Spiritual Profile and Virtues

Theological Virtues

Theological virtues – faith, hope and love in the life of Mother Alphonse Marie The key to understanding the spiritual life of Mother Alphonse Marie lies in the theological virtues, which form the dynamic principle from which her spiritual life unfolds. It is marked by the following features:

  • The theological virtues are closely interconnected, in the sense that faith as practised by the Servant of God is closely bound up with hope, and these two virtues lead directly to the love of God, which is as it were their completion and which shows itself in deeds flowing from love of neighbour.
  • It may be said that love of God is the core of all the other virtues.
  • These virtues are the unifying factor of her life and the source of motivation for her efforts.
  • From the prayers and confidences of the Servant of God it emerges that these theological virtues give her an awareness of a specific personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ. She is aware of God’s presence and longs for an intimate union with God and Jesus Christ.
  • The Servant of God strove to live these virtues in an ever more perfect way, and her circumstances were all the more demanding in that from the very beginning she lived the ideal of complete surrender to God in the midst of her ordinary surroundings. Her will to love God in an ever more perfect way has the character of extraordinary nobility.

Faith

The human soul – the ardour of Mother Alphonse Marie

For the Servant of God Mother Alphonse Marie it was not difficult to accept faith in God, nor did she regard it as a subject for learned debate. Faith meant for her enthusiasm for God, a lifelong adherence to God and his message, a personal adherence to God from whom we await salvation. Quite naturally she unites herself in love with God and Jesus Christ. The life of faith lived by the Servant of God was very powerful, because in the first stage of her life Elisabeth Eppinger was led as a person on whom God had laid his hand and who was called to a supernatural spiritual experience. From the depths of her soul she longed to lead a life wholly consecrated to prayer and to the perfect practice of virtue in religious life. She wished to enter a convent. But God willed that she should first live this ideal of perfection among her own family and within the parish community. In a mysterious way he prepared her for the foundation of a congregation dedicated to the care of the sick, which answered the needs of its time.

From earliest childhood the Servant of God showed a spirit of faith which at her age may be called extraordinary. Already at four she listened eagerly to talk about God and used every opportunity to have religious truths explained to her. At the age of six she states in her autobiography: “I had a piercing desire to know God. Whether I was alone or among people, I was ceaselessly occupied with the thought of God.” At seven: “This desire was so strong that it caused me real mental suffering.”

At the age of ten she was always careful to forget nothing of what she heard in religious instruction. She was more and more glad to be able to take part in the classes. On the day of her first holy communion she prayed thus: “Good Jesus, I have now renewed my baptismal vows. Help me to keep and to fulfil everything our shepherd teaches us.” The spirit of faith showed itself in her in every situation, throughout her life. Her mind was fixed on God; nothing interested her but the things of God. She looked at everything from God’s point of view.

Not even in time of illness did her faith weaken. When she first fell ill she felt spiritual dryness, yet she prayed perseveringly. When she recovered, she received in the spirit of faith special graces which helped her to advance in the spiritual life and in the practice of virtue.

During a further illness (1845–1849) her spiritual director realised that the Servant of God was endowed with truly exceptional graces from God. He spoke of it to the bishop, who took a great interest in the whole matter, for he was convinced that an intervention of God had to be seen in it. The Servant of God, however, did not feel worthy of such graces and in no way sought glory from them.

As for the foundation of the congregation, the Servant of God confided to her spiritual director that she had received an inspiration from above to found a congregation dedicated to the service of the sick. Father Reichard was reserved at first, but in the end he asked the bishop for approval.

When Mother Alphonse Marie was superior general (1849–1867), she entrusted herself with complete confidence to God’s Providence. Many unexpected events took place in which God intervened in favour of the congregation and helped its rapid development. The trust of the Servant of God was immense. We can see it in the building up of the congregation. Without any human help she set about the work and expected everything, material and spiritual, from God. She felt wretched and weak for so much responsibility, yet relied solely on grace. With holy boldness she prayed to Jesus: “Refuse as long as you will, I shall pray untiringly. I give you what you desire – give me too what I ask.” “O my Jesus, look on my wretchedness and weakness, I can do nothing without your help. Increase my childlike trust in you.”

“My dear Jesus, do it yourself. You know that I can do nothing; it is your work.” To such trust she urged everyone who came to her: above all the many visitors who bore witness to it, and who, when they left her, praised God’s mercy. She urged it also on her daughters, to whom she said: “Since God was so good as to call us to religious life, would it not be an offence against him if we did not trust him boundlessly in all our needs? Turn to him in every situation, without the least mistrust.”

It was above all her own example that led her daughters to boundless trust.

The devotion of the Servant of God to the teaching of the Catholic Church was fervent and unshakable. She came from a family surrounded by Protestants, which had to struggle to preserve its faith. She was therefore aware how fortunate she was to be a Catholic.

“When during my illness (at seventeen) some Protestants visited me, I was sorry for them, that they did not live in the truth. Then I thanked the Lord that I had been born of Catholic parents. I often used to say: ‘Ah, how fortunate I am to be a child of the true Church!’”

With deep interest she followed the religious instruction given by Father Reichard, whom she trusted above all. The content of her faith corresponded to what she was taught: God and God’s Providence; Jesus Christ, who saved us by his death on the cross; the Virgin Mary; the saints; the sacraments, above all the Eucharist; man destined for supernatural things; the gravity of sin and the perfection of virtue.

The Servant of God had a great reverence for the Most Holy Trinity. During the day she often repeated the doxology: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.”

