET DE BROU, Foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, was born in Lorraine, France, on August 25, 1817. She lived a simple, happy life in the country, with her mother and favorite brother, little touched by religion until the day she made her First Communion.

That morning – Christmas Day, 1829 – as she was coming down from the altar rail to her mother’s side, she heard a voice within her say: “You are going to lose your mother soon, but I will be more than a mother to you. . . A day will come when you will leave all you hold dear to glorify Me and to serve this Church which as’ yet you hardly know.” That, she said in later years, was God’s first call to her soul.

A short time later her mother died and Eugenie grew up in a worldlier atmosphere. In the years that followed, religion seemed to mean less and less to her. Then, in 1836, when she was nineteen, some friends took her to the Lenten Sermons being given by the great preacher Lacordaire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Hearing him, her doubts were dispelled and she was filled with the desire to consecrate herself to God and the service of the Church.

Lacordaire, speaking of the “gift of self for the salvation of souls,” formulated what was to be her idea of the religious life. It was not, however, until the following year, 1837 that her vocation was made clear. It came about through a dream in which she found herself in a church she had never seen before. A venerable priest was preaching to a large congregation and, as she listened, she heard another voice saying: “Here is the guide you are seeking.”

She thought no more about this strange experience until the following day when she was invited to hear another famous preacher at St. Eustache. To her astonishment, the church was the church she had seen in her dream. She recognized the altar, the pulpit, and finally, the preacher. He was the Abbe Combalot, a former follower of Lamennais and a zealous missionary, who had a special devotion to Our Lady. Twelve years before, in 1825, he had been inspired with the idea of founding a religious order in honor of the Assumption. The nuns were to have a purple habit as a sign of penance, and a white veil to show their consecration to Mary.

Although Eugenie was not much attracted by his sermon that day, she felt impelled to go back to hear him again and to choose him as her confessor. The same Providence that, led Eugenie to take this step made it clear to him that she was the foundation stone of his work. At their first meeting, he spoke to her about it. His plan of Christian education corresponded with Eugenie’s own ideals, although she had never contemplated founding a new religious congregation to carry them out. The Abbe Combalot convinced her that it was God’s will for her to do so and overcame her hesitation. She asked to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation to strengthen her for the task. Accordingly, she was confirmed on Low Sunday in 1837.” On that day,” she said, “my vocation was decided. Confirmation was the gateway to a new life.” She made a vow of chastity and obedience and consecrated herself to the work of the Assumption, which from that moment became a living idea with two souls already dedicated to its realization.

In order to start the Religious Congregation of the Assumption, it was necessary first to secure proper religious training for the Superior, and then to attract other young women to join her in establishing the new community. She begged for permission to make a real novitiate in a convent where she could take part in religious life. The Sisters of the Visitation of the Cote St. Andre agreed to train her for the religious life. She started her novitiate there on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1838.

In the course of the next few months, Father Combalot met and recognized the souls chosen by God to form the nucleus of the Congregation of the Assumption. They were Josephine de Comarque (Mother Marie Therese), called from the family life of a charming old-fashioned country home; Anastasie Bevier (Mother Marie Augustine), a brilliant young teacher whose own studies had shown her the need for Catholic education and had given her the desire for an apostolic vocation; Catherine O’Neill (Mother Therese Emmanuel), Irish by birth, educated in England at Newhall, and living at the time with her sister in Paris.

Mother Therese Emmanuel had an extraordinary knowledge of interior life and of what was required for the practical side of it. She seemed to understand the mystical ways by which God leads souls and she exercised great prudence in training those in her charge. Duty and regularity were for her the by ward and example the primary foundations of the spiritual and religious life.  To her and to the others all differing widely in character and background Father Combalot spoke as the inspired messenger of God. They all felt this and responded to the call.

On the 30th of April, 1839, the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the Mother Foundress, and Mother Marie Augustine began the life of the Assumption together in a small house in Paris. Others soon joined them and by May 1841, they numbered six. The following year they moved to a larger house and opened their first boarding school. The Assumption had entered upon the mission for which it was founded.

Guided by the certainty that God was calling her to work for Him, Marie Eugenie gives all her strength to founding the Congregation, and soon, to the sisters making foundations across the world. Marie Eugenie, a universal woman who loved the universal, in whom the “universal dwelt” and at the same time attentive to daily tasks. From this love for the world, the Assumption will arise little by little. It took root rapidly in different parts of France and of the entire world. Since its inception, it will have had a great missionary international orientation. Communities will be founded in Europe, Africa, Oceania, America, Asia…

Of all of them, Marie Eugenie is the soul. With a mixture of daring and prudence, of openness without dispersion, of the broadness of view and a feeling for little things, she will be the king-pin of them but forming at the same time a team of very qualified religious who complete her so as to respond to the multiple requests she receives from the Church. The will of God and his Glory are the moving force of her life, what she always seeks. She opens herself to her time with its light and shadow, its successes and its difficulties, with realism and hope.

What was her project? Why did she seek to found new communities, to open new schools? This poses the question of the very raison d’etre of a religious family. Marie Eugenie founded the Assumption for two essential reasons: because God wished it and because the Church and society needed to form deeply Christian women, with a passion like hers for the Gospel. Women are capable of influencing society and family in the Gospel direction. And through education: formation of intelligence and heart, and education would open them to the social consequences of the Gospel, in order to extend and proclaim the Reign of Jesus Christ, the glory of God, and men’s bliss. A formation which leads to action, each person carrying it out according to the grace God gives, the gifts, and natural talents. Being committed to education involves the entire life of a person.