Today April 24

Today is the feast of Euphrasia Pelletier and her given name was "Virginie" (the French form of Virginia). We love her because she was one of 8 children, lost her father at a young age, endured poverty and was bright, beautiful, "good, genuinely pious, also lively, impetuous and strong-willed." - Modern Saints. She went away to school and though she studied hard, she was very homesick, didn't receive the support she deserved from the men in her life, and had a hard time adapting. One woman teacher in particular could recognize the unusual quality of her character and encouraged her, becoming her lifelong friend. She was very drawn to the life and writings of St. Teresa of Ávila. When she entered the newly re-formed (not reformed, but re-grouped following the French Revolution) order of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, for fallen women and at-risk girls (founded by St. John Eudes), she wanted to take the name of St. Teresa of Ávila and was told that was too prideful. Sigh. So she took the name Euphrasia after an obscure Greek saint.

She had a way with the runaways and wayward women. "It is better not to preach too much; it only wearies them," she said. "It is better to keep them interested and try to be just and always kind." She recognized instinctively that lack of a good home was at the root of many of the girls' problems. She treated their emotional wounds with charity and strove to make them all happy. She also recognized that their deep ignorance of their faith was also to blame, so she was careful to teach them all the tenets of their faith. (They were all fallen-away Catholics.) She taught the Bible and the catechism vigorously and well; she strove to at least give them the tools to instruct their consciences even if it didn't kick in until later. But there was little hope of that for those mired in ignorance.

She had a great gift of organization. She whipped the convent in Tours into shape and thus was invited to open one in Angers. She had great success, but found the many independent houses of Refuge (as they were called) unwieldy and uncoordinated. so she decided to apply to Rome for permission to unite them all under one motherhouse, with all Refuges getting to vote for autonomy or integration. She was attacked for this -- calumniated -- but she pressed on, and interestingly the Pope argued:
"How many letters have been written against Mother Euphrasia?"
"Thirteen."
"And what has she said in her own defense?"
"Not a single word."
"Then, she is in the right." And he approved her suggestion, thereby founding a new order, the Good Shepherd sisters.

She expanded her operation all over the world, considering herself not French but Italian, English, German, Spanish, American, African, and Indian as well. "Every country is my own where there are souls to be saved." She had expanded to found 110 house (14 in the United States) and 3000 Good Shepherd sisters by the time of her death on this date in 1868. She suffered from cancer and pneumonia and was told to stay in bed. "Would you deprive me of my only consolation?" she said as she struggled over the chapel to receive the Holy Eucharist. Her prayers showed a great love of the Blessed Sacrament as well as Our Lady: "My poor little boat has so often been tossed to and fro, and I have been so opposed, but the mother of God has well protected it." And her patron, Mary Magdalene (one of MY personal favorites): "What a comfort St. Mary Magdalene has always been to me!" She died saying, "What are we in this world for, if not to love God and to help save souls?" She is, in my mind, a very modern saint. She was progressive in that she could see the social aspect of many of the problems of her charges. She got things done in the face of terrible odds and amidst opposition even from within the Church and from the very girls she was helping. "O God, have mercy on me. For the sea is so large and my boat is so small."