Since from earliest childhood she listened eagerly to talk of the things of God, she turned directly to God with requests for counsel, help and protection. She did so when she was seeking the right path, when she felt despondent, or when she felt the need to thank God for graces received.

“O good God, grant that I too may become as devout as these people and that I may learn to pray as fervently as they do.” “I want to love you, I will love you and I want to do only your will!” “My divine Bridegroom, see how I long for you. Take full possession of my heart and show me how I may unite myself with you still more intimately.”

In the spiritual life of the Servant of God, Jesus Christ held the central place. Already at five she was deeply moved when the Passion of Christ was mentioned before her. When she was ten and Father Reichard spoke to them at school about the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, it marked her for life.

“Those words made such a strong impression on me that I trembled all over. I did not take my eyes off the parish priest and it seemed to me as though I saw in him the image of the suffering Saviour.”

As she herself states, no other doctrine pleased her so much as the theme of the Passion, because in it she saw Jesus’ love for us. From the age of ten she had the habit of following the Lord’s Passion during holy Mass. Sometimes she was so affected by it that her whole body trembled. She sought solitude so as to meditate better on the Passion. Already as a young girl she tried to encourage the same devotion in her companions. Above all, however, she instilled this teaching into her daughters and constantly returned to it. At our Lord’s command she bade her daughters meditate every day on his Passion – it is mentioned already in the First Rules. The Servant of God showed them a way of meditating which was undoubtedly her own.

She took the crucifix in her hand and opened her heart to the working of grace, passing gradually from one wound to the next, asking herself various questions so as to grasp the greatness of the Saviour’s suffering and his love for us. Her soul was at that moment so deeply touched that in a certain way she felt the pains of the Passion – they became her own pains. Feelings of gratitude, sorrow and love sometimes filled her for whole days.

“The impressions she gained beneath the cross never faded from her heart. In the midst of her duties in her parents’ house and in the fields she had constantly before her eyes the crucified Jesus, the suffering Jesus, Jesus dying for the sins of the world.”

The Servant of God had a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary. Already at three she learned the Hail Mary and repeated it like a refrain. From then on she turned to the Virgin Mary in every situation.

“No doctrine pleased me so much as the teaching about the Lord’s Passion and the Virgin Mary,” says Elisabeth. She was then eight years old. “Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor child.”

Her greatest delight was to listen to talk about the Virgin Mary. Her only fear was whether she always understood rightly what she heard about her. At fourteen she constantly repeated the Hail Holy Queen. She resolved to imitate Mary in everything, especially in her silence and modesty.

“I constantly took refuge under the protection of the gracious Mother of God.”

She entrusted her virginity to her: “By the power of your most holy virginity and immaculate conception, O most pure Virgin, purify my heart and my body.” “O Mary, I want to imitate you, yes, I want to. I want to imitate your virtues. O Mary, help me! O Mary, come to my aid, I too want to remain a virgin, I want to imitate your virtues!”

She spread devotion to the Virgin Mary through the rosary: from Father Reichard she obtained permission that the rosary be prayed in the parish church every Sunday and feast day in reparation for the offences committed against God on those days. In her ecstasies she saw Mary as mediatrix and received the knowledge that all would be saved through Mary and that devotion to her would grow still stronger.

From the Virgin Mary she received certain instructions which, in her words, were sublime and full of consolation.

The congregation founded by the Servant of God was consecrated to the Divine Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary. The Servant of God rejoiced greatly when the pope proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which she had foretold eight years earlier. On that day the convent was festively decorated.

Among the other saints the Servant of God had a particular devotion to Saint Joseph, whom she regarded as an effective protector in the difficult moments that threatened the existence of the congregation for lack of means.

She had a great veneration for Saint Teresa of Ávila, whom she often begged “that by her intercession she might obtain the grace to love God as much as Saint Teresa loved him, and that like her she might be able to bear the bodily and spiritual suffering that God should deign to send her”.

She also prayed to Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, whom she regarded as a guide in matters of the spiritual life and an intercessor for the congregation.

After the Virgin Mary she had the greatest veneration for Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, whose intercession she most often sought. She was especially fond of this saint for his evangelical purity.

As for the sacraments, the Servant of God always showed a great fervour for the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar. From childhood the church attracted her greatly. She would walk slowly past the church door repeating: “Praised and blessed be the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.” She longingly awaited her first holy communion: “O my Jesus, when will the moment come when I may receive you. Ah, at that moment I would fall to the ground before you and adore you.” After her first holy communion she felt such a fervent desire to receive the Eucharist that she asked her confessor to allow her to go to holy communion every week. In spirit she was always present at the tabernacle. Father Reichard could say: “In the midst of her duties she pictured to herself very vividly the altar, the host, the chalice and the sacred rites, she united herself intimately with the intention and prayers of the priest and the servers, and so, wherever she was, she could receive holy communion spiritually, as though she had taken part in person in the celebration of holy Mass.”

During her first illness she “felt a fervent desire to receive holy communion more often as the only means that could give her strength to deny herself and to renounce her own will entirely, so as to do God’s will alone”, and the parish priest allowed it. When she recovered, she always regarded it as a new grace to be able to be present at holy Mass and to go to holy communion. The Servant of God prayed much before the Blessed Sacrament and encouraged others to do so. She herself spent long hours in adoration.

As superior she introduced perpetual adoration in communities that had more than forty sisters. In smaller communities, or in communities without a chapel, each sister was to make an hour’s adoration every day. To her daughters she said: “You must above all have great reverence for the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Even when you are in the house, you must remember that you are near Jesus. I urge you not to make noise. I suffer when I see how indifferently and irreverently people behave towards the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.”

