Blessed Mary of the Passion — Our Foundress
Born Hélène Marie Philippine de Chappotin de Neuville in Nantes, France, on 21 May 1839, she entered religious life after a profound spiritual experience at 17. After time with the Poor Clares and later the Society of Mary Reparatrix, she was sent to India, where — recognised by Pope Pius IX — she founded the Institute of the Missionaries of Mary in 1877, later becoming affiliated with the Franciscan Third Order as the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. She led the Institute through remarkable growth despite fierce internal and external opposition, dying in Sanremo, Italy, on 15 November 1904, having left behind roughly 2,000 Sisters in 88 communities across 24 countries. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 20 October 2002. Her feast day is celebrated on 15 November.
Blessed Maria Assunta Pallotta
M. Assunta Pallotta was born in Force on 20 August 1878. On 5 May 1898, she entered the fmm postulancy at Grottaferrata, took the habit on 9 October of the same year, made her first vows on 8 December 1900 in Rome and her perpetual profession on 13 February 1904 in Florence.
On 19 March of the same year, she left for China aboard the Tong-eul-keu. A year later, during a typhus epidemic, she fell ill and died on 7 April 1905.
There was nothing extraordinary about her life, apart from the normality lived out in love, readiness to serve, fidelity and the joy of living. If there was something extraordinary in the banality of her life, it was that she never thought of herself, but always and in every circumstance gave herself for others.
When she died, an indefinable perfume spread through the room and soon reached all the places where Sister Assunta had been, a perfume that spread in waves and lasted for three days. This fragrance intoxicated body and soul, so that Sister Assunta’s death brought peace, serenity and joy in the Lord. The Chinese in the mission immediately called her “the saint of perfumes” and amazement at this prodigy immediately spread outside the mission. Eight years after her death, in April 1913, her body was exhumed and found intact. In 1923, the cause for her beatification was introduced, culminating in her beatification on 7 November 1954 in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.