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.
Early life
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.
Religious life
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.
On 15 August 1860, she received the religious habit of the congregation and was given the new religious name of Mary of the Passion. Before the end of her novitiate, however, she was assigned to accompany a group of the Sisters to the Vicariate Apostolic of Madurai in India, which was under the administration of the Society of Jesus. There, in addition to their own apostolate, they were to help establish a native congregation of Religious Sisters. It was there that Sister Mary of the Passion made her first religious vows in the congregation on 3 May 1866.
Due to the many talents she had shown, she had gained the confidence of Mother Mary of Jesus, the foundress, and was immediately named the Superior of the community. When she made her final and permanent religious profession a year later, she was appointed as the Provincial Superior of the three communities of the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix in the Vicariate. Under her leadership, some tensions which had previously been experienced by the various communities were apparently ironed out and the work of the congregation began to flourish. Growth reached a point where she was able to staff a new convent in Oocatamund (Udhagamandalam), Tamil Nadu, a popular hill station deep in the Nilgiri mountains, located in the Vicariate Apostolic of Diocese of Coimbatore, established under the authority of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
The tensions which the communities in Madurai had previously exhibited, however, arose again in 1876. This time Mother Mary was unable to resolve them. The 33 Sisters of the Province were forced to choose between testifying against her and her advisory council or leaving the congregation. As a result, 20 of the Sisters left, including Mother Mary of the Passion. They gathered in the new convent in Oocatamund — which was the property of the Vicariate, and, with the approval of the local Vicar Apostolic, resolved to continue their commitment in a new community. Mother Mary then traveled to Rome to secure the permission of the Holy See for this new foundation. On 6 January 1877, she obtained the approval of Pope Pius IX for the group, which was to have an entirely missionary orientation. They took the name of Missionaries of Mary, with Mother Mary of the Passion elected as their Superior.