The Servant of God excelled in great obedience to the Church and faithfully kept its ordinances. Her reverence for the Church showed itself in reverence for its visible head; she prayed much for the then pope, Pius IX, and offered her sufferings for him. She held bishops in reverence and in her personal life and in governing the congregation she submitted in a particular way to Bishop Räss. She held all priests in high esteem, for in them she saw God himself.

“I would gladly fall at the feet of every priest, only that he might bless me.” Above all, however, throughout her life she showed reverence and complete obedience to her spiritual director, Father Reichard, who was called to the founding of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Divine Redeemer. In her daughters she instilled obedience towards the ministers of the altar. The First Rules state: “In every case they must remain subject to the parish priest, whom they are always to regard as their lawful spiritual superior, whatever his manner of acting.”

The Servant of God received many priests who came to consult her, and many of them testified how her advice helped them. She spoke of priests with kindness, of their dignity and priestly virtues. She prayed much for them. Her prayers were very fervent.

“Jesus, my divine Bridegroom, look on them with a merciful gaze, do not look at their weaknesses. O my love, one word of yours suffices: kindle in them the fire of your love. Fill them with repugnance and horror for everything that is of the world. Impress on their hearts your bitter suffering and grant that they may leave everything that does not please you.” For the bishops she offered her whole life in suffering.

The spirit of faith showed itself in her in the great suffering she experienced when she learned of the persecution of the Church in Rome, in France and in Switzerland, further in her longing for the conversion of heretics and also in her zealous efforts to bring straying souls back to the Catholic Church, especially the Protestants around her.

For this intention she first offered her prayers and sufferings, later she sent her daughters to win souls above all by prayer and by the practice of Christian and religious virtues. She declared that she was ready to shed her blood and lay down her life for the salvation of those who have no faith.

The Servant of God Mother Alphonse Marie hated sin and everything opposed to faith. As a schoolgirl she avoided children who used ugly language. Because of this she used to weep and felt an aversion to school. Later, when at supper she once witnessed an indecent conversation, she preferred to remain hungry; she rose from the table and went to her room, where she prayed and wept.

In her ecstasies she saw both general and particular vices with their various causes. That sight was painful for her, indeed unbearable.

During the whole supper she prayed and wept in her room, and since the supper was taking place in the next room, she stopped her ears for safety’s sake, so as not to hear through the wall what they were talking about. It was clearly shown to her how she was to make reparation for the vices.

“Look, my daughter,” the Lord said to her, “you must make reparation for all this.” She sighed and said: “Ah, what a heavy burden! Your will be done!”

In these sweet joys she was saddened by the very thought of the multitude of offences directed against God. Sometimes she felt doubt and discouragement at the thought that she too is a sinner who does not deserve God’s grace. On the other hand, however, when in her visions the Servant of God helped the conversion of sinners, she felt great joy. Father Reichard testifies to it: “She saw many conversions among the enemies of Catholicism and among schismatics and unbelievers, to whom God showed his mercy. In this view of God’s mercy and power she again drew great consolation.”

As a member of the confraternity of the Divine Heart of Jesus she was concerned to make reparation for the sins of others by her prayers and works of penance.

At the end of her life she experienced particularly painful trials, which were for her an extraordinary opportunity to show the virtue of faith. For political, legal and economic reasons the houses in Würzburg, Vienna and Sopron became independent. These trials fell hard and cruelly upon the foundress, but Mother Alphonse Marie surrendered herself entirely to God’s will.

The Servant of God wished to share the beneficial effects of faith with everyone who came to her. She spoke excellently of the things of God: first to her family, then to the children and young girls of Niederbronn and later to the many visitors who came to her. God used her for the conversion of many of them. One of the aims of her work was to provide religious instruction to uneducated people and poor children. She took in abandoned poor children and cared for them so that they should receive the necessary religious instruction and be able to make their first holy communion. She herself gathered them, spoke to them of God and led them to prayer.

Hope

The certainty that God’s grace would supply all that was lacking in her heart

From early youth until her death the Servant of God had a single aim, a single goal: the reason for her being and acting was always God alone, in whom she trusted completely and unreservedly. Father Busson one day asked the sick Elisabeth: “In what do you think the greatest happiness in this world consists, in life and after death?” She answered him: “In having God alone. God is everything. Where God is, there is fullness, and where God is not, there is nothingness. To have God in this world is essentially the same happiness as the saints have in heaven. On earth we cannot rejoice fully in God, but that does not mean that we love him less.”

In everything she strove to do only God’s will. In doing it she placed all her trust in God, both in matters of life in this world and in matters of eternal life. “O Jesus, in these troubled days you must help your Church. Only you can do it and you must help her. O Mary, do not refuse this prayer. It is a question of the honour of your Son and of his Church.”

Ceaselessly and with all her strength she strives to lead all sinners to this also. Her wish and longing urge her to constant and fervent prayer for the conversion of sinners.

The Servant of God Alphonse Marie turned to God from childhood and laid before him her petitions concerning a perfect life. When she saw a religious sister passing by, she expressed in prayer the wish: “Lord God, grant me the grace that one day I may serve you like this dear sister.”

Already as a small child she constantly repeated to God: “I want to love you. Good God, you will surely grant me the grace to love you.”

Aware of her weakness before God, she confessed her unworthiness with the words: “O my God, what am I, that you have visited me and dwell within me!”

Yet she was so moved and penetrated by the goodness and mercy of the Saviour of the world that she firmly hoped he would by his grace supply what was imperfect in her heart.

