Blessed Hélène Marie de Chappotin de Neuville

Hélène Marie Philippine de Chappotin de Neuville (Nantes, 21 May 1839 – Sanremo, 15 November 1904), known as Mary of the Passion (French: Mère Marie de la Passion), was a French religious sister and missionary, who founded the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in British India in 1877, currently one of the largest religious institutes in the Catholic Church. Helene-Marie-Philippine de Chappotin was born in 1839 in Nantes, then in the Department of Loire Inférieure, part of the region of Brittany. The death of her two sisters and a beloved cousin affected her deeply and drove her to seek the meaning of life, guided by the strong beliefs of her mother. During a spiritual retreat in April 1856, she had a deep experience of God's love and a call to serve God, which was to guide her for the rest of her life. As a result of this experience, she determined to commit her life to religious service. However in 1859, when Helene was twenty years of age, her mother died suddenly and she took on the responsibilities of mistress of the household. In December 1860, with the permission of the Bishop of Nantes, de Chappotin entered the local monastery of the Poor Clares, whose ideal of Franciscan simplicity and poverty drew her. On the following 23 January, while still a postulant, she had a profound experience of God's inviting her to offer herself as a victim for the Church and for the pope. She soon fell ill, however, and had to leave the monastery. In the spring of 1864, when Chappotin had recovered her health, on the advice of her confessor, she entered the monastery of the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix, a religious congregation just recently founded in 1857 by Mother Mary of Jesus, which had opened a house in Toulouse in 1860. They were an enclosed religious order, dedicated to contemplation and the training of women in Ignatian spirituality through the experience of the Spiritual Exercises.