Foundress of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the apparition

SAINTE EMILIE DE VIALAR

Saint Emilie de Vialar was born in Gaillac in Tarn, a region of

France, on September 12, 1797, into a bourgeois family. At the age
of 13, she was taken to Paris by her family to complete her
education with the Religious of the Abbaye aux Bois. Unfortunately,
a few days later his dear mother died entrusting her to his sister
Madame de Lamourié and his grandfather Baron de Portal, doctor of
Louis 16.

Emilie stayed in Paris for two years and returned to Gaillac to take
care of her father and two younger brothers.

Following a mission in her parish, she decides to give herself to God.

She often goes to church to pray ... But above all, She is very
attentive to the needs of those around her: the poor, the children
hanging out in the streets. Driven by an inner fire, Emilie puts herself
at their service, visits the sick in their houses, gathers the children to
educate them, helps the poor with kindness and tenderness, thus
manifesting to them that of the Father. The tenderness of God
through human gestures. She wrote at that moment:
"The assiduous care I gave to the sick poor at home, developed in
me the thought of founding a Congregation to be able to assist them
night and day."

On the death of her grandfather, Baron de Portal, she received a

large inheritance that allowed her to buy a house. Already the Lord's
will is becoming clearer and clearer concerning her future.

At Christmas 1832, she left an affectionate letter to her father on the

table and after night Mass, with her first three companions, they
headed to their new home.

On this Christmas night the Congregation of the sisters of Saint

Joseph of the Apparition was born! Their purpose is to offer their
lives to the Lord and to serve the poor, the sick, the children and all
those in need.
Emily chose Saint Joseph as the model and protector of her new
religious family. His humble figure, poor and silent, was her source
of inspiration! A painting that she had seen in Toulouse, seized her
and decided her in this choice. The announcement of the Mystery of
the Incarnation announced to Joseph made her desire that her new
Congregation be in the Church "a living ex-voto of this Mystery".

Emilie, wanted to help all those who are in need, first in her small
town, and very quickly a first call launches her on the roads of the
world. His brother Augustin, governor in Algeria, invited her there to
take care of many sick people, which no one took care of. Emilie
embarked on August 10, 1835, with four sisters for this first mission
outside of Gaillac. They arrived during the cholera epidemic and
worked tirelessly with these unfortunate people.
Emilie had always desired, and leads her sisters in this direction,

2
"To reveal the tenderness of the Father through human gestures to
all people, always relying on Providence. Indeed, the calls come
from everywhere: from France, from the countries of North Africa,
from Greece, from the Middle East, from far way Australia, from
Burma, from India."

In 1846, Emilie founded the communities of Malta, and Syros in

Greece. She accompanied her four sisters to this Greek island
herself where they opened the first kindergarten in this region of
Syros called "the nest".
Emilie with her 3 sisters were accommodated at Fidiou Street
between the TITANIA Hotel and the German Library in front of our
classic ATRIUM shopping center of ODEON - It was a classic
ODEON house.

In 1848 she sent her sisters to Chio, Greece, then to Crete in 1852.
And on April 1, 1856, she sent four more sisters to found the
community of Athens at the foot of the Acropolis, later transferred in
1890, to the same place where we are now and then in 1979 a new
one: the transfer of the Saint Joseph School to Pefki where she
continues her educational work. With zeal and enthusiasm Emilie
and her sisters responded to these calls as vocations poured into
this new missionary congregation. These were the first religious to
leave the country.

She was able to say, "if I had not become poor I would not have
been able to found the Congregation". It should be emphasized that
despite all these trials Emilie wants to make known the love of the
Father. She does not cease to send her sisters where Bishops and
Priests call them, because she had as a principle "to respond to all
the needs of people" In 1852, she met Bishop Mazenod, and under
his patronage Emilie transferred her Congregation to Marseille, the

3
Porte d'Orient, from where his missionaries would leave for far away,
on Capelette street.

It was in Marseille that Sister Emilie returned to the glory of the

Father on August 24, 1856, at 6 p.m., at the age of 59 following a
hernia she had contracted in her youth by dragging the heavy sacks
of wheat to distribute it to "her poor". Upon hearing the news, the
people of Marseilles cried out: "The Sainte is dead". Forty-two
houses were already dotted at this moment on the 5 continents.
Emilie was beatified in 1939 and canonized on June 17, 1951.

Today the Congregation has 694 sisters divided into 125

communities of 33 nationalities. Faithful to the spirit of Saint Emilie,
they continue to witness the Father's tenderness for all people,
through human gestures, through all forms of apostolate, inspired by
love. They are involved in education, the care of the sick, social
works, the proclamation of the Good News to children and adults.
Thus, the Congregation, attentive to the appeals coming from
peoples whose essential rights are despised, proclaims to the poor
the Good News of the Kingdom, fighting in the spirit of the Gospel
against all form of injustice.

"Go and with all that you have and receive,

do all the good you can. »

We repeat again today with

Saint Emilie of Vialar.