The virtue of hope showed itself markedly in various difficulties.

In the time of dryness which the Servant of God experienced during her first illness, she was pursued by the thought that all her acts of devotion lacked the quality needed to be meritorious, and that in God’s sight they were sins. She supposed that she had become an object of aversion, hatred and malediction, and therefore no longer had salvation assured. In such terrible confusion she strove to draw near to God and said: “Even if you have abandoned me, I will not abandon you. I do not want to do anything that does not please you.”

Tossed by doubts about God’s goodness and mercy she turned to Jesus: “O my Jesus, I believe in you, I trust you and I want to love you.” And in words she expressed faith, hope and love.

In founding the congregation she often felt horror at her own wretchedness and weakness. Father Reichard writes in this connection: “She was entirely convinced that everything must be given over to God’s holy will, and in matters of the religious institute she took refuge in prayer to the Divine Heart, with which she took counsel about everything. She constantly awaited help from God, trusting in his mercy.”

This trust she instilled in others also. Father Reichard wrote in a letter to Bishop Räss: “She has only trust in God’s mercy and instils the same trust in everyone who speaks with her.”

The instructions she gave her daughters are full of exhortations to trust: “Let all your trust rest in God’s mercy and solely in the merits of Jesus Christ, our Divine Redeemer.”

Trust in God in difficult situations is one of the chief features of her great virtue. In all difficulties she persevered in trust and prayer. She even made a vow to seek consolation only from her Divine Bridegroom.

“My Jesus,” she said, “I want to do everything you ask of me, but always come to my aid with your grace; in you I place my trust.”

By trust she overcame the open attacks of the devil.

The Servant of God amazed those around her by her peace and serenity despite the difficulties and duties that arose from her position. Many witnesses confirm it. Father Reichard wrote: “The suffering caused by weakness never disturbed her ardour and peace. Nothing upsets her, nothing can disturb her even for a short moment. In every matter she asks God’s help and entrusts every thing to him as his own. She is serious and dignified; one always notices in her a gentle serenity that attracts and charms people.”

In one of her addresses Mother Alphonse said: “I will carry this heavy burden as long as the Lord God wills, for I took it on myself out of obedience to his holy will.” Father Busson likewise testifies: “She is always the same, nothing changes in her behaviour, she always has the same gentleness, affability, care and circumspection, she always has the same zeal. She wants the spirit of the institute to be preserved everywhere.”

Even when she had to bear various hardships – bodily and spiritual suffering, contempt and adversity – her soul was always serene and joyful. As she herself said: “In suffering I constantly recalled the promise I made to God in childhood: that I wanted to keep purity of heart, that I wanted to attain holiness and that in everything I wanted to do God’s holy will. So in suffering I said to myself: ‘I will gladly suffer, if only I may attain this.’”

Father Reichard said of it: “Her bodily suffering is exceedingly painful, yet she feels such joy that if it were possible to free her of that suffering, she would not permit it.”

In addresses to her daughters Mother Alphonse said: “Your suffering should sadden neither your face nor your thoughts. Suffering can make a soul happy already in this world. I have experienced suffering of every kind. I can assure you that a soul which is able to surrender to it and accept it as its lot is happy. Yes, happy. It will no longer want to live even a moment without suffering.”

The hope of the Servant of God flourished above all when she recognised God’s will, whatever it might be. She let herself be carried by it with complete trust that this will, even if it seemed hard to human nature, was nonetheless the greatest good both for herself and for her work and for God’s glory and the salvation of souls.

From early youth until her death the Servant of God Alphonse Marie avoided everything that might seduce her senses, resolutely turned away from false values, despised all worldly vanities and fixed her gaze solely on Jesus Christ and eternal life. Already as a small child she would leave off play just to pray. At seven she said that she wanted no presents from her parents, she only wanted to become a saint. At twelve the desire for religious life sprouted in her soul and she felt a strong need to detach herself entirely from the world: “I ceaselessly begged the Lord God to preserve me from the world.” She wanted to protect her daughters from all the snares of the world: “You will find neither consolation nor joy in God as long as you seek them in the world. You wear the religious habit to show the world that you are dead to it. Avoid useless talk and especially talk concerning worldly things.” On this theme many more of her sayings could be quoted. The motive of Elisabeth’s readiness to suffer was the prospect of eternal blessedness. To her daughters she said: “How could we hesitate whether to accept the cross, whether to bind ourselves wholly to it for a certain time here on earth, when the reward is to be eternal blessedness? God cares for us far more than a father for his children and with far greater tenderness than a mother, so let us never complain if suffering visits us. Let us accept it with joy and submission, and so we shall be certain of tasting sweet peace and gaining great merit for eternity. How sweet and pleasant death will be for a soul that ceaselessly united itself with its Divine Bridegroom! My children, now everything in the service of God is hard – I know it from my own experience – but take courage and think often of your last hour. For your love of God, may the thought of heaven always give you courage. Is it so hard to mortify oneself for a few years, when you think of the infinite delight that awaits mortified souls in heaven? My children, this is for us the time of battles, work and sacrifice. Let us crucify the old man. To be changed into a new man is painful, but what consolation and glory will await us!”

The Servant of God called to hope, especially the suffering, the doubting, the poor and sinners. It was on them that she directed all her love. Many visitors testified that she spoke to them of God’s mercy and goodness with such force that it touched them in the depths of their hearts. Indeed, the aim of her work was to bring this supreme hope to people on their deathbed and to assure the sick and dying that God as a Father watches over them. At the beginning of her work the Servant of God herself undertook the first such works of mercy and brought to every sufferer words filled with such consolation that she thereby won over all around her.

