In search of... Mother Marie Eugenie

I used to be ashamed of this as a child, just cause it was such an unusual name, but I am over it now. My middle name is EUGENIA, and I was named after MME herself. Back in 2001, my sister Vina and I found ourselves in Paris so we decided we had to visit the Mother House in the Auteuil section of Paris. Not just cause we could hear our mom's voice in our head over and over, "You cannot leave Paris without going there." Now that I think about it, Vina and I were probably in search of some place safe, and familiar, and comforting, having just survived 9/11 in New York.

In Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence, at the end of the book, this school gets mentioned. We had no address, nothing, we just had a map that had Rue de L’Assomption on it. We took the Metro and got off at the Ranelagh stop and just started walking. Then, we saw this street sign that said, “Rue Milleret de Brou” so we got excited because we recognized it as the lay name of MME, Eugenie Milleret de Brou. We tried looking for a building that said “Assumption” but there was no such blaring sign. There was an Assumption Church down the street, but that was not it. Then we saw a door that looked like it could be Assumption so we started ringing the bell, and ringing the bell, and ringing the bell but no one would answer. We did see people inside by peeping through the cracks, but it seemed like no one could hear us. We followed the wall down the street until we saw an open door and my bolder sister popped her head in. She saw no one but came out excitedly and said it was the cafeteria of something, and it was the EXACT same peach color of Herran, therefore it must be Assumption! We had no luck that day getting in but we decided to come back the following Sunday. The church down the street told us there was always Sunday mass at the convent.

So we returned, this time with my husband, cousin Anna Zosa, and my two daughters. We were at the right place a few days before, the doorbell was just broken. We had no trouble now as all the doors were thrown open and we walked straight into the chapel. On one corner was MME’s grave itself. The place was packed and there was a hum as pre-mass preparations were going on. Suddenly, there was the familiar color purple, and after so many long years, we had our first sighting of…Assumption nuns! Never thought it would be such a thrilling sight! It was almost like coming home. Never thought I would say such a thing, but really, it was a nice, warm feeling!

Suddenly, one of the sisters approached my daughter Angelica, and spoke to her in French. I gathered enough to understand that she wanted Angelica to carry the candle in the offertory procession. What a coup, I thought. Here was my daughter’s chance to be an Assumption girl somehow! Alas, she was too shy and said no. She was only three, almost four, and had no idea what carrying the candle meant or even what an offertory procession was. During mass, we saw that there were quite a few Filipino Assumption sisters in the community. Later we said hello and chatted with them. They were thrilled to have Assumption girls from Manila, who lived in New York, who were visiting Paris, who came to hear mass with them. We did come a long way, bébés!

We visited MME’s gravesite, and I grabbed as many novena stampitas as I could. I will post the prayers here soon. My big MME question is: Why, after she got beatified 32 years ago, is she not a saint yet? I think the problem is she needs a P.R. firm to lobby for her at the Vatican! As Tessa P. might put it, she needs to "generate buzz!" Any P.R. people out there up to the task? Or maybe we all just need to pray harder.

I also found out that the convent takes in “boarders.” It costs about US$30.00 per night to stay at the convent (maybe it is higher now) and the only caveat is: there is a curfew after which the gates are locked and too bad for you if you don’t make it within the walls before then. I think I shall give it a try the next time I am in Paris (can’t beat that price) but my sis Vina says, “No way I’m staying with the nuns again.” She wonders how she is supposed to knock at the convent door, arms laden with shopping bags, when we are supposed to profess "love of simplicity?" Siya nga naman.

And here’s a juicy bit I found out not too long ago: someone told me that MME was actually MARRIED at some point in her life before becoming Mother Foundress. I don’t think we were EVER taught that in school. Anyone know more about this, please post. I looked up the MME website and it seems her family name was MILLERET, so could “de BROUS” be her married name? Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.