Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus (1894-1967)

March 1, 2024

By Columbia staff

March 1, 2024

Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus

As a teenager, Henri Grialou discovered a booklet about a nun named Thérèse, who had died just over a decade earlier. “I started reading it and was completely captivated,” he wrote, recalling this encounter with the Little Flower. St. Thérèse’s sister, Pauline, who became prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux, would later say of him, “I have never met anyone so much like my little sister.”

The third of five children, Grialou was born into a poor family in the mining town of Le Gua, in south-central France. He entered seminary in 1908, but left in 1913 to serve in World War I. Decorated for bravery and discharged in 1919, he resumed his priestly formation for the Diocese of Rodez. Back in seminary, he displayed a bullet that had been stopped by a small book of Thérèse’s writings that he carried during battle.

In 1920, Grialou had a profound experience while reading the works of the Carmelite mystic St. John of the Cross. Despite initial opposition from his mother and bishop, he entered the Discalced Carmelite community in Avon just weeks after his priestly ordination in 1922. He took the religious name Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus in honor of St. Thérèse.

Father Marie-Eugène became an esteemed preacher, spiritual writer and champion of the Carmelite spiritual masters and mystics. In 1932, he founded Notre-Dame de Vie, a secular institute for consecrated laity and priests. He traveled the world — including Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States — expanding the institute and helping lay people integrate contemplative prayer into their lives.

Father Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus died March 27, 1967, at age 72; he was beatified in 2016.

Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus (1894-1967)

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