In the life of the Servant of God the virtue of hope is closely bound up with faith: both give her spiritual life authenticity and fervour, which leads her to complete surrender to God. From faith and hope the Servant of God drew the strength to love God unconditionally.

Love

Love of God – the constant search for God

From earliest childhood the Servant of God showed a great love of God. This love grew constantly in her soul, animating and filling all her words, thoughts and deeds. She was deeply and unceasingly united with God; nothing could turn her attention away from God.

The love the Servant of God bore towards God is undoubtedly of an exceptional character. With all her strength she strove for an ever more perfect love of God, all her life she strove to live from it, and by this love of God she let herself be constantly transformed. In her own way she lived “heroically” according to the commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength” (Dt 6:5; Mk 12:30).

Love of neighbour – God’s love, the source of love of neighbour

Already as a small child she repeated to God with sweet delight: “I want to love you, I will love you, I want to desire only your holy will. Good God, you will surely grant me the grace to love you, to love you alone and always and in everything to do your holy will.”

At the same time she felt in herself a growing desire “to become a saint”. When she was eight, she feared that she would not be able to love God enough, and asked herself: “My God, shall I be able to love you all my life and always to do what pleases you?” On the basis of the preserved documents we can confirm that these inclinations developed in her as she gradually matured. The documents testify that in her prayers she often begged the grace to avoid everything that might separate her from God. When she went through a particularly painful period of dryness, it seemed to her that God had abandoned her. Yet with self-denial she said to God: “Even if you have abandoned me, I will not abandon you. I do not want to do anything that does not please you. No, truly I do not.”

In the First Rules there is an urgent recommendation to do everything out of love for God, so that we may not be like a clanging cymbal, as the apostle Paul writes.

All the conversations of the Servant of God concerned God. It was not possible to speak with her of anything other than God and the good of souls. As she herself said: “It is a consolation and an indescribable grace for me that I cannot speak of anything else but the things that serve God’s glory and the salvation of souls.”

She made a vow to speak with people only of the things of God, or of things concerning the salvation of souls. Father Amhard, a Redemptorist who visited her, says that she spoke of the things of God with extraordinary ease.

A marked feature of the spirituality of Elisabeth Eppinger is her love of Jesus Christ. Already in earliest childhood she gave Jesus the first place. When anyone spoke of the Passion, she always listened attentively and could thus gradually examine it. She confided that when she was four she heard a conversation about Christ’s Passion and the thought of the suffering Jesus had to undergo moved her so much that she burst into tears. Her delight in the crucified Christ never left her again, and in moments of greatest suffering she clasped a small crucifix in her hand. The religion classes left a deep impression on her. Frequent meditation on the suffering of the crucified Christ led her to an even deeper experience of this mystery. It must also be said that Elisabeth the parishioner, who fervently took part in the celebration of the liturgy, nourished this devotion through the rites of Holy Week or the devotion of the Way of the Cross, or the devotion to the Divine Heart.

It is striking that the young Elisabeth developed very early a sense of the reparatory value of Christ’s suffering; she saw in it the expression of Christ’s love for men and said herself that Jesus died to make reparation for the sins of men and to obtain from his Father the forgiveness of sins. She constantly professed her faith in the mystery of the redemption, which held the central place in her meditation and devotion.

Another characteristic feature of the spiritual life of the Servant of God is her longing for an intimate union with Christ. She expresses this attitude in various ways. When she speaks of prayer, she expresses the desire to be before Jesus and all day to magnify and praise his name.

At holy communion this petition comes to her mind: “My beloved Jesus, now I have you in my heart. So long have I longed for you! Now surely you will remain in my heart. See, I give myself wholly to you. You will surely adorn my heart with the virtues dearest to you. Never again do I want to offend you, and so always help me, my Jesus. Mary, my Mother, come and help me to adore Jesus, whom I have just received into my heart.” In this way she expressed the sense of Christ’s presence in her and also the desire that his presence should endure.

She expresses herself also more mystically when she speaks of Christ as the Divine Bridegroom: here we come to the union of love. In the period when she lived according to the model of virginity under the direction of Father Reichard, she could regard herself as a “consecrated virgin”. Later, when she became a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour, she could claim the title of bride of Christ and call the other sisters of the congregation by this name too.

The First Rules state that Mother Alphonse Marie is very sensitive “to the merciful love of Jesus, who heals the sick and listens attentively to the distress of those who cry to him from the depths of their misery”.

And finally the idea of “Christ living in me”, which can be read between the lines in many places, is clearly expressed in the First Rules: “The spirit of the Daughters of the Divine Redeemer is to be the spirit of Jesus Christ and must animate and fill the sisters of the congregation to such a degree that it can be seen in all their deeds and words. In a word, they must be able to say with the apostle: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.’”

The fervent love of Elisabeth Eppinger for God shows itself above all in her ardour for prayer and her great gift of contemplative prayer. Already at four she felt joy in prayer; at seven she prayed for long periods with outstretched arms; without neglecting her work she sought every opportunity to withdraw into solitude and pray. “I felt strongly drawn to interior prayer and to an unceasing and intimate union with God” (at twelve). “I strove to remain in unceasing conversation with God throughout the day” (at seventeen).

Father Reichard bears witness: “At night she rose from her bed, knelt and spent long hours in prayer.” Father Reichard also states that after the first period of illness and dryness she feels an extraordinary ease in speaking with Jesus Christ. She openly expresses to him her feelings of love and devotion. She asks him what she is to do to please him. She complains to him of all the temptations to which she is exposed in the world and of all the threats she faces, of what distracts her at prayer, and of all her spiritual weaknesses. Above all, however, during the third illness the Lord raised her to a high degree of contemplative prayer and to the state of ecstasy. Father Reichard states: “Her conversations with her Divine Bridegroom are now so intimate that, as regards outward things, she is as though dead and insensible. She prays above all for the salvation of souls, and with such delight that she entirely forgets herself and takes no heed at all of her suffering.”

We could quote more such statements. The Servant of God constantly spoke to her daughters about prayer: “My children, it has been given to me to awaken in your hearts a delight in intimate conversation with God. To adore God and to thank him constantly – what a sublime activity! What indescribable blessedness! You have come here to live the life of Jesus Christ, a mortified life, crucified after our Divine model. Study him constantly, meditate on him by day and by night, so as to conform your own life to his.”

The first manifestation of love of God that we see in the Servant of God Alphonse Marie was the avoidance of sin, when she was four years old.

“If this is a sin, I do not want to do it any more, I do not want to offend the Lord God!”

From that age begins her struggle, which was to become fierce; she pursues sin within herself and around her: “I was so terrified of sin that I felt aversion towards people who swore or committed some other sin.”

Father Reichard testifies to it: “She listened to blasphemy and rebellion against God, she could not tear herself away from such scenes, they had to force her to stop. She suffered greatly at the sight of people offending God. She was constantly moved to pray with sighs, yet at the same time she felt in her heart peace, contentment and an immensely deep childlike trust in God.”

The Servant of God not only had a horror of sin, but strove to avoid every imperfection, especially where prayer and the reception of the sacraments were concerned. As she herself states: “I pictured to myself the presence of Jesus. From that moment I began to fight seriously against distractions during prayer. I no longer dared to look about me, nor to kneel carelessly, nor to hold my hands carelessly joined. At once I pictured to myself the presence of God in infinite majesty.” When she was twelve she felt a strong desire to prepare well for her first holy communion, and therefore fought against her greatest imperfection. Father Reichard later speaks of how intensely she prayed before holy communion and that afterwards she was in deep meditation and how God made himself known to her at that moment. When she gave her daughters directions on how to pray well and to approach holy communion, she recommended them this: before communion, mortification, spiritual reading and above all love of neighbour.

“Beware, however, of going to the Lord’s banquet if your soul deliberately harbours unkind feelings towards your neighbour.”

She asks them to prepare thoroughly for the sacrament of reconciliation. Her instruction on meditation and spiritual reading: “We are not to long for knowledge, but to await from God grace, help and enlightenment. We must always have before our eyes God’s glory, the salvation of souls and the grace to fulfil his holy will to the letter.”

So as to please God and to prove her love to him, the Servant of God Alphonse Marie performed works of mortification and penance. At seven she denied herself at table what she liked. When she was about thirteen, she felt the need for bodily mortification.

“I felt a strong desire to exercise myself in bodily acts of penance. I began to kneel at prayer on a hard surface. With tears in my eyes I said: ‘O my Jesus, give me the grace not to spend a single hour of the day without loving you!’”

She mortified herself at work in the fields, thinking of the drops of her Saviour’s blood and praying meanwhile: “My Jesus, now you will surely give me what I ask of you; you will surely make known to me what I am to do to bring you joy and not to sadden you.”

Sometimes too she slept on a hard bed. In such mortification she submitted perfectly to her confessor. She mortified herself interiorly as well: “In my thoughts I sought small mortifications that I might practise at work or on the way to work, with the intention of obtaining from God the grace to love him ever more.”

She taught her daughters to practise outward and inward mortification and was constantly an example to them in it.

The Servant of God longed for humiliation, adversity and contempt. She intended to enter religious life “so as to be the very last”.

“My God, let me suffer still more, I want to suffer together with you.”

All her life she had to bear contempt and various adversities; first for her ecstasies, later for her work, which was regarded as senseless and unrealisable. She bore everything and never complained.

“See, my daughter, when a soul behaves in this way, I open my heart to her. I make known to her my love for her, I show her my loving relationship with her and also how dangerous it would be for her if I gave her what she expected from me, and how useful these trials and adversities are for her. I let her penetrate into my fatherly care and protection. I give her knowledge of herself.”

Father Amhard, CSsR, could say of her: “She had a great longing for humiliation and the cross.”

By this her addresses to her daughters were always marked: “My children, accept humiliations willingly after the example of the apostles, who rejoiced that they were worthy to bear contempt and disgrace for the name of Jesus Christ.”

The Servant of God Mother Alphonse Marie strengthened her burning love by devotion to the Passion of our Lord. We may say that from the age of five she meditated on it constantly, and suffering was a deep and necessary need of her soul. In this way she sought to increase her love and at the same time understood ever better the boundlessness of Jesus’ love for us, which led her to avoid sin at all costs with holy zeal and to mortify herself. After hard trials she finally reached the point where she desired suffering as an outstanding grace and could no longer live without suffering. On the basis of an inspiration from above she laid on her daughters the duty of meditating every day on the Passion of our Lord.

She constantly repeated to them that suffering well borne is the surest way of advancing in holiness.

“Let us never lose sight of the crucified Jesus,” she said: “how sweet and pleasant it is to live and to die in the wounds of the crucified Jesus.”

The Servant of God Mother Alphonse Marie loved Mary in a particular way. From earliest childhood, at three years old, she felt touched by the tenderness of the heavenly Mother, and from then on she entrusted all her needs to Mary. She longed to come to God and Jesus Christ through Mary. She asks her above all to preserve her soul in purity. She longs to imitate Mary in all her virtues, and by practising them this purity develops in her.

“I constantly commended myself to the protection of the gracious Mother of God.”

From Mary she expects to obtain the grace to follow Jesus as his bride in religious life. She has a great devotion to the Immaculate Conception.

“I often repeated this prayer: ‘By the power of your holy virginity and your immaculate conception, most pure Virgin, purify my heart and body.’”

She longed and hoped that Mary would always be venerated and still more loved in the Christian world.

“All will be saved through Mary,” she repeated. She wanted her daughters to pray and meditate on the rosary every day. Her devotion, however, does not end with Mary: through the Virgin Mary the Servant of God wants to come to God and Jesus Christ, so as to live in union with them.

Father Reichard, the confessor of the Servant of God, and Bishop Räss, to whom she submitted her whole conduct, testified to the purity of her conscience. Father Reichard says: “It is true that for this angelic soul, whom in her lifetime not one impure thought ever assailed, it was a real torment when, on the basis of a divine revelation, she had to disclose sins against purity to many people who came to her.”

Bishop Räss states: “Nothing allows me to suppose that she was filled with any spirit other than God’s.”

She constantly called others to the glory of God, and not only those close to her and the many visitors to whom she spoke very fervently, but also all the souls for whom she prayed intensely to God.

“My loving Jesus, have mercy on this parish. Grant that all the parishioners may recognise the graces you have given them. Jesus, be gracious above all to parents, enlighten them so that they may care more for the souls of their children. Have mercy on the young, give them a greater love of virtue and devotion, set them on fire with your love. My constant longing and all my wishes tend to this, that all people may reverence the name of the Lord and know him better.”

She was endowed with extraordinary graces. She often fell into a state of ecstasy, and always after it and sometimes during it she was immersed in intense prayer and felt a desire to offer sacrifice for the matter that had been revealed to her. This state was regularly observed in her by Father Reichard, it was examined several times by ecclesiastical authorities and always declared to be a supernatural state. She had the gift of reading human hearts and of disclosing secret deeds and thoughts, so as to bring the person concerned to conversion. Many sisters testified that they had seen her raised from the ground in a state of ecstasy.

The Servant of God showed the strength of her love in an extraordinary way. She was so united with God that nothing could tear her away from him. Her physical strength sometimes increased under circumstances which should rather have weakened her: constant visits, bodily and spiritual suffering, little food. The more she had to suffer, the more her trust and peace grew. With Father Reichard’s permission she made vows which she kept heroically. In her whole life not a single instance can be found on the basis of which it could be concluded that she did not keep them with strict fidelity. The strength of her love shows itself above all in the fact that she began a work entirely for God’s glory and the salvation of souls, without any human means, and despite various difficulties continued it untiringly until her death.

She excelled in her unceasing union with God. There are many testimonies about it from people who knew her. She herself said: “Not a minute passes without my having my Divine Bridegroom before my eyes and thinking of him, and at the same time I am always asking him for something.” Father Reichard confirms: “Her union with the Divine Bridegroom and her intimate conversations with him are unceasing; they continue even during her daily duties.”

Father Busson states: “She was immersed in deep meditation. She was ceaselessly occupied with God, adored him and loved him in every action.”

In the First Rules there is a passage which expresses the profound thought of Mother Alphonse Marie on the true foundation of love of neighbour: “In order that we may do a good work with fervour and that it may become meritorious in God’s eyes, we must do it out of love for God. Without this intention everything is empty and cold, for every natural motive that urges us to do good is weak and cannot bring supernatural merit. ‘If I did good but had not love, I would be as sounding brass and a clanging cymbal’, as Saint Paul says (cf. 1 Cor 13:1). And Saint John says: ‘He who does not love remains in death’ (1 Jn 3:14). The love these two apostles describe as the motive for doing good is not only love of neighbour, but at the same time love of God. Love of neighbour and love of God form one whole; they cannot be separated from each other. The foundation of love of neighbour must always be love of God; we must love our neighbour out of love for God.”

The Servant of God nourished her love of neighbour with an unreserved love of God. She thought ceaselessly of how she might contribute to the salvation of body and soul out of love for God. The desire to do good to her neighbours and to give them God, the highest Good, was born in her in earliest childhood and she strove to fulfil it in various ways throughout her life. She declared that for the salvation of a person she was ready to sacrifice not only all earthly goods, but even her own life, and to suffer everything God should permit to come upon her.

Even before the founding of the congregation the Servant of God was a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis and a member of the confraternity of the Divine Heart of Jesus. Father Reichard also introduced the service of visiting the sick, in which Elisabeth Eppinger actively took part in the periods when her health returned.

Already at a young age she cared about the sanctification of her neighbours. She showed this zeal already in childhood and adolescence towards those near and dear to her: towards her parents and brothers and sisters, the servants, the children she played with, her schoolmates and friends. She constantly tried to lead them to shun sin, to love God and to practise virtue, even in the face of mockery and insults.

The love of the Servant of God was directed above all to the salvation of her neighbour. She prayed untiringly for sinners and sought their conversion. She said: “I feel great tenderness towards sinners; I see in them God’s creatures and the object of his love.”

Father Reichard testifies: “She feels herself constantly drawn by some irresistible force to God as her Saviour, and likewise ceaselessly and with the same force she longs to bring all sinners to him.”

Later too, during the third period of illness, she continued to hold to this intention, receiving a great number of visitors all day long, heedless of fatigue. She spoke to them only of God and the sanctification of their souls. Finally she kindled this zeal, which burned in her soul, in her daughters as well: “No effort, no toil and no sacrifice must be too much for you when love of neighbour requires it.”

Many conversions came about through meeting the Servant of God. Father Reichard testifies: “Everyone left her moved to tears.”

Father Glöckler states: “She makes a beneficial impression and everyone leaves her deeply touched and makes saving resolutions for the whole of life.”

Father Busson describes: “Whole crowds of visitors left her with a satisfied heart. Some felt consolation in their troubles, others were ready to abandon a disordered way of life, and still others were strengthened in doing good.”

Many souls filled with anxiety, unrest, doubts and temptation turned to the Servant of God and found in her light, calm and strength, and bore witness to it. She told them that in such trials one must not lose heart, but must lift up the heart to God with trust and await help from him alone.

The Servant of God devoted herself to teaching uneducated people and especially poor children who were morally neglected. She herself gathered them so as to speak to them of God and taught them to pray, and all this with great ardour. This was one of the aims of her work: to educate such children up to their first holy communion.

From the very beginning of the congregation the Servant of God took in poor children from the villages belonging to the parish of Niederbronn. These children received breakfast every morning and dinner at midday. Their number grew rapidly: after the first month there were twenty-five of them, a few months later already forty-two. To most of the children she also provided clothing.

Mother Alphonse Marie wanted her daughters to take children into their houses, to provide them with food and clothing, to watch attentively over their behaviour from morning till evening and to form their hearts to virtue. She wanted young girls between fourteen and eighteen to be snatched from the danger of idleness and to be taught to work by her daughters. Many municipal councils paid tribute to their well-done work.

The Servant of God directed her love to the poor and the sick: it was for them that she founded her work. She was very sensitive to their needs and taught her daughters how to help them. At the beginning she herself gave them help, so as to give an example to her daughters. She wanted the poor to have priority among the sick who sought the sisters’ help. Gifts from the rich she distributed to the poor, so that these gifts might serve to bring all together and reconcile them without distinction. She wanted her daughters always to see the suffering Saviour in the poor: “The intention of the Daughters of the Divine Redeemer is to be the service of Jesus Christ, who is personally present in every poor sick person, and they are to remember the Saviour’s words: ‘Whatever you did to one of these least of my brothers, you did to me.’”

The Servant of God favoured no one and did works of love for the poorest and the most neglected. Since she herself had grown up in poor circumstances, was sick and had nothing that the world values, she had a deep understanding of the needs of the wretched and was sensitive to every want. Every form of need, whether spiritual, bodily or material, aroused in her heart compassion and the will to remedy it.

In a region where Catholics and Protestants lived side by side, she also cared for Protestants who asked her for help and gave them care devotedly and with love.

The Servant of God prayed much for the dying and for the souls in purgatory. On the basis of the Lord’s inspiration she at once recommended this practice to her daughters as well and laid down in the rules the daily prayers to be said for this intention.

She had her enemies and opponents too, but when she had to bear open hostility, she never uttered words nor showed feelings contrary to love. In certain situations she opposed them only by a calm statement of her duties as superior general. She taught what she herself practised heroically: “We must continue to esteem them, even if they offend and humiliate us in various ways: we shall show them still more kindness than those who acknowledge our benefits, show us respect and praise us. Unless we are resolved to bear everything from our neighbours and not to be angry, we cannot attain perfection.”

Father Glöckler could say: “Mother Alphonse was always serene and in adversity she did not grow angry even when pain pierced her wounded heart and she could no longer bear the hatred shown her.”

Mother Alphonse showed her daughters an active love. She did not stop before fatigue or indisposition – since she was constantly ill – when she welcomed, visited or encouraged them. They had to beg her to have regard for her health.

The Servant of God made every effort that peace and concord should reign around her. When she gave instructions to her daughters, she laid great stress on fraternal love. It was the theme of her first instruction, which shows that it was one of her chief concerns. She said: “My children, learn to bear with one another in all circumstances. If one fails towards another, let the other forget it at once and show the first still more love than usual, so that the one who failed may not even notice that she saddened the other.”

During the hard trial caused by the separation of the houses in Würzburg, Vienna and Sopron, Father Reichard could write: “The venerable mother always behaved towards Sister Theophila with great forbearance and kindness, even when she had to admonish her.”

God destined his servant for a great charitable work within the holy Church, and she responded heroically to God’s will. Despite living in intense union with God, she declared: “I do not want to enter an enclosed order, but I would very gladly live where I could work for the salvation of souls.”

From the moment she recognised what God’s plans for her were, she let no human obstacle stop her. She urged her daughters to show heroic love by giving themselves to the poor and the sick out of love for God, heedless of toil or fatigue and heedless even of themselves, to the point of sacrificing their own lives. The letters she wrote to them when she sent them to nurse those stricken with cholera bear witness to this.

On this basis we shall better understand the passage in the First Rules which defines the aim of the institute: “The institute is to help the poor sick in their own dwelling, if they have one, to give and secure for them suitable food, the necessary medicines and bed and personal linen. Care is also to be given to others afflicted who ask the institute for help. Above all, the institute is to care for the salvation of the souls of the poor and the sick. The institute is to receive poor abandoned children and care for them until they are sufficiently prepared to make their first holy communion.”

Thus arose a congregation which responded to the pressing needs of its time and within a few years spread to an incredible extent.

We pray for her canonization

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She was beatified in 2018. For her to be declared a saint, a miracle through her intercession is needed — and the prayer of those who ask for it.

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